The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-08-01
CAPTURED GERMAN BASE
FRENCH AND AMERICANS MAKE
BIG ADVANCE.
Rheims-SOiSsOns "Pocket" Decreas-
ing in Size Every Day.-Ger-
mans in Full Retreat.

July 29.-The Franco-American
troops, continuing their pressure on
the Germans in retreat from the
Marne, have reached and crossed the
Ourcq river and penetrated the town
of Fere-en-Tardenois, one of the
great German supply bases for the
enemy troops inside the Soissons-
Rheims salient.
Meantime, on the center of the al
lied right wing southwest of Rheims,
violent attacks by the French have
forced the enemy to give further
ground and enabled the French to
capture several towns of strategic
value and to draw their front ap-
preciably nearer the high road which
runs northward from Dormans to
Rheims.
On the extreme wing of the grad
ually decreasing pocket-near Sois-
sons and Rheims-the enemy, heayi-
ly reinforced is holding tenaciously
to his ground, realizing that success
there would result in a general
crumbling Of his plans of defense
against the locking up of his entire
army inside the big bag.
Using Long Range Guns.
In addition to the large number of
troops for reinforcements that have
been thrown on these two sectors the
German long range guns from the
region north of scissors and north
and northeast of Rheims are keep
ing both wings of the salient under
a heavy enfilading fire.
, Under the battering tactics of the
Americans and Frenchmen the Ger
man line on the south has now been
driven back more than IL miles from
the point south of Chateau-Thierry
where the allied troops locked the
door to Paris against the enemy July
18 and themselves became the ag-
gressors in what has turned out to
be one Of the greatest battles of the
war.
The crossing of the Ourcq, even 1t
only by advanced elements of the al
lied forces, presage a general cross
ing later on. The French official COM
munications thus far during the bat
tie have been remarkably conserva-
tive in their estimates of the gains
that daily have been made and it is
indicated in unofficial dispatches that
allied troops are constantly in ad-
vance of the line as announced Off
cially.
Where the Germans are in retreat
from the south, the cavalry has been
brought into the fighting and numer-
Gus tanks and machine guns are
everywhere harassing the enemy,
whose losses are heavy.
Meantime, airplanes are flying over
the retreating hordes dropping
bombs, while the big allied guns
from the sides of the salient are
keeping up their intensive firing from
all along the line in the densely con-
gested area.
Expects to Make Stand.
The retreat of the enemy has by
| no means become rout and so long
as the picked troops around Sois-
sons and Rheims are able to keep
well open the mouth of the bag
through which the Germans are
falling back, it is expected that the
greater portion of the armies of the
Crown Prince will be successful in
reaching in order the line where it
is intended for them to turn and
make stand.
Just where this stand will be made
is problematical. More than half the
pocket has been recaptured by the
American, French, British and Ital-
ian troops opposing the enemy, and
there have as yet been no signs of a
let-up in the retrograde movement.
If, as some of the military critics
have suggested, Crown Prince Rup-
precht, of Bavaria, purposes to start
an offensive against the British in
France and Flanders, as a diversion
against the big battle now in prog
ress, no signs of it are apparent at
present. What little fighting has
been going on in this region has been
in the nature of patrol raids in which
the British have taken a number Of
prisoners and machine guns.