Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-04
FOE DESPERATELY
RESISTS MANGIN
Prussian Guards Annihi-
lated in Five Successive
COunter-attacks
LOSE STRONG POSITIONS
Allied Attack and Spirit Such
That Land Defenses Can.
not Check 1t
LOSE STRONG POSITIONS
By WALTER DURANTY
Special Gable to Epening Public Ledger


COPYRIGHT. 1918 by Nc,C York Times Co.
With the French Army. Sept. 4.
On the right of the French battle
front the French and Americans have
firm grasp on Terny-Sorny, the pla-
teau whose Importance to subsequent
operations against the enemy positions
from the Chemin -des- Danes to the Nes-
map.
The center Is momentarily marking
time, but the left has made important
progress on Hill No. 10, seven miles
Somme Valley and national highway
No. 80, between Ham and St Quentin.
Its occupation will facilitate operations
across the river further north against
the hill Notre Dame Joie. and important
developments in this region are prob
able.
Meanwhile the German effort to re-
sist Mangin Is even more desperate than
against the British east of Arras. Divi-
sion after division is reClilessly spent,
noEmatter what its quality Troops of
the Prussian Guard counter-attaCked five
times Monday and Sunday In an at
tempt to retain Terny-Sorny with the
result that they were virtually annihi-
lated.
cardinal feature of the whole battle
is that in the extreme north and south,
where the fighting Is fiercest, the enemy
Is unable to hold strong positions forti-
fed with all the modern arts Of defense.
The Allied methods of attack. :he
multiplication of tanks and Stokes guns
and the magnificent spirit that animates
the attacking army have justified the
forecast made to your correspondent ten
days ago by a French officer that land
defenses, however powerful, could not
check the Allied progress.
Resistance depends primarily and
essentially on men, and the equality of
the defense which those men put up is
measured by their morale and their
numbers. 1t is impossible to speak with
certainty of the German morale, but all
available Indications, including official
documents, letters and prisoners state
ments, tend to show that ii Is already
( poor and steadily growing worse.
Mutinies have occurred in Germany and
at the front. There are stories of pillage,
not only in French and Belgian terri
tory. to which the severity of army
orders regarding acts of indiscipline
lends more than the color of truth.
But 1t is in numbers that the German
weakness is most apparent and danger
Gus. German divisions comprise thirty
six infantry companies. four to each bat
talon, whose average strength Is sixty
men. There are also nine machine gun
companies of an average strength of
sixty-five men and some batteries of
; light accompanying" artillery and
trench mortars.
The total fighting strength of dlvl-
sion is thus limited to 5000 men. and
already several cases have been noted
where the number Of companies per bat
TALON has been reduced TO three Even
more drastic measures have proved nee
essary. Some divisions have been sup
pressed and their men distributed, to
maintain the strength Of others. The
general effect of such procedure is to
produce weakness and confusion and Sc
riously to increase the prevailing de-
moralization.