The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-10-15

pul -h CuSC, III liiN ~ . Soi'''N ~
Sigeant.
Paris, Oct. l4.-Still another vic
torv has been added to the long trail
OF glory blazed by the allied armies,
The Laon plateau at last has been
won, crowning the Cambrai-St
Quentin and Champagne offensives.
The manoeuvres, so skilfully elab-
GRATED by Marshal Foch and so ably
carried out by Field Marshal Halg
and General Petain, enabled this
great achievement to be accomplish
ed without the loss inseparable
from a direct attack.
The result is nothing less than
the ruin of the entire defensive sys-
lem built up by the German general
staff since 1914, for the cornerstone
OF it was the Laon plateau.
1t was on the Laon plateau that
the German line was pivoted. II
was to turn it, that the oftensivcs
of 1915 and 1916 were carried out.
1t was against it that the campaign
of 1917 was prematurely broken. 1t
was from the plateau that the sixth
great drive OF the Germans towards
Paris was started.
Its fall now is the prologue to the
total liberation of France, for the
progress made by the British in the
vicinity of Douai puts the Germans
in such a position that even if they
can manage for time to cling be-
tween Bohain and Solesmes, while
they evacuate the pocket of which
St. Gobain is the bottom, they will
be obliged to get back along the
frontier; and it is more than likely
that they will not even have time
for that.
With the French Army in the
Laon Area, Oct. 14.-(By The Asso-
ciated Press. lin literal trans
port of JOY, the 5000 inhabitants re-
naming in Laon rushed to the gates
OF the city yesterday afternoon to
greet General Mangin who made his
entry into the city at $50 o'clock.
Men, women and children with the
tears running down their checks
and waving their tri-colors cried;
Long live General Mangin, Long
live the army Long live our lib
orators
Men and children crowded around
the general, almost carrying him i'll
triumph TO the city hall, where he
was received by the deputy mayor.
The mayor himself and 900 young
men had been carried off into captiv-
itv by the Germans before the
French troops arrived.
General Mangin's forces had
reached the Laon-La Fere railway at
l0;45 Il. m.. and a quarter of an
hour later the French tri-cOlor was
floating from the tower OF the Laon
cathedral
Vt about the same hour the last
Germans had been chased from the
forest OF st. Gobain. which for four
wears had been one OF the strongest
bas,ions on the enemy's lire.
French Drive Fast.
Pursuing their advance with
heightened ardor in the JOY OF hay
ing delivered Laon, General Man
gins troops went on several miles
north oil the city. liberating a num-
her OF villages and arriving before
the enemy'S secondary position. At
Marchais, 1000 inhabitants OF that
town greeted their deliverers with
loyfulness equal to that OF the peo-
pie OF Laon. They produced no.
tice left by the Germans on retiring
to the effect that the French author
tiles would have until October IA
1T p. nj. to remove the population
after which the town would be bonn
barded.
The German resistance to the
French forward movement in the
Laon region consists mostly OF ma
chine gun fire, with a harassing ar
tillery fire upon the lines OF COM
munication. The advance OF the
French troops was extraordinary
considering the difficulties that had
TO be overcome. All the roads had
been blown up with mines at many
places. The villages either were
mined or burned and great depths
OF wire had to be broken throuh.
On the front of General Gouraud 5
troops, the re-conquered villages, al
though seemingly intact have been
found to be mined.
Bridges Are Destroyed.
The Germans are defending stole
ally all the passages OF the river
Aisne, all the bridges having been
destroyed.
The French Fifth army has con-
tinued its forward movement, lib
Grating the villages of Sterme, Ou-
e-Hamecourt and Montaigu and
reaching the enemy's secondary de-
tense line before Sissone.