Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-10-24
SOMETHING HITS
B0CHE ON SP me,
REPINGT0N SAYS
Military Critic Finds Allied Sit
uation Full of Promise as
Enemy Retreats in France
and Belgium.
By Lieut. col. Repington.

BY Lieut.. Col. RepingtOn.
copyright, 1918, by The Press Publish
ing Co., (The New York World)
Especial Gable to The World and AL
buquerque JournalO
London, oct. 23.--On all fronts in
France and Belgium the enemy is in
retreat, and the changes have come so
rapidly that the news of an hour ago
becomes ancient history the next
The most rapid changes have taken
place in the north, where the Fourth
and Sixth German armies made nc
further attempt to withstand the al
lied fire under the king of the Belgians
and have gone back at least to the line
Of the Scheldt.
Flanders Coast Cleared.
In the ordinary course of events the
Lys, Scheldt and Doudre would in
succession offer themselves as good
positions for the enemy in the north
to stand upon before going back TO
the Meuse, but the Lys is already
crossed and turned by the allies, and
Il @ value of the other two rivers,
inundated although the country
around about them be, is much lessen
ed by the broad front upon which the
allies are advancing
Freed from the anxiety of Lille in
the north and of the st. Gobain-Laon
bastian in the south the allied armies
regain freedom and unity and their
effort is no longer impaired. Their
successes on the British and Belgian
fronts enable them to turn almost all
the German fortified lines which run
from Lille and Lens southwark and
soutfwestward Even the line of the
Meuse is turned by the Franco
American advance east of that river,
provided this advance can be main
tanned.
Foch Continues Pressure.
The successful advance of tie
Fourth British army on the 18th be-
tween lie Cateau and Bohain and the
capture of, 1000 more prisoners show
that Marshal Foch continues to press
the enemy and intends to give him no
rest until the weather arrests opera
tons on large scale.
The season grows late, but strong
blows in Flanders happily have been
delivered before the mud of autumn
could present insuperable obstacles
TO troop movement, and if the season
is not too unkind progress between
the Upper Scheldt and the Argonne
may continue for weeks longer.
Several French armies are heading
for the Mezieres region, and every
mile or progress here renders the po-
sition of the enemy more uncomfort-
able in Belgium.
Second only in weight and impor-
lance to the German concentration on
the British front is the other be-
tween Rethel and Metz. Here it was
from west to east that the German
armies under Won Einem, Won Carlo
WITT and Won Fuchs aggregated some
fiftS-one divisions, and 1t is clear
that the enemy appreciates the sig
nificance of the allied advance here
and proposes to resist it at all costs.
Hard Task Before Americans.
Most arduous in particular is the
task which has fallen to the young
American armies in the Argonne and
up to the Meuse and beyond it. The
terrible hills, gullies and thickets of
the Argonne have witnessed some of
the fiercest fighting of the war, and
there is no other ground in which
progress is more slow and difficult
against good troops.
The Woevre plain to the east of
the Argonne becomes almost as bad
as Flanders after the autumn rails,
while the troops east of the Mouse
have to watch Metz and beware of