Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-12
l)CHMAKESNEW
ENEMY .SALENTS
b.
GcneralissimO Molds Ger
man Lines to Suit His
Own Methods
FOILS TEUTON PLANS
aisers Forces More Deeply
! Involved, Instead of Inn
proving Line
FOILS TEUTON PLANS
Il By WALTER DURANTY
Special Cable to Evening Public Ledger
Copyrioht. 1918, by Nc,c York Times Go.

has placed the enemy in a position OF
the greatest danger. as the rapid ad'
vance Of the Allied armies tC the north
and east has created another big salient
An the battlefront of France. The line
from the region of Noyales 10 the juno
tion OF the Aisne and the Suippe at
So CInde, which forms the pockets base,
is sixty kilcmetcrs long and forty
ive klometers behind Anizy. the sa-
lients extreme point.
4E The tactics that have been charac-
.teristic of every offensive operated by
the Allied generalissimc have the dou-
BILE advantage Of Increasing the strain
ION the German communications already
,sorely tried and preventing the enemy
from drawing benefit from his shorten
Ing line that would ensuc could his re-
treat be carried out without such omni-
Gus bulgcs. Latest news, though not
& marked by anything so sensational as
sthe Franco- British leap forward toward
rGuise andlL Le Cateau, is hardly less en-
.couraging.'CtOn the extreme right the
aAmericans and French have now cleared
the cid battlefield north Of Verdun and
fhey compel the enemy TO maintain. re-
serves In that area through fear of a
drive eastward toward the al-vital
Briey iron fields
3r Furthe. west the occupation of the
sGrand-Pre defile has so far facilitated
iGourauds operations that his advance
guards hold the line Semide-Mont St
MartiE-Sugny. only three miles distant
from Vouziers junction. on the left
Gouraud, in conjunction with Berthelot,
is steadily overcoming the resistance of
strong rear guards, supplied with in
numerabie machine guns.
Big Guns Withdrawn
s Counter-attacks are frequent, but the
artillery fire is generally confined to
Tighter pieces, as If the enemy were
3 evacuatng his big guns. This theory is
supported by fires visible everywhere.
\ northward. With the exception of
sBoult-sur- -Suippe in the center. where a
counter-blow prevented passage, the
French now hold the whole north bank
s Of the Suippe from Bethinville to CCnde.
81 Opposite Mangin the enemy Is resist
!. ing with strong artillery support. ma
chine guns and apparently r;imerous in
I fantry
~ He evidently trusts the Businesses of
the ST. Gobian fores. to bar the Allied
/. progress while the foe is completing
evacuation along the three lines Of rail-
road still available from Laon. Never
! theless. delay in abandoning this re-
kion contains elements of possible Ger
sman disaster. which lie nor only in the
SAtlied pressure on the side of the pock-
Sft, but in the work of the bombing
planes against junction and concentra-
f1ion points on the line of retreat.
a A member Of famous bombing
ssquadrilla attached TO General Gou-
sraud's army gave your correspondent
some details of the work of the last few
days
:, ''As you know" he said. 'the bombing
planes of the lates- palrern carry
vastly increased load, and their SUI
perior speed enables us to ignore Ger
han interference provided we keep our
Formation. 1t is now possible to aim
with accuracy at an objective seen from
d height of 1000 or 5000 meters and
photographs show that the bombs invari-
ably fall within very limited area.
h Panic Among Enemies
a "The greater carving capacity of the
planes gives us p wider range. and
Especially in the case OF mass attacks
sfhe enemy il reduced 20 state OF such
spanic that even the fire of anti-alr-
acraft batteries has died away almost to
shothing.
~ II took part in one such operation
against Vouziers three days ago. just
before noon. The ceiling was low and
we flew at height of about 1900 me-
ters. There seemed to have been foe
battle planes in the clouds above us
which had encounters with the battle
Squadron accompanying US, but we uId
hot bother
after plastering the station with
foombs, which caused several fires
notably one on long goods train on
h siding. we turned our attention to the
roads and smashed a cannon convoy
in the central square. As | say, the
-hnti-aircraft batteries made a feeble re-
ssponse. and when, after the bombs
had been dropped, We descended and
smachne-gunned the troops, the Germans
ran in all directions.
.Prisoners say that the effect of such
fraids, in which bombs are rained liter
ally by thousands for a space Of several
hours, is far the most terrific thing in
war
yesterday we had a harder job across
the Suippe, between Warmeiles and
Oelles. The Germans held two roads
10 the northward that commanded the
naked slopes up from the river, and
:harassed our infantry advance with ma
chine gun fire and rifle fire. The
weather was bad. and we were forced
meters. exposed TO a quick -firer barrage
from the woods But a steady rain
of small 'anti-infantry' bombs gradu-
ally quieted the foe, until we were able
to fly down and rake the outskirts of
the woods with machine guns, which
h permitted the poilus TO consolidate their
footing on the northern bank"
~ / asked the airman whether he had
dropped smoke bombs. according to the
new method, to cover infantry or tank
movements. He replied
4 "Not personally. but heard of a case
tof one of our squadrons using them
most successfully in cooperation with
British fiiers In the region of Fontaine
.Notre Dame. There was a small wood
IN steep ravine protected from our
ifre which was holding up odr advance
! Two batteries of tanks had tried To turn
~ from the northwest. but had been
checked by anti-tank batteries further
back when they came across an omen
Held kilometer wide.
Use of smoke Screen
: "A smoke screen suddenly blotted ont
'fhe greater part OF the field from view.
'and under its cover the tanks advanced
<pninjured. When the smoke cleared the
Tanks were rafting away az the en-
france to the ravine and few minutes
IRter the enemy surrendered"
October 10-"The enemy Is. retirins ia
41isorder. but not routed" said a Sigh
}omcer OF General Debeney's star IN
}6our correspondent today .The rasuI,
Tot the Franco British operations sinne
4 tOctober l against the series Of for,iaes
{positions that go 10 make up the Hindan
4>7rx line had been complete. piercing
2ohe famous defenses on front Of