The Little River news., 1918-08-07
Crushing Pressure of Petairl's Troops Was Bound to Break Enemy's FrOnt--Efght U. 5.
 Divisions.

spondent at American army headquar- ters sent the following dispatch un- der yesterdays date:
 Today an extraordinary spectacle meets the eye. The entire German salient line has given way with 2 snap like that of string that has broken.
 Yesterday, be.ore the last deluga of rain robed the country with thick white mist, it was possible actually to observe the German retreat with the naked eye-a thing of extremely rare occurrence. A man could be seen lodging out of a house, with ma chine gun over his shoulder, and an- other loading his mule with ammuni- tion. A third, who seemed to be an officer, was supervising the destruction of some sort of dump.
 Small groups, coming out of their billets formed in the roadway and marched off with their arms at the slope. It was all very orderly and leisurely, though perhaps not as leis- urely-as it looked. There seemed no suggestion of disorder, still less of rout. Yet, this sort of thing was happening along the entire 40 miles of front between Soissons and Rheims save that in places the rear and smoke of guns was obliterating the quiet cinema of the scene before us. Enemy Line Had Break.
 'The crushing pressure of Pe- tain's troops about those of the crown prince had been so admirably timed that if the salent had not broken in one place 1t would have in another. Soissons, for example, the fall of which yesterday came as so joyous a surprise, had been undermined by the most gallant capture of Buzany by the famous Scottish division on July 30, an exploit that won General Man. gins enthusiastic approval. In the 1 center during the day of August 2, the retirement covered an average dis tance of from three to four miles on ] front of 30 miles.
 "On the east flank, on the heights l west of Rheims, our advance was finally to the valley of the combined Vesle and Andre rivers and the dis tance from where we are to their posi- nh sc n ofp,r rol defensive position, is only little more than six miles.
 The perimeter of this gradually diminishing salient has now come down to AS miles on August 2, from "A miles at the start. The depth of the enemy's retirement is now 16 miles. Eight U. s. Divisions.
 During this advance, beginning with the counter-offensive, We have had eight United States divisions now engaged. First, Second, Third, Fourth. Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty second and Forty-second. We have To- cated definitely the troops which were engaged against the Fourth Prussian Guards. They were the Forty-second Division, the Rainbow division. l "The objective of our forces is still the enemy's army and the suc' cess of the advance is indicated by the confidential cablegram, which I am going to read to you:
 An officer of General Muir's (Twenty-eighth) division just return ed from Fere-en-Tardenois. reports that 1t does not seem possible for ar army to have gathered as many guns, las much ammunition as the Germans had abandoned in their retreat, which had been so hasty that they had not time to bury their dead. The ground was so covered with corpses that 1; was impossible to advance withou, walking over them, and further that the advance of the Twenty-eighth di- vision had been extremely rapid. ill spite of the fact that their position was some distance from the nearest railroad.
 "In connection with the American forces abroad there has been some discussion about the proportion of the forces which is brigaded with the British, and I will say that General Pershing has in his own area as his own force. not brigaded with the Brit ish, over 100000.
 The number of men embarked dur ing the month of July. just closed was over 30O,000. That breaks the record: the previous high record wac in the preceding month, when we reached 276 OOO