Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-10-13
HA|G'S FORCES
MAKE ADVANCE
EAST OF LENS
British and Americans Are
Hardly More Than Mile
From Douai.
TAKE SEVERAL VILLAGES
NORTHWEST OF LIE CATEAU
Allied Attacks Failed, According
to German Official
Report.
RESISTANCE MUCH STIFFENED
fcrshinG and Pctain Strike Telling
Blows I'm Southern
Sector.
MUCH sTIFFENED
PcrsIiing and Pctain Strike Telling
Blows in Southern
Sector.

inc british again attacked southwest
of Douai yesterday morning, stormcd
rna took Freuiercs and passed through
10 the eastward. They arc now within
siShtly more than z mile of Douai
ltscr. y stiff rcar-guard resistance
ny enemy machine gunncrs is being
overcome
British forces advancing east of Lens
nave captured the villages OF Mon
'iGny. liarncs and .Annay. Field Mar
shall Haig reports in his Official state
mcnt Saturday night. The German
rear guards suffered severe casualties
Nerthwest OF lie Cateau. the villages
Cauchies and Avesnes-le-Scc have been
cleared Of the German rear guards.
ana %nse on the West eS bank Of the sensee
to the British.
North OF lie Cateau and on both
banks of the Meuse violent enemy at
taclta failed. says the official statement
from general headquarters last night
The Angio-American forces OH the
which has. been thrus, into the enemy
lines southeast Of Nalenciennes are
halting momentarily before an extem-
porized German line running from Va
lenciennes TO the Disc
Both to the north and the south Of
This area, however, the Germans are
back under the continuous pressure
that Marshal Foch is applying
DOUAI WILL SOON
PASS INTO BRITISH HANDS
pouai, the most important of the
Northern French cities within the i'm
mediate scope OF the allied thrust.
with the exception OF the fall or
cambrai and threatened Lille, seems
about to pass into British hands.
Lille itself. the greatest Of the
French manufacturing towns, is in none
100 secure a position. The wedge be
low Douai is threatening the whole
line running north past Lille into
FLANDERS. and the Germans are palp-
ably worried also over the prospect OF
and King Alberts Belgian forces on
their right flank above Lille springing
into renewed activity.
In the south General Petain's armies
and the Americans under General Per
shinS have struck renewed heaTy blows
against the German left in the great
rockct formed by the German positions
from Verdun around tho Laon curve 10
The sea. The Chemin -dcs- Danes no
longer stands as bulwark for Laon
in tho Aisnc region. and to the east
IN the Champagne the French. hy
swift advance of from three to four
miles in "A day. have entered Nouziers
and ca rricd their line so far north that
The communications between the Ger
man northern armies and those east
OF the Champagne BID fair TO be cut,
active battle area the American First
Army is keeping up its hammerinG tao
ties and daily gaining more or the
,;ermans in Northern E'rance--that
protecting their communicating lines
from the home soil through the Metz
and Montmeidy regions.
But the Germans, although they are
in general on the retreat, are by no
means yet in ii state OF broken re-
sistance This is shown by the despe-
rate fight they arc giving the Amer
cans from the Argonnc TO the Meuse.
by the stand they appear to be about
20 make before Field Marshal Haig's
armies south of Nalencicnnes. and by
the persistence with which they are
riinging to their positions around
Laon, although doubtless aware of the
neril TO which they are exposing their
large forces in this area by SO doing
Douai and perhaps Lille. they seem
10 have prepared themselves to give
up But they are still holding on to
most Of Belgium as we'll as the Laon
Docket, and are throwing everything
they can possibly mass into the ef-
fort to keep their vital left flank north
Of the Vcrdun area prot erted