The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1918-09-13

Eight weeks today, and for the first
time the great allied offensive OF Mar
shall Foch is at a virtual pause. True
both the British and French on isolat-
ed sectors of the line extending from
Flanders to the east of Scissors have
have again recorded advances, but
Wednesday witnessed no such progress
by the allies toward strategic object
ives as past days have brought them,
before the torrental rains turned the
lowlands into impossible marshes and
the badly worsted enemy rushed large
reinforcements forward to stop the
gaps through which the British, French
and American armies were threaten
ing to filter and wreck the entire mil
itary situation.
During the eight weeks that have
passed since the allied troops have
cleared almost in its entirety the enc
my held territory from the Marne to
the Aisne in the great triangle which
had Chateau Thierry as its epex and
Scissors and Rheims respectively its
western and eastern anchor points.
From scissors to Arras the old bulge
westward to Montdidier and toward
the doorsteps of Amiens has all but
been obliterated and the allies now are
standing across large portion of the
old Hindenburg defense line and vir-
tually are upon the remainder of it,
while to the north in Flanders the deep
salient which threatened the English
channel ports have bent eastward and
the enemy is expelled from the want
age points from which he had expect
ed ultimately to make bis drive in an
endeavor to gain the seaboard and thus
cause diversion of the transport sery-
ice from England to Southern France.
Until the rains began falling there
ha4 been no let up in the allied ofFen-
sive, notwithstanding the fact that the
German high command had stiffened
its resistance everywhere, discarding
infantry units as such and training,
them into machine gun companies and
bringing up large numbers Of guns of
all calibers to hold the aggressors
back. Wherefore, it is not improb-
able that Foch when the skies have
cleared and the marshes disappeared,
again will take up with full impetus his
task of putting ths~enemy on his met
tie and continue for the two months
of good fighting weather remaining, if
not beyond that period, his efforts
with his own great forces to drive the
Germans farther back toward the
Rhine.
The British and French troops ap-
parently are in hard race for the
prize of St. Quentin, forces of both
armies now being at equidistant points
west of the city, the British in the vi
cinity of Vermand and the French at
Etrillers and Coupy To the north
the British in local operations which
has for its purpose the driving of a
wedge midway between Cambrai and
st. Quentin, and also have successful
! ly sustained counter-attacks by the
! Germans near Gouzeacourt, where the
Germans are trying hard to hold back
the British push toward Cambria.
North of the st. Gobain Massif the
French have made a slight advance,
Notwithstanding the bad condition of
the terraine and the strong forces of
enemy aligned against them in an eff
fort to prevent the turning of this inn
portant position from the west. Heavy
artillery activity is in progress all
along this front and likewise on the
sector northeast of Scissors and be-
tween the Aisne and Vesle rivers the
operations on which have direct bear
ing on those of the st. Gobain forest.
In Flanders the British have been
successful in local counters near Ar
mentieres and in the region of LaBasse
canal.
| Additional American, troops have
landed at Archangel, northern Rus
sia, to aid the other allied forces in
the putting down of the disturbed con-
ditions in that region,
A troop ship carrying American SOL
diers to the front has been torpedoed
off the coast of England. All the
troops reached land safely and the
vessel was beaehed.