Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-18
PAYS DEARLY
FRENCH FRONT
imam Corpses Str e W
ields and Hang Thick
on Wires
tTRAUD in COMMAND
viii Put Militarism to Su-
preme Test and Make Ire
N mendous Sacrifices
56RAUD IN COMMAND
nv C. II. PERRIS
,::riol Cable 10 Erening Public Ledger


cs,,rioht. 1918, BY Eco York Times Co.
with the French Armies. July ls
~ Tragic irony dogs the initiators o'
Ah> art OF bombardins noncomoatants
- /. NO exaggeratlon to say that the
ssr.my losses are enormous. On ions
stretches OF the front the wide heids
a Srs Uttered with German corpses'
horrib'e spectacle.
In two days, though heavily out
4 Nunbered, the army of Champagne
-. b-oken as formidable an onslaught
:. any Allied army can have to meet
ara Il faces the future with the high
ecnfdence born Of such test.
II Is largely because of the zone OF
A.f.rss several miles deep that the
nysns,ye has been promptly arrested
4 ~ sunday night the French guns
4 H.~on their counter-fire, as I have re
rrrtad. actually before the enemy
.tarted his preparatory bombardment
y fsha,ons. twenty miles behind the
! rrench lines. has long been made un-
Dlsasant by visits of German airmen
met after midnight Monday morning
large shell fell on the city, and, as
~ &h,s were the signal the northern
Enrizon was Immediately lit up with
: ~ shes of many hundreds Of guns and
& SE~s air throbbed with their muffied
Advance Positions Suffered
The chief weight of the German
! nnnnonade was delivered upon the ad-
vance positions occupied by observers.
machine gunners and the small groups
of daring men whose duty 1t was to
direct a heavy fire upon the enemy
Is he approached and after this make
their escape. Heroically did they ac-
~v,It themselves of a mission that in
nnany cases called for the final sacri-
Ace.
7 IN safer days I examined their lines
~, the crest of the Moronvilliers hills
1nd the skillfuIly hidden machine-gun
uoats in the plain below, designed to
meet this very emergency. Imagine
4 duRout thirty feet deep. large enough
to accommodate half a dozen men with
their provisions and ammunition for
3 week. approached by staircase at
ne rear and abutting upon a well.
Sised and down which it can be with.
4faWn BY means of a simple lever.
When 1t is withdrawn there is at a
hort distance no sign of a pit, and
tofcre an assailant can get near 1t
- has to cut his way through sue.
q 8assive lines of barbed wire. The gun
( Aer, sitting upon a point at the top Of
Gko well, shows only his head and
- barrel of his gun above the level
" the ground He would be invisible
UIthin the shadow OF clump of dwarf
Y1ne trees but for the stream of fire
~ pours out along scientifically
Signed ranges of barbed wire. Hun.
4feds of lives may be lost before
Glpgle obstacle Of this kind can be re-
1oced.
~ Stopped Germans for Two Hours
q On Mont Cornillet and the Moronvillers
eest there were several concrete block
t4uses, each held by two or three ma
chine gunners, and by this handful of
Hpen the successive waves of assault on
4 broad front were stopped for more than
two hours. The fate of these outposts
md Of the small groups making the re-
qttance which were inevitably surround
- on Monday morning Is known only in
d few cases.
q, One such group reported as late as
4csock Monday evening that It was still
bolding out and hoped to survive till
QFuups had been made prisoners, and
- boches were keeping them jealousy.
Another handful of heroes, caught be-
0yoen the French and German barrage
4re and knowing that it's task had been
1nDompiIsiied. destroyed the tunnel it had
IoSE Loi6ing and cut its way back at the
bent OF the bayonet. Its chief. Lieu
tpaahs iranchant, was at once decorated
y1th the Legion of Honor.
~. L., Il.
= - signalers. who from their outposts
mt constant reports Of the positions of
- enemy. Such are Gourauds men, and
Q1ch the spirit and method Of his splen-
"a defense.
Documents taken on the battlefield and
1Atements made by prisoners throw i'm
ppgtaht Egnt on the aim OF this offensive.
Jt3eny. II appears 10 be to seize Chalons,
me Sreat wooded plateau called the
Mountain of Rheims. Epernay and prob
eoly Aoi.tmirail. This vast stretch of
tpe Eon. center, when occupied. would be
q hAss TOT further and final operation
- the nature of which we can only
dUess. Rheims is to be obtained by en-
yelopment. Although 1t is at the head Of
= narrow peninsula protruding into the
enemy's lines. the ruined city would be a
Nbrmidable position to attack frontally
II the French lines on either side should
- broken, however, 1t must fall of IT.
Gslf.
Side thrusts which were to produce
!. this happy result We're directed toward
Chalons on the east and Epernay on the
southwest. and each was to be broad
ened. the FIRST toward Reviguy, thirty
niles southeast of Chalons. and the sec
! I'D toward Montmirail. to give room for
NJ deployment of available forces and
1br subsequent development
Turned Toward Epernay
~ So. while the whole Champagne front
has been attacked with special force
ubout Prunay and Prosnes on the west
sSNd about Perthes and Souain at the
oenter Chat is to say, toward the two
Nh roads from the north Ia Chaions). 4.
( - German forces on both sides of the
Z Name have turned not westward toward
Xnrio. but upstream toward Epernay and
- Mountain Of Rheims.
4 Such. at least. Is the first design for
4 - accomplishment of which the Ger
- grand staff has intrusted to the
y 1nwn Prince the largest mass of ma
aver II could now hope to assemble,
e "a. though the opinion of q layman,
1n when he has closely watched the
IN for four years. cannot have much
61ue on such a subject ! will venture
Z ~ foretell that this strategy will be
1ovn by the event and judged by COM
G1eht soldiers to be an extraordinary
3/IHno from the Nigh level Ludendcrff
/. - Me colleagues have often reached.
i$IA the earlier phases Of the offensives
the Somme. In Flanders. on the
- and ON the Oise they were visibly
ruv MI hx,