The Washington herald., 1918-08-04
Fismes Falls.

American troops have entered Fismes, was
the sensational news flashed over the cables last
night.
The 1aeonic dispatch said nothing about the
fate of the routed Teutonic armies and gave no
light as to whether all the crown princes forces
had succeeded in escaping from the line of the
vesle before the moose had been drawn tight
The enveloping movement of Foch moved with
Lightning like rapidy after the fall Of scissors and
the capture of the Hartennes plateau. 1t seems to
have closed in on the retreating enemy with some
of the dash and speed which characterized the oper
atoms of "Stonewal" Jackson in civil
war Only yesterday the Germans were fighting
bitter rearguard actions and contesting every inch
of the ground the two flanks. Then the capture
of the Hartennes tableland, which includes the
Ourcq-Marne watershed, pointed rapier at the
very heart of the Teutonic position the Vesle,
and the situation changed in the twinkling of
an eye. The Franco-American forces closed in
from the south through Nesle Wood; the French
debouched on the Aisne and shot forward with
amazing speed from the direction of Soissons
the British and French advanced up the Ardre
Valley in the direction Of Fismes.
few hours ago the funnel of escape for Lu-
. dendorfPs battered army was less than fourteen
miles in width, and Fismes in the center of it
Then the enemy, keen to realize that his stand
on the Vesle was compromised, apparently evacu-
ated the great base without protracted effort to
defend it. and after setting his vast accumulatons
OF stores in flames Doubtless the evacuation
that the enemy had succeeded in making good his
retreat and that comparatively few prisoners have
, been taken. There is chance, however, that
the teeth Of the pincers closed in so suddenly
and with such force that thousands caught
in them, and that victory of magnificent pro-
portions has been gained
In any event, it is apparent that the
prince has been forced back to the Aisne, if not
further; he doubtless will make his stand on the
Chemin- DANES, just exactly where he was last
May before Ludendorf began his third phase of
the great 1918 offensive. French forces already are
: operating at various points along the Aisne The
: capture of scissors crumples up the whole right
wing of the German army. 1t is quite possible
that Foch will be able to continue to harry the
enemy beyond the line of the Vesle and may force
him to yield vast additional amounts of his sup
plies which he is now attempting to hold in his
Ecadlong rush northward.
Here we have, then, the crowning event of the
eliminating year of the war; as President Wilson
has called 1.-THE most decisive German defeat in
four years time. The enemy's most important
salient has been wiped out; the initiative has been
wrested from him; the reputation of Ludendorff as
a dominant military genius is gone, and Won
Mackensen probably will be the next man on whom
the Junkers will depend to lead them out of the
morass. Foch's fame the greatest living soldier
is all but established, and reservoir of con-
hdence has to the allied forces, almost at the
hour when they sunk in the gloomiest fore:
bodings.
1t is needless to indulge in dthyrambics or
lapse into ecstatic paragraphs over what has hap
pened in this immortal fortnight just closing The
magnitude of the victory should not soften the
sternness Of our mood. The hardest part of our
work is yet ahead of u.s. That is abundanty seen
in the Secretary of Wars proposal to extend the
draft ages from IS to IS years, inclusive, and in
the preparations for the new American army which
slowly unfolding. The Boche is not beaten
yet It's long way from the Aisne to the Rhine
II is a long way, Also to the day when the Ameri-
can fighting army will reach that point of numeri-
cal puissance which will enable it to apply the
final grip of strangulation on the lost cause of
Prussiansm.