Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-01

optttdf CuOte 10 EtcHtHg fHOit fseugcF
Copyrioht. 1918. by Noir York Tunes 20.
With the French Army in Champagne
Oct. |.
(. The hour Of final reckoning and
greater world approaches.
For a long time Germauy's only
hope lay in a partial battle. Now that
a total battle Is delivered, her strength
cracks ON all sides.
With art and a
dramatic emulation Of power Foch
lights up the whole line from the
sea to the Meuse at the of
Turkish and Bulgarian collapse. The
material strain upon the enemy is
enhanced by the deadly moral strain,
and in both the weight Of pressure
is double by it's shrewd direction.
Alike in fertilization and in mum.
bers OF men, tho German staff had
given care to its center in France
especially to the Cambria. St.
Quentin. st. Gobain II Malmaison
bastions. on each side of these the
armies We're relatively thin. Won
Einem, in Champagne, particularly,
might well suppose his defenses to be
impregnable.
Won Gallwitz Bolts
| said the other day that the poilus
who were biting into the iron walls
of st, Quentin and Malmaison were
doing an essential part Of the whole
work. Slow as the results were in
appearing. they appear today. If
Mangin had not kept on striking to.
ward the Chemin.des.Dames there
would nave been no need for Won Gan.
WITT to bolt from that bloody and
prodieious will on Friday night. The
retreat is a result of not only local
heroism but of total pressure.
The present strength OF the Allies
is not only in fact a battle of con
yerging wings. The Belgians and
British on the north strike eastward,
the Americans and French between
the Mouse and the Suippe strike
northwest and north. If the axis of
these movements should be drawn
they would meet in the classic battle.
grounds of the Sambre and NIeuse
triangle. Every gain they make is Il
threat against the most protruded Ger.
man center.
80 "N'T hEut U
Today it is the western of the Aisno
heights that is abandoned. soon it
will be the eastern half. with the
fronts of the Nesle and the Aisne.
Such are the fruits Of sound, vigorous
strategy and they are but beginning.
for IL the total battle can be tirelesslv
maintained, Ludendorff's dilemma will
continue n will even become az.
gravated.
Every retreat being logged and har.
assed gives us thousands of prison.
ers. 1t cannot, therefore, WELD a saving
OF Iorces IKE the voluntary shorten.
Ing OF fronts. The German losses of
the last few days probably very greatly
exceeded those of the Allies and so in.
crease our superiority of means.
The advance of General Gouraud's
army In Champagne in the three DAYS
OF IT'S offensive varies from six miles
rat he center, north of Tahure. to three
miles on the right, in the Aisne Valley.
Standing on any height overlooking
the neld OF Champagne, a strong inn
preston of the labyrinth of defenses
raised during the last four wears is
at once obtained, because the least
scratching Of the meager grass of tins
poor region reveals the chalk suhsoil
Thus the landscape consists of mile be-
hind mile Of a shining White lattice
work OF trenches, the intersections of
which are patches Of dirty mari. pittad
with shell craters and Uttered with
wire and debris of old battles. TN.
trenches are no mere succession of
parallel lines. but a series of scientific
systems, with switches, bl~ockhouses. MILL
boxes, machine-gun posts by the hun
dred, places for the gathering OF re-
serves, obseryatories, immense dugouts
cut thirty feet deep In solid chalk. and
elaborate telegraph and light railway
connections.
There are no mountain of forest
blocks like that Of st. Gobain or
Argonne. 10 possibilities of inundation
as IN Belgium, no large towns to use
ms supplementary civilizations but for
field works pure and simple should
think those Of the old front in Cham
payne. whether on the French or Ger
mans side, are the most formidable that
military engineering has ever created
II might well he 80. The land lent
itself TO this cgue' use. In the center
of the IRON in France, these sectors
in either direction called for special
strength. A double array of obstacles
led in turn 10 long immobility after
the French offensive Of 1915. and this
fmmObility ave the armies leisure IN
which TO Dig themselves in still more
Ecnly
U. S. FLIER FELLS ten PLANES