Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-10-11

In Champagne there was no marked
change curing the week, though both,
the French and the Americans con-
tinued to move forward. The Yankees
were up against a hard proposition in
the forest of Argonne, where the dense
woods were full of machine gun nests
and the fighting was almost like a bat
tie In the dark. This style of warfare,
however, seemed to suit the Americans
and In broken groups they battled
their way onward, passing beyond
Cierges and always keeping in contact
with the retreating enemy. For miles
they were hampered by the scarcity of
roads, the mud and the innumerable
and bravely defended fortified she'll
craters. They captur0d during the week
great numbers of guns and quantities.
Of material, including three big OBJ
servntion balloons. On the left flank
of the Americans Gouraud's French
men fought their way northward with
the greatest intrepedity and cut off
the Germans opposing them from COM
VIII LAAC1l NOLAAA NaCR IL III
Argonne forest region. If they can
keep up this advance the Huns in the
salient pointing towards Reims will
fine themselves in an awkward pocket.
The Germans In this sector were fall
ing back to the so-called Kriemhild
Zine, and captured documents showed
they intended to try to hold that line
through the winter. The fact is they
have no organized line of defense be-
tween it and the French border. The
Americans in Champagne as well as
those in the st. Quentin sector dis
played gallantry and dash thai have
not been surpassed.
"a
The most spectacular exploit of the
week was the raid on the Austrian
naval base at Durazzo. American,
British and Italian warships made
their way through the mine fields and
completely destroyed the base and all
the Austrian vessels in the harbor ex-
cept a hospital ship. The only dam
age to the attacking force was the
slight injury of a British cruiser by a
torpedo.
The Bulgarians In signing the armis-
tice submitted to every demand of the
allies, which included demobilizing
their army and surrendering the con-
troll of all their means of trensporta-
ton, besides breaking entirely with the
other central powers. They even said
they were willing to attack Turkey, in
conjunction with the allies. Their
troops at once began Withdrawing from
Serbia and all their military supplies
were turned over to the forces Of the
entente. The internal situation In Bull
garia was somewhat confused, but the
claims of Berlin that King Ferdinand
would remain faithful TO the central
alliance seemed unfounded. However,
he evidently feared for his own safety,
for he was reported to have taken
refuge in a royal castle near Vienna.
Naturally, it will be some time before
the allies can reap the full benefits of
the Bulgarian surrender in the way of
cutting across the corridor to Bag
dad and isolating Turkey. Meanwhile
they continued the task of driving the
Austrians and Germans out of Serbia.
It was said a large number of Ger
man troops were sent to Sofia TO try
to force Bulgaria to retract her ac-
ton, but these, If there, more likely
are to be used in defending the COM
| munication with Constantinople. When
| the French, Serbians, Greeks and ltal-
ians have advanced far enough TO the
northward they probably Will be Joined
by great numbers of Southern Slavs
and men of other races who have long
waited for the chance to revolt against
Austria. The way will then be open
for an attack on the dual kingdom
from the south.
IA
Though not yet officially confirmed.
there were various well authenticated
reports last week that Turkey had
informally sought for information as
to the terms on which she could make
peace. Her condition is desperate, for
General Allenby continued his victori-
Gus progress in Palestine and on
Tuesday occupied Damascus, the Turk
ish base In Syria, taking more than
1000 prisoners. With the British was
a portion Of the army of Arabs of the
Hedjaz, now recognized by the allied
governments as co-helligerents.
"a
Necessarily all this had great effect
in the Teutonic nations. The excite
ment in Berlin approached panic and
the newspapers made no attempt TO
conceal the gravity of the situation.
The first concrete results were the res