The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-08-10
Haig Cavalry and Tanks Tear
Gap on Somme Line; Push
in Flanders Begun.
10000 TAKEN CAPTIVE
Uncounted Guns and Many Supplies
Also Part of Early Fruits of
New Big offensive-Gan
of 13 Miles Made.

With the British Armies in
France, Aug. 10.-Prisoners taken
in the drive so far exceed 10000,
according to the estimates.
London, Aug. 1o.-The Germans
are evacuating their positions in
the Lys valley on the Flanders
front. On the lys front the Brit
ish now hold LOGON, Lecornet,
Malo, Quentin, lie Petit Pacaut
and Lesart.
London, Aug. 10.-German lines on
the Picardy front south of the Somme
have been badly broken by the saw
age thrust of the British and French
armies.
wedge has been driven into ene-
along the Amiens- s-Chaulnes-LaFere
railway when the British were
only a mile away from the Chaulnes-
Roye railway which runs southwark
from Chaulnes and forms the chief
artery of supplies for the German
troops fighting in the Montdidier Sec
tor of the front
Exceeds ANY herman Drive.
1t is announced that 14,000 pris-
oners and guns "too numerous to
mention" have been taken in the first
"a hours of the drive.
The results of this attack loosed
against the Germans on the Amiens
front appear to have eclipsed those
obtained by the Germans ON the first
AnU cf haic -
last spring and summer, and prob
ably are the greatest by the Allies in
any one day since 1916. SO far as
reports show the progress of the fight
ing south of the Somme, the Allies
are going forward almost without Sc
rious opposition. On the north bank
of the stream the Germans have held
their lines strongly, but have lost
Morlancourt, their. stronghold there.
after hard fighting. The French fur
ther to the south have had their ad-
vance retarded at numerous points
but the towns officially reported to
have been reached are evidence that
the momentum of the Allied drive has
not nearly spent itself.
ankS Tear lhrougn Enemy.
From dispatches from the battlefield
1t now appears that the Allies at
tackled the Germans with little ar
tillery preparation, the method pur-
sued resembling on a grand scale that
adopted by General Byng before Cam
brai last November. Armored tanks
in great numbers tore through the
I,f
masses followed and then, through the
gaps in the enemy line, the cavalry
and armored motor cars swept into
the back areas, surprising German
detachments and throwing the whole
defense organization of the enemy in
to chaos.
Foe Retreats In Flanders.
Hardly had the German reverse
along the Somme been reported than
dispatches began to tell of German
retirement in the Flanders sector.
LOGON, LeCornet, Malo, Quentin, LIE
Petit Pacaut and Lesart, little viii
lagos on the extreme western tip Of
the Lys salient, have been abandoned
by the Germans and are now held
by the British.
This is looked upon as the carrying
out Of German withdrawal from the
Lys salient, which has been forecast
in recent dispatches. The ground held
by the Germans in Flanders is very
low and is dominated by the Allied
artillery and retirement there has
been expected.
Allied Losses Light.
The Allied losses thus far have been
slight and the Germans have been
slow and weak in counterattack. The
greatest enemy defensive asset-ma-
chine gun nests-appears to have been
very well squelched by the British
tanks which swarmed through the
German lines.