The sun., 1918-08-05
ALLIES PAUSE
TO REST AND
BRING UP GUNS
Plans of Germans Can Be
Only Guessed-May Re-
treat Further.
HAVE STRAIGHT FRONT
Attack on Rheims Possible,
but Might Imperil Line
Along Rivers.
HAVE STRAIGHT FRONT
By GERALD CAMPBELL.

Specia! Gable Despdtch TO Tue srS from the
london Times.
Copyright, 1918: oil rights reserred
WITH THE FRENCH ARMY, Aug. A.
Last night and this morning there
Nas an inevitable lull in the fighting,
and the French made no further ad-
vance. The troops are tired from
their tremendous exertions, the rain
has made the roads heavy going. and
the artillery has to be moved forward.
1t takes time TO move up to the new
front the bulk OF the armies stores
and ammunition.
As to the enemy. any forecast OF
their intentions is bound at present
TO be purely speculative. There is no;
enough data on which TO base sound
conclusions; we know that they still
have some batteries OF 2l0s on the
plateau between the Vesle and the
Aisne. but that does not mean neces-
sarAy that they intend to try to hold
the present line. 1t might mean that
only enough Of them have been left
to help cover n retreat still further
north to the old positions beyond the
Aisne.
The advantages to them Of the posi-
tion TO which their retreat has now
brought them are that IT shortens their
line and gives them a straight front with
no awkward salients from Soissons to
Rheims. and leaves them free TO act as
they see fit. They may attack Rheims,
as success there might have some effect
on public opinion in Germany as a set
of against the loss OF SCISSORS.
French North of Aasnc.
On the other hand the French have
good hold north of the Aisne, in the
suburb of st. Naast. and still further
west at Pommiers. and in view of the
possibility of another enforced retreat
and the fact that in that case all the
German forces east OF the junction of
! the Nesle and the Aisne would then have
the Aisne at their backs. it might seem
TO the German high command too
dangerous risk to be worth running,
especially as the old Chsmin des Danes
line. turning south at Berry-au-Bac TO
| Nogent l'Abbesse would still leave them,
AS it did before. within reach Of Rheims.
1t will be interesting to see If the
burning of villages which marked the
| retreat to the Nesle will continue in tho
| immediate future. II Is enough tina {
! Gen Foch. Gen. Mangin. Gen. Degoutte
and Gen. Berthelot have won a fine VIC
| tory which Gen. Ludendorff and Field
, Marshal ven H!ndenburg are trying to
explain away with transparently false
| excuses.
From Chaudun plateau there is fine
| view of the surrounding country. espe-
/ Cially across to the heights on the other
| side Of the AiSne, where the enemy is
| now nursing his wounds. The plain, on
which there is not an atom of cover, ia
thickly pitted ana crisscrossed with
! shell holes and machine gun cmplace-
| trenches in the ordinary sense Of the
word is TO be seen.
| Derelict Tanks Are Found.
Here and there squats a dcrelict tank,
| like a huge dead toad. some pierced with
| shells, but the usual cause of their
abandonment was engine and steering
| gear trouble. There are also one or two
| airplanes lying about, but on the whole
nothing like the amount OF battle debris
that we used to see at Nerdun and on
the Somme, no doubt because the battle
lasted only for days instead OF months.
All the villages In the valley are
! smashed TO pieces, Buzancy, Berzy-le-
Sec, La Roche and the rest. At Belleu
mile south of scissors. the Germans
! had blown up the bridge and railway
! Toward Chateau Thierry the road still
| Is covered with tree trunks, brought
down by the Erench shells, SO one can
get along only on foot
The road from Beileu to Scissors also
| is thickly encumbered with splintered
trunks and branches, and you walk
| warily because there are one or two
German captive balloons which look
straight down from the other side OF
the river. only mile and half away
II they think it worth while there Is
nothing simpler than to telephone a
battery to drop a round or two where
1t might be nuisance.
| But to-day there were no wayfarers
II was like a road In nightmare for its
solitude. Except that shells screamed
high overhead there was no sound. Sols.
sons itself was deathly still. Somewhere
or other no doubt were some of ths
| Chasseurs who rode in on Friday and
ran up the Tricolor on the cathedral
but all that I saw OF life was one oI
two solitary outposts.
All the bridges had been blown up, in.
Guiding the Pont des Anglaises. the
name Of which still survives from 1914
On the other side the enemy is very
close an officer who went to examine
Continued on Second Pa1e