Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-10-25
BELGIANS MARCH
FORWARD SINGING
ON HEELS Of FOE
Fire Of King AIbet'8 Troops,
Liberating Their Country,
EnthuSes French and Brit
iSh Veterans.
(By Joseph W. Grigg)
Copyright 1918. by The Press Pub
fishing co.

lishing co,
CThe New York WOrld)
Especial Cable to The World and AL
buquerque Jonrnal)
ON the British Front, oct, "a
This has been one of the most mo-
mentoua weeks of the whole war,
showing as nothing else has shown
The extent to which the Germans have
suffered defeat in the giving up of
the Belgian coast and the rich towns
of Lille, Rorbaix and Tourcoing,
which he hoped to hold as among his
best paWns at the peaCe table.
Dreary Battle Ground.
During this great week ! have been
at different times with the three allied
armies operating between Mcniu and
the sea under the command Of King
Albert and yesterday witnessed the
advance of the Belgian army toward
Blankenberghe on the coast and their
thrust toward Client. over drcary
waste of swampy country adjacent to
hear the roll Of artillery fire min
gled with the moro souprous thunder
from the British monitors helping
from the sea completely to push out
the remaining enemy forces still te-
naciously holding on to the small
strip Of country between Blankcn-
berghe and the Dutch border.
Although able to get close to Os-
tend, it was impossible for the time to
enter the town because of the sever
ing Of all routes of egress by the re-
treating enemy, which made necessary
the taking of supplies to Ostend civil
ians by boats. Nor was it possible to
enter Bruges for the same reason. But
the seVering of communications will
not long remain a source of embar-
rassment for the allied engineering
forces, and Belgian infantry are
quickly reAridging tho canals and
rivers and. filling in shell holes along
the line of advance. II is extremely
difficult country through which the
Belgians are fighting becatse OF the
numbers of streams and wide areas of
marshy grornd. so forlorn and dreary
that it is almost impossible to con-
ceive how the brave Belgians could
have remained in such surroundings
so long.
Wv A't HNih t7liiShiS.
1t was down one Of these roads
thanked on either Size by dismal
swamps and over all the stencil Of
past battles that I witnessed the in
spring sight of the splendid Belgian
infantry going forward, bands at their
head and colors flying. the soldiers
shouting greetings to the engineer
troops engaged in mending the gaps
in the road, making passable the main
arteries for a continued advance.
What a contrast there must be be-
tween the morale of the beaten Ger
mans giving UP the Belgian coast.
and the Belgians pushing them out
from the coveted stretch of seacoast
to which the bocho clung so long
Whenever you see an army which
sings it ls victorious, and King AL
berts Belgians, going forward sing
ing, filled their French and British
comparriots with enthusiasm.
Like every other place from which
the boche has been pushed out he has
strewn the main roads with bloody"
traps, but ferreting out these infer
nal devices IS now an art with the
allied bloody tran hunters" and the
vast majority of them are q waste of
time for the enemy. Frequently enemy
sneIls from long range guns would
send up geysers of muddy water as
they struck foul looking swamps. The
air was full of apAanes. many Of
them American, for American airmen
are eagerly doing their bit in strafing
the outgoing Germans and helping to
prevent enemy planes from interrupt
ing the progress of allied observers
over the Belgian lines
''The line changes so quickly that
when we reach a place where we have
been ordered to drop bombs we find
allied troops there instead of the
enemy said one American airman I
met.