The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-06
Allies Are Striking Somewhere
All the Time.
At Present French Hit While
British Rest.
ST. GOBAIN REGION IS VITAL
Present German Line in West
Depends on 1t.
French Today Are at Foot of
st. Gobain Heights.

raris, Sept. 6.-The course of the
lighting on the western front con-
tinues to show day after day, that
Marshal Foch is practicing his precept
that the whole art of war consists in
attacking, with telling effect on the
enemy.
AS Henry Bidou points out, in the
Journal Des Debats the battle of the
Marine is being reproduced with the
positions reversed. Six German
armies are recoiling closely pressed
by seven or eight allied armies as
was the case with the allied forces
four years ago. The allied armies form
the arc of a circle enclosing the Ger
mans and just as in the Marine battle
the fight RACES now on the center and
row on one or the other wing. Each
move is made with such skill and de-
cisiYehess that its effect is felt in ev-
cry part of the line.
At present General Mangin is hav-
Ing his innings, while the British have
been resting on their laurels for
brief period and preparing for fur
ther blow.
st. GObain Heights Vital.
The commander of the French right
wing made brilliant score yesterday,
placing the entire hinge of the en-
eny's defense system north of Sois-
sions in allied grasp. The recapture
OF Folembray, Coucy-Le-Chateau and
Coucy-Le- Ville-all of which had
been cleaned out and destroyed by the
retreating enemy-bSings the allied
troops to the foot of the st. Gobain
heights, on the retention of which the
Present German line in the west abb
solutely depends.
The allied forces also have reached
the river Aisne from Condo to Well
Archy and occupy dominating posi-
items north of the Vesle while General
Humbert's army is pursuing it's victor
ions way towards Ham and Chauny
The town of Ham, indeed, may be
considered as virtually taken while
the German citadel of Laon is again
under the fire of French guns.
Have Reiterated With Skill.
1t now is plain that the direction of
the enemy retreat is toward the line
OF Cambrai-St. Quentin. He is carry
ing 1t out with no mean skill and only
one mistake can be detected in his
plans. That error lay in the persist
eney with which he chung to the Vesle
He was obliged as soon as General
hfangin began to threaten him be-
tween the Aisne and the Ailette to
sacrifice division after division on the
plateau north of scissors, and even
now the Seventh German army is by
no means extricated.
Ofeat Strategic Blow.
American Army Headquarters in
France, Sept. (evening )-There
probably never was a neater instance
OF strategical offensive than tho
fashion in which the Germans along
the Vesie were put to flight by a
b1oW struck many miles to the west of
them. Had We attempted to force the
line OF the Vesle tactically we should
have lost at least 10000 men, and pos
slhIy three times that number.
BY the blow struck on the scissors
plateau, however, a blow which in any
case was inevitable, the Vesie has been
cleared in the operations along the
Aiiette- By those same operations
some OF the finest divisions of the Ger
man army have been prevented from
holding up the British advance and
the Hlndenburg line thus has been
broken by battle nearly 100 miles
away from it. Tho the German with
drawal from the Vesle is the most
snowy event in this sector by far. the
most serious one was their defeat be-
tween Terney-Sorny and the Aiiette 1t