The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1918-03-29
HUNS Deliver
SMASHING BLOW
In Greatest Battle Of War
British Forced Back
S To 9 Miles.
TEUTON LOSS HEAVY
Masses OF Troops Make AS
sault On 50-Mile
Front.

Assauting the British lines on the
south, the Germans have forced their
way forward over a front approx
mately twenty-one miles in lngth,
have penetrated to a depth of four or
five miles west of Cambria and have
reached Ham, west of St.Quentin,
distance of abut nine miles west of
the British lines as they stood before
the inception of the Teutonic often
sive on Thursday.
The German claim that the forces
of the Central Empires are fighting on
a line northeast of Bapaume, Peronne
and Ham has not been substantiated
by British official dispatches, but the
British reports show that there has
been a retirement at various points.
especially at ST. Quentin, where Field
Marshal Haig says his forces have
taken up their new positions and are
heavily engaged with the enemy.
According to a Berlin official dis
patch, "a considerable part of the
British army has been beaten" but
this is not borne out by any facts so
far known. That $4,000 men have
possibly been captured by the Teutons
may be considered as a natural result
of the slow British withdrawal on
various parts of the line. This num-
Der, however, is very small in compar-
is0n to the forces Haig has thrown
into the fray.
The frightful combat continued
all day Saturday.
Trying To Drive Wedge Between
Allies.
The great German offensive has
developed as its salient feature an
apparent desperate effort to break in
to the British positions southwest of
ST. Quentin, drive a wedge between
the British and the French and push
on across the Somme Canal in the
general direction of Compiegne and
Paris.
There was an admitted break in the
British line in the st. Quentin region
late yesterday, the Germans forcing
their way through the defensive sys-
TEN and compelling a British retreat |
TO prepare positions within the area |
devastated by the Germans in their !
retreat in the spring of 1917.
This new line also is now being at
tackled by the Germans, and news !
dispatches filed from the front late
in the day indicated that the fighting
already was heavy in the vicinity of |
Ham. which represents a penetration
OF some nine miles for the Germans.
Ham is approximately eleven miles
OF St. Quentin.
4 supreme effort by the Germans to
cut the line in this region is forecast
in the dispatches. They have put
cavalry in the line to follow up the
infantry, and evidently intend to
throw the Uhlans into the fray when
the Infantry columns open the breach
the German high command is count
ing upon.
French Reported Involved In Fight.
Further north the British lines,
while they have drawn back are hold
ing well in their new positions. The
maximum British retrogression there
seems to have been about four mites
at MOry, which has changed hands
several times.
Reports that the French have be-
come involved in the struggle seem
credible; as the occasional of the
British right flank, which was rest
ing approximately upon LaFere at the
River Disc, would inevitably carry
with it the French left, which had
rested upon the Disc,
The advance is being accompanied
by terrible slaughter of the Ger
mans, who in their massed fOrma-
tiOns, are being cut TO pieces before
British guns of all calibers. The Brit
ish casualties, too have been heavy,
and Berlin claims the taking of 25,-
300 British prisoners and 400 guns.
Emperor William himself is in COM
mand of the German armies fighting
this battle, which he had previously
declared would be the decisive ore of
the war, and London commentators
credit him with assuming his post
with the aim of going down in history
as the victor in the greatest conflict
in the worlds history should the Ger
mans win as they boosted they
would.
Despite the advances made by the
Germans, no loss of confidence on the