The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1918-04-03
FORCE OF HUN Drive SPENT
Enemy Declines to Give Battle
Throughout Day-Belleye Turn In
Tide Of Battle Is at Hand.

IhTOuBhOut Dhy-DelIeNe luTn i'll
Tide Of Battle Is at Hand.
Paris, April 2-The war office an
nouncement tonight says:
"The day was marked by quite
spirited artillery fighting, particular
ly between Montdidier and Lassigny.
Our batteries caught under their fire
enemy concentrations east of Can
tigny. A strong German reconnais-
ance attacked by our troops In the
bank Of the Disc, southwest of Ser
vais, was repulsed.
"In the Woerve and upper Alsace,
enemy attacks were without result"
London, April 2-The report from
Field Marshal Haig's headquarters in
France tonight says:
Except for minor enterprises
which we carried out in the neighbor-
hood of Serre and as a result of which
we captured German post, the day
passed quietly on the whole battle
front"
Rome, April 2-"Our patrols were
active in the Tonale area and in Val
Arsa, capturing few prisoners,
says today's official report, from head
quarters. In Giudicarla and east of
Ponte Della Friula enemy parties
were driven back by rife fire.
along the whole front there has
been slight artillery activity. Bad
weather hindered aerial activity"
With the passing of the thirteenth
day of the new battle of the Somme,
there came increasing evidence that
the great German machine with which
it was intended to crush the Allied
line has almost utterly spent itself.
Where previously the Germans had
thrown men into the fray, not count
ing the prodigious wastage it killed
or wounded, Tuesday saw them de-
cline anywhere to give battle. On the
contrary, in what little fighting occur
red, the British and French troops
took the initiative.
Thus it seems apparent, with the
reserve forces of the Entente virtual
ly intact and with the added weight
General Pershing's troops will give
them, the turn in the tide of the bat
tie is at hand.
While admittedly both the French
and British armies have suffered
rather severe casualties, as they stood
valiantly to their task of impeding
the Germans and making them pay
an unheard of price for every foot of
ground gained, their reserves have
been conserved with the utmost care
behind the lines for the fateful time
when the withering fire of the Allied
guns and machine guns should have
so blighted the German hordes as to
bring more equality in strength to
the fighting forces.
And along the British and French
commanders have not left outside
their calculations that staunch band
of Americans, exceeding 100000 men,
who are fully trained and equipped
and anxious to lend their aid in the
task of defeating the Germans.
Daily the German losses in men
killed or wounded continue to aug
ment as details are obtained from the
Germans made prisoner. Some divi-
sions lost as high as seventy per cent
of their electives as they charged in
mass formation against the British
anu fiChCh mdCulUt kulDbTS ana
riflemen. Companies withdrew from
the fighting with their combative
strength reduced to forty men.
The latest accounts of the fighting
from the various war Offices show no
important new changes in the battle
front. Only minor operations took
place on that portion OF the front
south of Arras held by the British
and little aside from artillery duels
occurred between the French and the
Germans on the lower end of the line.
The fighting between the big guns
was particularly heavy between Mont
dldler and Noyon. where the battle
line bends eastward and which l.
danger spot Of great Importance to
the Germans, the breaking through Of
which by the French would necessI-
tate q rapid withdrawal Of the Ger
mans eastward from the Amiens sec