The Mena weekly star., 1918-09-12


 along a front of about seventeen miles extending from Havrincourt Wood to Beauvois, according to the war office announcement last night. They have also taken a strategic point around which there has been much fighting on the west bank of the Canal du Nord, on the way to Cambrai. The statement follows:
 'sOn the whole front south of Hav- rincourt the German retreat contin- ues under close and constant pres sure. We have reached the line of Beauvois, Boisel and Havrincourt Wood
 Making Big Captures.
 ''In frequent encounters with the German rear guards our advanced detachments are taking prisoners and infiicting numerous casualties on the enemy.
 North of Havincourt our troops have captured strong point known as the Spoil Heap on the west bank of the Canal du Nord, opposite Her mics, taking a number of prisoners and machine guns.
 "The stocks of coal and road metal which has fallen into our possession together with large quantities of oth- CT war material, prove that it was the enemv's intention 10 remain in occu- patton of the Somme battle field dur ing the winter months, and also the hurried nature of the retreat that has been forced upon him."
 Nearing Three German Strongholds.
 London, Sept. 8.-Along a twisting front of more than fifty miles from Havrincourt Wood in Picardy to the Aisne River the allied armies today moved upon La Fere, Laon and St. Quentin, the three important German bases close behind the Hindenburg line.
 The French are eight miles from St. Quentin, where their line runs near Foreste. French forces have seized Tergnier, three miles from La Fere, and by capturing the railroad communication line between St. Quentin and Laon. At Basole the French are within eleven miles of Laon.
 American troops south of the Aisne and the French northwest of them have placed the Chemin des Danes positions under cross fire of artil- lery even before the German retreat reached that stronghold The lower part of Coucy Forest, west of Laon, is in the hands of the French, whose ad- vance is placing in peril the Germans in the forest of St. Gobain. It was from this forest that the first Ger man long range gun shelled Paris.
 In their retreat the. Germans are burning and destroying everything possible, leaving only ruins.
 German Positions Are Strong.
 With the French Army in France, Sept. 7.-Generai Mangin's troops reached the Hindenburg line at sever al points during today's fighting, and notwithstanding the wastage and fa- tigue among the enemy's troops and the splendid order of the French in fantry, the task the latter forces now are facing is an arduous one. The Germans occupy positions of natural strength which they have reinforced with all the means that the experi- ence of the war has developed. The entire region of the St. Gobain forest is not only natural fortress, but is particularly fitted for the tactics the enemy has employed turnout his re- treat. The hills, gulleys and thickets supply not only an excellent camou- fiage for the artillery, but afford a means of concealment for machine gun nests.
 Stone QuarTies an Enemy Refuge.
 Here likewise, as in the hilly region around Soissons, the heights are all honeycombed with stone quarries that offer all the advantages of vast, solid rock shelters, where whole battalions may find cover from the heaviest ar tillery fire.
 When the Germans retired to this line in 1917 they had not prepared their position. They counted upon the vast area of land laid waste in front of them, however, to make an attack upon the bastion more difficult.
 Tanks Rout Gun Nest.
 With the American Army on the Aisne Front, Sept. 7.--The attempt of the Germans to retain their foothold on the south side of the Aisne Canal in 9 wood to the west of Villers-en-