The Little River news., 1918-10-02
DISASTER MAY SOON
 CyERTkKE RUN kRMlES
Famous Hindenburg Line Shattered ill Six Flaces-Americans Break New Kreimhild Line With the Cap.
 tuTe of KOmangc.

Washington. Sept. 29.-ContinueG and increasing pressure by Marshal Foch along virtually the wnc.e West ern front, rom Verdun to, the North sea, has brought the Germans Ice to face with a critical situation in the opinion of observers here. With tn, enemy main defense position-the Hindenburg line-shattereG In several places, his secondary line to the cas-: the kriemllild position-punctured and his own official reports sdmittin 8 withdrawals on all fronts. Ehera is a growing possibility, it is Thought, or a serious disaster.
 , French troops are over the Chem in-des-Dames barrier on a wide front anGl as they are pressing on the flank of the retreating Germans to the south and west, the situation in the center of the great German defensive arch appeared to observers niosc crit- ical. The collapse of the whole Lao.: bastion on which the cast Hin1enburg line hangs for support wG. believed to be foreshadawed.
 Enemy in Desperate Straits. i Fartlier nortl, British, Be:gian and American troops are smashing throug., interwOven trench systems and across canals and other natural strong po- siticns at rfte tha. showed the 6es- perate straits of the enemy to find men to meet the drive. No help for Laon can be looked for from that.t.t- rection.
 To the west, General Pershing s First Army apparently has broken the new Kreimhild line with the capture of Homage The Hindenburg posi- tion already is behind the Americans on their whole front and to their leIt the French also have swept over the enemy defenses on wide sector.
 An examination of the map tonigh, showed that the H;ncenDurg line llad been smashed in at least six different places. There seemed no possibility mat the enemy could cling to the fragments that. remained LOT more . tnGl a matter of hours. Cambrai, St Quentin, LaF'ere, St. Gobasn fores it seemed, might be engulfed by the tide of allied and American soldiers It any moment, although it may prove necessary to pass them for la;er occu patton, as 1t has been :.ia German practice to fill evacuated towns witt gas.
 While the center of immediate at tention was the French sweep toward LaOn, of even deep significance i. the continued swift progress of Per shings forces along the heights O the Mouse and on a wide front tt westward Ol the river.
 PerShfng's Important Role.
 To most observers this tarus; ila the greatest potential menace for tn, : enemy, and the whole titanic strug gle of the offensi,'e now raging iron verdun to the North sea is viewed as B single battle in which the Ameri cans on the right are relied upon t, carry forward thrust O. sucn a ma ture that the enemy dare not linge in intermediate defense positions, bu must make all haste back to the Bel gian border or face the encirclemen of large portion of his forces. The probable immediate effort 0 the enemy it was suggested, woul, , be to get back his forces on the nortl to the first or the series of secondar defense positions he wSs known t, have been building ever since Marsha FOch launched the surprise attack il the Mare salient last July. In < general way this line is supposed t, lie not more than 10 miles or so be hind the present front. The main tenance of that line, ever, will depent on developments, both north an, south of the known extent and tn, belief here is that there is no position short of the Belgian border that coult be relied on certainly to block thu wide flanking movement indicated by General Pershing's advance.
 -W.SS.-
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