The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-08-31

the tlQe Dy the FranCO-Amer lcan sur
prise on July IS. The action slacken-
ed, there was no considerable ad-
vance anywhere between the Disc and
the Somme for a day or two. The
western half of the Lassigny Hills had
been occupied; but the eastern half
still stood firm and once more you
began to get, though now less conf
IDENTIFY, the tone | have referred to in
German dispatches and in the German
| press-once again with an echo Of 1t
even on the Allied side among the civ
ilian population. There had been no
break through. The excitement OF
the first few days of the second bat
tie had died. The movement on the
map appeared significant, ETC., etc.
The Third Blow.
| Then came the third blow. 1t was
struck on August IS, in the sector be-
tween scissors and the Disc, against
a front of about twenty miles, with
a force strictly limited to the re-
quirements of the plan laid down. For
this local movement General Mangin.
with the tenth French army made two
comparatively small surprise attacks,
took not much more than 5000 prison
ers, and advanced on the two short
sectors not much more than mile.
There was no sort of an attempt
at rupture. 1t would have served no
purpose to attempt it in such To-
cality, with the immensely strong po-
sitions of the st. Gobain hill and forest
| lying but a few miles ahead of the
French army
| Upon the 10th, however, to the sur
prise not only of the enemy, but of
| the less informed critics upon our own
side, General Mangin's force moved
suddenly right forward, captured at
least 5000 prisoners and 200 guns, and
all the enemy force on that front was
thrown into wild confusion. An urgent
appeal was sent by the German gen.
eral officer in command over this sec
tor to General Won Boehm, on his right,
who was facing the French third
army in the Lassigny district, beg
ging for men. He was told that men
could not be sent. He then asked for
reserve divisions from the main army
reserves, which were by this time re-
duced from sixty to sixteen divisions
and he received two or three at the
most.
| Keeps Up Blows.
1t was not enough. General Man
gin went right forward, reached the
| line of the Ailette, got on top of the
Cuts hills, from which one sees all
over the Disc valley to Chauny, and
went right up the Divette valley to
Lassigny, and thus had the main road
supplying Noyon under his guns.
| Mangin's advance rested there and
we again got from the German press
the nonsense of an attempt to break
| through had failed There had been
nothing of the sort. There was the
same consistent, steady movement,
| handling the enemy as it Willed,
back to the Ailette with comparative
ly small losses on the side of the
offensive, and a total loss to the en-
envy in three days of about 10000
E'prisoners and $50 guns. Lassigny had
been hopelessly outflanked. The
| French third army came down over
the hills and occupied 1t. There the
movement ended.
| At this stage, on the night of Aug
ust 20, after General Mangin's three
days movement, there had been cap
tured since the Allied recovery of the
! initiative just under 100000 prisoners
and just under 1000 guns. In the
meanwhile, the front which was put
! into movement-that is, the front
along which the enemy was kept on
the jump, and into which he was COM
PEELED to draw into one section after
another his reserves until those were
nearly exhausted-had been gradually
extended all the way from little
south of Albert to the neighborhood OF
Rheims, a distance of $50 to 200 kilo-
metres, or, say, about 100 to 120 miles
The enemy at this moment, after suf-
! fering so grievously and after so dan.
gerously exhausting his reserve power,
might reasonably hope for a breathing
space and chance to reorganize and
to prepare a new line upon which to
fall back in his own time.
If this great Anglo-French-Ame
attack had been developed all at once
and had been recklessly pressed the
enemy would have seen the danger in
the situation and he would have been
defeated, but with time to recover af-
terward. For if there had been any
Of those grandiose theatrical ideas in
the mind of the Allied Highed Com
mand which the enemy gratuitously
imagined to be there our losses would
have been so heavy and the fatigue Of
our forces would have been such that
there would have had to be some
cessation of movement. But, on the
contrary, these carefully limited &C.
tions, each exactly defined for the
fruits reaped from it and no more and
supported by the perpetually increas-
ing stream Of American contingents,
had left an ample margin of power.
The Fourth Step.
With the dawn of August "A the
fourth step in the great action was be-
gun. This blow was delivered north
of Alpert, between that town and Ar
ras, by the British, and is still proceed
ing. 1t has gone on from step to step,
just as the others have, and the front
has been widened both to the north
and south. This was not one great at
tack, exercising an immense pressure
at great expense and-in case of fail
ure-at the price of exhaustion. But
it was like all the rest-deliberately
restricted assaults, increasing each
day.
On the first day. August p, the at
tack was upon front of no more than
ten miles, beginning in the early morn
ing with front of seven and adding
an hour or two afterward, further
front of three miles. 1t advanced to-
ward Rananmo hIIt with 1i,,ita1 ~