Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-02

Of ceaseless fire. We have not been
making further Roadway there and
u men have only been asked to hold
the ground they won. though that is
not a light and joyous thing to do.
Meanwhile on our northern front
battleline Is moving again and
our men are following up the enemy
rear guards, who are covering another
program Of retirement forced upon the
enemy by his enormous losses, which
compel him against his pride and will
to shorten his line even at the cost
or positions of immense Importance to
him.
His withdrawal from Bailleul has
been followed by retirement from
KENNEL Hill I'M positions on the west
side Of the Ypres-C Confines Canal. so
that our patrols are reported to be at
Vierstraat and Voormezeele and Lin.
denhoek. His real guards are fighting
stubbornly to hold us back Until he
has gained the time he needed for his
defensive plans. but apparently u
troops have hustled him off Ravels-
burg ridge on the east Of Bailleul and
are driving him through Neuve-Eglise.
Back Again in Old Flanders
So, after the strange vicissitudes of
this years warfare, we are getting
back again into that old ground Of
Flanders, the loss of which for a
time was a hard thing to bear because
of all the sacrifice of our men through
ear Of fighting and their desperate
conflict Of the Flanders ridges.
As I have been on the southern end
OF the line from Bapaume downward
to Devils woods and to the outskirts
OF Peronne, I haven't yet been up into
Flanders to see this new phase, but a
warm after-thrill comes to us to know
that Bailleul, which I have known for
years as the capital Of our northern
armies and saw in April last on fire
from hostile Smelling, is no longer In
enemy hands, and that ono again our
men are walking ver KENNEL Hill,
from which we used to watch the
enemy's lines and see the sweep Of the
battle in the salient.
KENNEL Hill will not be a pleasant
place for a walk for some time to
come. The enemy doubtless has ar
ranged many devilish devices there.
such as trick wires and touch off high
explosives. He has been busy with
those filthy tricks along many parts
Of the front, which blow men to death
II they touch innocent-looking objects.
One Of these things had the appear
ance Of a book lying on a shelf, but
when moved 1t set off a bomb to carry
a mans hand away. But our engineers
were quick to see the trick of the
wire, and by this time perhaps have
searched KENNEL for its secret.
Before going the enemy blew up his
ammunition dump and material too
heavy to move.
I know some Frenchmen who will
again. for when we were hardest
pressed in April last it was French
troops who defended this hill and lost
it after tragic fighting.
l met those French troops who held
the outer defenses holding their line
at Locre with most self.sacriicing
courage under a dreadful fire which
they told me vas far worse han any.
thing they had seen at Fleury, by
Verdun.
Sweet Vengeance for Colonel
Perhaps some Of my readers will re
member what I wrote about that ole
French colonel who was there, thai
gallant old man who was so proud Of
his children, as he called them. II
will be sweet vengeance to him tc
know that the Germans have had tc
creep away from KENNEL again.
The enemy's object is easy to guess
and indeed he has revealed it beyond
much doubt. To save his man-power
thinned out by frightful losses in this
year of his DEVILS gamble with fate
he is, I believe, retiring to a line
north and south Of A~rmentieres, hop
ing perhaps to hold the line of ridges
from wytschaete and M~essines, as IL
the old days when we were in the low
country of the Ypres salient.
Looking at the general situation al
it exists after our successes at Pbr
onne, 1t seems to me we have virtual,
reached the object of the British of
fensive which began August 8 and has
had the result Of fiinging back thu
enemy from the ground which ht
~traversed after March 81, when HI
hurled the full weight of his available
forces upon the British front with
odds of three to one in the hope Of de
stroying us forever.
In less than four weeks we have al
most completely reversed the table o.
fortune, so that he has been smashed
back twenty miles and more, and al
the country between Amiens and Ba
paume and Amiens and Peronne Il
cleared Of his men. except those VIII,
lie Head In the bitches and craters
while north Of the Scarpe we hav,
gone further thar ever before thi
war, and further north still the Ger