Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-12
Great Confusion Visible
Among Transports Has
tening East From There
HOPE TO CHECK BRITISH
Sixteen Divisions Identified
Among Reserves Being Hur.
ried Into Action
Bv II. ". NEVINSON

oPeCtd t0Ote 10 Ecenlng fuOHC LeuReT
Copyright. 1918. by Nep York Times Co.
War Correspondents Headquarters, Aug.
12
] hear that at Albert. on the Ancre.
the enemy has now withdrawn to the
eastern suburb. I am also told that great
confusion is visible from the air in
Peronne and that transports are hasten-
ing along the roads eastward from the
town. Also that all the German move
ment is now backward.
But the enemy is moving UP reserve
divisions in hopes of checking our
progress. and sixteen German divisions
have now been identified against the
British front alone.
Cavalry which | saw coming into ac-
tion Saturday were reportd advancing on
Roye Sunday morning. cannot yet
learn with what result, but Just as am
writing this colleague who has been
In that direction tells me those gallant
cavalrymen could make little headway
| against thick wire on either side, and.
having only the main road for advance.
were checked by machine guns
Further south our casualties have
been chiefly due to excess of zeal as
! when cavalry charged in dashng style
straight up to woods strongly held by
machine guns-an equally magnificent
| and deadly maneuver. Still the
Canadians, who have been, perhaps
| most conspicuous in this respect, tell
me their casualties amount to only one
third of the prisoners they have taken
Roads Thick with Yellow Dust
Perhaps may digress into brief de-
! scription of the scenes from which
have just been obliged to return. The
roads were long streams of thick and
] ~.
could seldom see far enough ahead
! to know whether it was safe for him
to pass a slower vehicle in front.
! As in the advance Of modern armies.
huge motor lorries. ambulance vans, and
heavy guns, interspersed with bodies of
infantry and few mounted troops, were
pushing forward along one side. while
down the other came lorries empty and
ambulances full. with here and there
batch of prisoners, their guards with
fixed bayonets marching beside them.
As rule ! was struck by the good
condition and equipment of the pris-
loners. They looked we'll drilled and
well fed, and their boots and uniforms
were sound.
Passing through the ruins of Domant,
we crossed the marshy stream and boss
of the Luce which runs at right angles
into the ve Here the Canadians had
expected greater obstruction to their
advance on Thursday than they actua-
| ally found.
Further on we moved through series
| of ruined villages as through funera
procession of human labor. hopes ano
! comforts. Such disasters no restoratior
| can ever repair point between the
ruins of Quesnil, north of the road, ane
| ,ngest on the south, was occupied h.
the Canadians and French. respectively
7 set out to walk past the ruins or Foile'
| and through the ruins OF Bouchoir' u
the ruins of LIE Quesnoy. close behin'
our front line. Here the enemy wa
still wasting shells by pumping then
into heaps of bricks and rafters, 10
what had been streets and houses "er
now completely empty.
Country Vast Plain
,, The country all around is a vast plail
extending right up othe Downs, nortl
: of Somme, but like all plains. 1t is no
really fiat, but is varied by low wave
of ground hardly perceptible, and ye
capable of concealing whole patterie
and battalions. =,
Small woods are also scattered over 1t
e especially around the villages. For GOO
, reasons the fertile and open lands haV
Z not been much cultivated tor the las
, three wears, They are intersected b.
trenches of every kind and dugouts fac
= ing both ways. for the ground mas Dee
$ occupied and defended by the Allies an
the enemy. 49,,
!, Beside road I came upon Ittl
3 cemetery Of French and British soldiers
killed earlier in action. and found IT un
: touched A few German dead lay i
n the old and fiower-grown trenches, du
n by the British long ago. and some neN
! German trenches were Uttered with tn
. kits and books and papers of Germa
+ officers who had been killed or had LEI
e In hurry.
i But the enemy's line has not bee
t strongly held, as a rule, by infantr!
He trusted to scattered posts of dead
machine guns to gas shells and to bomt
ing from airplanes to check the Allie
advance.
At certain points his artillery ar
8 machine guns acted with terrible enc
inst In front of lie Quesnoy. sho
line between the former villages OF Pa
yilIers and Damery, about four mii'
"A northwest of Roye, was 50 strongly ne
n by machine guns that the Allied advan'
II was for a time checked.
ss low ridge was crowned with TN
l. woods Of shattered trees. On the lei
:, near little spinny called Bois de Ire
\ ssood the wrecks cf few tanks, ono
which was pouring out s'noke ana nam