Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-10-04
French and Americans Open New
Offensive Against the Huns
in Champagne.
TURKISH ARMIES DESTROYED.
Splendid Success Won by General Al
lenby in Palestine-Rout of Bull
g~arians in Macedonia Increases
Their Country Is Invaded.
BY EDWARD w. PIcKARp.


1t was a bad week for the Huns and
their allies. From all the battle fronts
came reports of repulse, retreat, de-
feat or utter rOut and disaster, the cen
trail powers always being the losers.
And to top it off. on Thursday the
French and American armies started
another big drive in the Champagne
and in the region to the east of it,
which threatened the communication
lines In the real of the Hindenburg
defense system and might ever result
In separating the German forces in
the west into two groups.
The drive, on a 40-mile front, was
shared equally by the armies of Per
shing and Petain and all the way from
the Suippe river to the Mouse the
Germans were forced back, their bases
and railway centers at Somme-Py and
Challerange being in immediate peril.
The Americans made the swiftest prog
ress along the Meuse valley, taking
many towns and thousands of prison
ers. The Huns were withdrawing all
their forces except machine gunners.
At the time of writing the Yanks and
French were still advancing.
This new allied attack came log
ically after the Huns were driven
back to the Hindenburg line and was
well timed, for the enemy had concen-
trated his heavy guns and all the
troops he could spare further north to
defend st. Quentin and Laon against
the persistent assaults of the British
and French. For quite a distance east
ward from Reims the terrain is so
open that the movement of the allies
is favored, and any considerable adj
n there would tend to cut the east
ward communication lines from Laon,
which city has been the pivot Of the
entire German system from Reims to
Flanders.
The sensational news of the earlier
part of the week came from Palestine
and Macedonia. In the Holy Land
General Allenby, by a sudden, swift
and skillfully conducted attack,
smashed the Turkish forces between
the River Jordan and the Mediterra-
e from the J~affa-Jericho line clear
up beyond the Sea of Galilee. Feint-
ing with his right in an attack direct
ed toward Afule, in the hill region of
Samaria, ne delivered his main blow
with his left, which moved swiftly up
the coastal plain, occupying in turn
Caesarea, Haifa and Acre. This force
then quickly shifted its course toward
the northeast, turning the highlands
of Samaria and compelling the Turks
to make a precipitate and perilous re-
treat. In fact the enemy was routed
and made little effort to rally and
check the victorious progress of the
British. Allenby's men drove forward
with amazing rapidity, capturing the
railway running from Haifa through
Afule and Nablus toward Jerusalem
and occupying Nazareth, the home of
Jesus.
Meanwhile the Arabs of Hedjaz
we're moving northward along the hills
east of the Jordan, driving the Turks
before them and threatening to sever
their line of retreat to Damascus. |
Still further north another force of
tribesmen raided the railway juno
ion Of Derau and destroyed the rail-
way there.
Probably $4,000 prisoners were taken
oy the British in Palestine and it
seemed likely that almost the entire
Turkish force caught in the trap
would be captured or destroyed. The
and eighth Turkish armies
we're virtually annihilated. There is
added satisfaction i'm the fact that Ii
nan Won Sanders, the German generS