Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-27
BRITISH BATTER
BOCHE BADLY IN
REFUSING DRIVE
Attempt of Germans to Flank
Meteren Results in Severe
Repulse

With the British Army In France.
July 27.-The German attack yester-
day morning near Meteren had even
more disastrous results for the enemy
than was first believed. 1t proved a
complete failure.
1t appears the Germans intended
to reach the Guza Road, to the south
OF Meteren, from where they could
menace the town. Accordingly they
sent over two companies from each
regiment of the Twelfth division,
which has just replaced other troops
who had been badly mauled during
the month. The Twelfth division
came up from Italy. One regiment
wears special Kaiser Karl" shoulder
straps, won for its services in the
Italian theater..
This regiment, however, will get
no decorations for the deeds it per-
formed to-day. Scotch troops met
it and inflicted heavy losses ana pre-
vented the Germans from getting
anywhere near objectives.
The Germans managed to get one
small outpost that was all.
In the same locality the Austral-
ians are busy knocking the Germans
about. Their shells have chewed up
nearly all the crossroads, dumps and
other targets within range. The rain
of the past few days has muddied
this front of swollen rivers and
streams, making the low ground
extremely soft and mushy. If Ger
mans from getting anywhere near
to the north it will not require much
more rain to require change in
them.
The Germans to-day retain vir-
tually nothing of the ground they
conquered in their great attack OF
July 15 along the Marne, says
Reuters correspondent at French
headquarters.
East of Rheims, the correspondent
adds, General Gouraud's army by d
series of brilliant local operations
has expelled the enemy alnlos;
everywhere from the narrow belt he
occupied in Gourauds advanced
zone,
Germans Use Reserves
AS a result of the past weeks ac-
tivities the whole situation on the
western front has been transformed
The Germans, according to dis
patches from the front, have used
sixty live divisions on the Cham
pagne front, and the whole of the
Crown Princes reserves have been
exhausted. The only fresh reserves
remaining to the Germans are less
than thirty divisions attached to
Grown Prince Rupprechts armies.
The German situation in the
salient. although awkward, is not un-
tenable. The enemy's difficulties are
not greater than those in which the
British army was placed for many
months in the Ypres salient, before
the capture of Messines ridge. The
Npres salient was five miles wide and
tive miles deep and was dominated
by the enemy. The present German
salient is now twenty miles Wide and
twenty miles deep and similarly. rs
dominated by the Allied artillery.
Cancel Retirement Orders
Evidence has reached the Allies ii.
the shape of captured documents to
show that the enemy had made up
hls mind on the day after the AL
lied offensive began to undertake a
retirement to line along either the
Ardre or Vesle, and had actually
given orders for this, but these
orders were later cancelled. pre-
sumably owing to the difficulty of ef-
fecting an orderly retirement in the
pinced salient, and it is nov possib Die
the German command has decided to
retain the present positions as long
as possible.
Meanwhile, the military writers
point out the Allies are using up the
German reserves in a battle where
the Germans are continuously in a
disadvantageous position, so the sit
uation is entirely satisfactory to the
Allies. If the enemy remains in the
salient he cannot possibly undertake
any important offensive therefrom
and the Allies could hold the salient
lightly and devote their energies
elsewhere.
One reason for the Germans aban-
donment of the plan for retirement
is found in tie reports of Allied air
men, which show tremendous con-
gestion along the lines of German