French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1918-03-28

heen known. Ihey were Piai9Su
highly for their gallantry in the pat
tie of Cambria, last fall.
Americans Confident.
washington, March 25.-Presldent
wilson today cabled Field Marshal
Haio concentrating him on the Brit
ish stand against the German otfen-
sive and predicting a final allied VIC
tory.
The presidents message reads:
.tIMay I not express to you my
warm admiration of the splendid
s~teadfastness and valor with which
voI1T TROOPS have withstood the Ger
man onset, and the perfect confidence
all Americans feel that you Will WIN
a secure and final victory"
Offensive Weakening.
After six days of terrific fighting,
the German offensive in France was
beginning to show signs OF losing It's
momentum o n Tuesday. Inc pro
oress of the enemy has materially
siackened and the form of the dent
in the allied line west of Cambria has
begun to resemble the familiar wedge
ike salient, instead of the broad
straight forward movement of an
offensive which carries all before 1T.
The town Of Chaunny, southwest OF
St. Quentin, situated on the road to
Compeigne, the gateway to Paris, has
been occupied by the Germans, and,
according to the Berlin official com-
m~unications, everywhere between the
Somme and Disc rivers the Germans
are pressing what they conceive to be
their advantage.
It has been definitely ascertained by
the British wal authorities that more
than a millisn Germans have been
brought to the western front in an en-
deavor to crush the British army hold
ing the line from the region of ArTas
to the south of st. Quentin.
A Berlin dispatch says that the
American and French regiments TAX
en- to ST. Quentin to reinforce the
British were defeated, but no further
information than this mere statement
has so far gotten through the censor.
The German monster cannon, which
has been ~bombarding Paris, has been
located in the forest Of st. Gobain,
west of Laon, and exactly 76 miles
from the Paris city hall. The shells
ARRIVE at intervals of 20 minutes, but
the populace seem to be unterrifed.
A French official note says: 1.-THE
French front is intact. Any assertion
to the contrary is a lie"
A prominent American chemist in
Paris, whose name is withheld for mil
itary reasons, advanced the theory that
the barrel of the big gun bombarding
Paris is surrounded by a magnetic
field. which keeps the shell virtually
free from the sides Of the gun when
it is being fired, thereby eliminating
friction, the greatest cause of lost mo-
ton, thereby increasing the muzzle
velocity of the gun.
While German and British troops are
struggling violently to the south, in
the opening clash of the spring cam
paign, the greatest protector gas bonn
bardment of the war is being carried
out by the Canadians against enemy
positions between Lens and Hill No.
20. Lethal gas is being used.
Finlanders arriving at Stockholm,
Sweden, on the gunboat Svenskund,
say that the German transport Frank
land struck a mine and sank at Moor
land. The transport was crowded with
soldiers, cannon and munitions and,
according to the dispatch, the entire
crew, all Of the soldier and Admiral
voA Seyrer were lost.
In a battle that has rivaled in feroc-
ity any that has preceded during three
and a half years of warfare, the Brit
ish on a 50-mile front, have withsteod
a great German offensive in it's initial
stages. At some points the British
line has been bent back. Sixteen
thousand men and 200 guns were cap
tured.
The forward movement against the
British in the west was launched un-
der the eyes Of the emperor, Field
Marshal Won Hindenburg and General
Ludendorff, admittedly the greatest
military tacticians of the central pow
ers.
''The prize of victory must not and
will not fail us-no soft peace, but one
which corresponds with Germany's in
terests," Emperor William telegraph
ed the Schleswig-Holstein provincial
council, according to a Kiel dispatch
to London
British aircraft during the fighting
along the front in France aided ma
t~erially the infantry forces below,
killing or wounding many Germans
with their machine guns while flying
at low attitudes, according to a Brit
ish official communication issued re-
Gently dealing with aviation British
aircraft also bombed important mill
tary positions behind the line and avi-
atorS accounted for numerous German
oirponn in bott1oc in tho DIR
Two German destroyers and two
German torpedo boats have been
sunk by a force Of five British and
French ~destroyers, the admiralty an
nounces in London. One British de-
stroyer was damaged. There were no
french casualties. and the British cas-