The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-10-17
NEWS REVIEW OF
THEICREAT WAR
French and Americans Open New
Offensive Against the Huns
in Champagne.
TURKISH ARMIES DESTROYED
Splendid Success Won by General Al
Ienby in PaIestine-Rout of Bull
garians In Macedonia Increases
Their Country Is Invaded.
BY EDWARD w. PIcKARD.

1t was bad week for the Huns and
their allies. From all the battle fronts
came reports of repulse, retreat, de-
feat or utter rout and disaster, the CEN
trail powers always being the losers.
And to top it off, on Thursday the
French and American armies started
another big drive in the Champagne
and in the region to the east of 1t,
which threatened the communication
lines in the rear of the Hindenburg
defense system and might even result
in separating the German forces in
the west into two groups.
The drive, on a 40-mile front, was
shared equally by the armies of Per-
shing and Petain and all the way from
the Suippe river to the Meuse the
Germans were forced back, their bases
and railway centers at Somme-Py and
Challerange being in immediate peril.
The Americans made the swiftest prog
ress along the Mouse valley, taking
many towns and thousands of prison
ers. The Huns were withdrawing all
their forces except machine gunners.
At the time Of writing the Yanks and
French were still advancing.
This new allied attack came log
ically after the Huns were driven
back to the Hindenburg line and was
well timed, for the enemy had concen-
trated his heavy guns and all the
troops he could spare further north to
defend st. Quentin and Laon against
the persistent assaults of the British
and French. For quite distance east
ward from Reims the terrain is so
open that the movement of the allies
is favored, and any considerable adj
vance there would tend to cut the east
ward communication lines from Laon,
which city has been the pivot of the,
entire German system from Reims to
Flanders.
The sensational news of the earlier
part of the week came from Palestine
and Macedonia. In the Holy Land
General Allenby, by sudden, swift
and skillfully conducted attack,
smashed the Turkish forces between
the River Jordan and the Mediterra-
mean from the Jaffa-J erich0 line clear.
up beyond the Sea of Galilee. Feint-
ing with his right in an attack direct
ed toward Afule, in the hill region of
Samaria, he delivered his main blow
with his left, which moved swiftly up
the coastal plain, occupying in turn
Caesarea, Haifa and Acre. This force
then quickly shifted its course toward
the northeast, turning the highlands
of Samaria and compelling the Turks
to make precipitate and perilous re-
treat. In fact the enemy was routed
and made little effort to rally and
check the victorious progress of the
British. Allenby's men drove forward
with amazing rapidity, capturing the
railway running from Haifa through
Afule and Nablus toward Jerusalem
and occupying Nazareth, the home of
Jesus.
Meanwhile the Arabs of HedjaZ
were moving northward along the hills
east of the Jordan, driving the Turks
before them and threatening to sever
their line of retreat to Damascus.
Still further north another force of
tribeslnen raided the railway juno
ton of Derau and destroyed the rail-
way there.
Probably $4,000 prisoners were taken
nv the British in Palestine and it
seemed likely that almost the entire
Turkish force caught in the trap
would be captured or destroyed. The
seventh and eighth Turkish armies
were virtually annihilated. There is
added satisfaction in the fact that Ii
man Won Sanders, the German general