Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-08-17
BIG OR| We IN ). j..
P|CARDY SECTOR
Historic battle-ground Again
Scene Of Great Contest.
10000 PRISONERS TAkEI
Germans Taken BY Surprise Along 20
Mile Front-Deepest Penetration
Was Seven And A Half
Miles.

| Miles.
Paris.-The number of prisoners
taken by the French and British in
Picardy now exceeds 10000, according
to the latest news from the battle
front.
The Allies also have taken an enor-
nous booty in guns and material, says
Marcel Hutin, in the Echo de Paris.
London.-In aerial fighting preced-
ing the offensive in Picardy British
airmen accounted for % German ma
chimes, Is of which were destroyed.
says the official statement on aerial
operations.
The historic battle-ground between
Amiens and Montdidier again is the
scene of mighty contest. This time
the British and French are the ag-
gressors and under their fierce on
slaught in the first days battle they
have penetrated deeply into the Ger
man positions over front of more
than twenty miles, reaching from the
region of Breaches to the neighborhood
of Morlancourt.
Following short, but intensive, ar
tillery preparation and aided by misty
weather, the Allied attack took the
Germans completely by surprise, and
they fed almost everywhere pell nell
before the tanks, motor machine-gun
batteries, cavalry and infantry sent
against them. All the detectives set
for the Australians, Canadians, Eng
lishmen and Frenchmen were attained
Thousands of Germans were made
prisoners. Large. numbers of guns
were captured, great quantities of war
materials were taken and, score or
more of villages and hamlets were re-
occupied. In addition heavy casual
ties were inflicted on the enemy.
At its deepest point the penetration
of the German line was about seven
and a half miles, eastward from Viii
lers-Bretonneux to FraMerville, while
from two to five miles were gained all
along the front from northwest of
Montdidier to the region around Nor
lancourt. The fighting extended north
of Morlancourt to the Albert sector.
but no official details concerning it
have been received.
The advance of the Allies in the
center places them well astride the
railroad leading from Villers-Breton-
neaux to the important junction at
Chaulnes, where lines radiate north
eastward toward Peronne and south
ward through Roye to Compiegne.
The railway running northwaxd to
Braye was crossed when the Allies
took Framerville.
Well out on the plains and pressing
forward, seemingly with great rapid
ity, the present offensive of the French
and British gives promise of seriously
menacing the entire German front
from near the sea to Rheims. If the
drive should proceed eastward to any
great depth it cannot but affect the
armies of the German Crown Prince
now fighting between the Aisne and
the Vesle, and possibly make imprac.
ticable stand by them even north of
the Aisne, along the Chemin-des-
Danes.
Under the pressure of the offensive
the menace to the channel ports also
seems for the moment, at least, to
vanish. Already there have been signs
to the northward from the positions
where Crown Prince Rupprecht had
formed his men for drive toward the
channel that a retrograde movement
BY the Germans was not improbable.
With the armies of his imperial cousin
on the Soissons-Rheims salient badly
shattered and unable to lend him aid
when his own forces north of Mont
didier are In rather precarious posi-
ton as a result of the new offensive,
It is apparent that Rupprecht will have
to defer his campaign to cut off the
cross-channel service.