The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-21

personalities In France among the army
commanders. He is a man about 80
years of age. as he seemed to me, erect
ana soldierly. lie has been In action all
over the world and has on / is sleeve FIVE
biesse stripes. wound chevrons, which
means that he has been wounded FIVE
times.
Several Of the wounds were Of such
a character that he was absolutely shot
up: ne has lost one arm, and a man of
less determination and force could never
have survived. The French call him
Tres soldat.' every inch soldier. He is
a man OF such determination and force
that in any German drive against his
troops his men will be inspired by his
presence to die where they are. =
Along the Marine between Chateau
Thierry and Rheims the Germans made
an advance Of from four to Ave miles
on a twenty-three mile front. The ter
rain at that point Is very difficult,
wooded fills rising to n height of from
900 to 500 feet perhaps. This general
movement has been brought to a stand
stiil. The object OF the entire German
attack was not a great strategic object
like an advance on Paris or an advance
on the English ports.
1T plainly had for It's objective simply
the applying OF the nutcracker process
on the city of Rheims. II It were possible
Tor them to como in there and squeeze
Rheims they could force a surrender in
time. Rheims. however. as has been
Shown, is very well organized for de-
fence. Without going into details It is
organized for house to house defence and
that has been the reason why the GER
mans have not been able to get in,
Maximu~ peu.t..xsou Ma MIL,
AS soon as the German advance
along the line OF the Marine east of
Chateau Thierry had been brought to a
standstill Foch struck hard along the
western side OF the salient. The front
over which we advanced was twenty
two miles, and the maximum penetra-
ton so far reported officially has been
to depth Of ten miles At other points
there has been penetration OF seven
miles, so that We have gone forward
seven miles on a twenty-five mile front
This is the official statement OF how far
we have gone.
THE last indication we had in the
official reports was that fighting was
still in progress. and the Official reports
also indicate the capture OF guns and
prisoners in very helpful amounts
I'm this advance and opposing the
advance OF the Germans there are seven
American divisions and one regiment Of
colored troops
THE press has carried during the past
few days statements about the number
OF troops we have continued to send
over. The fact OF the matter Is that we
have passed the 100000 mark on the
second million. We have more than
1900. 900 embarked or over.
a.
Scissors has fallen. 1t Is Of course I'M
der artillery fire. Our troops have come
up to the point where they are so close
to It that the town must be heavily
bombarded. but It is perfectly evident
that the Germans have thrown into the
defence Of that line a large number OF
reserves which did not accompany them
during the original attack along the
Marne and fighting is going on very
heavily at that point.
Casualties Not Yet Known.
THE American divisions which are on
the front OF the large offensive are the
First, Second. Third. Fourth, Twenty
sixth and Twenty-eighth divisions. The
colored regiment belongs to the Ninety
third Division. The other division now
In line is the Forty-second. In tho i'm
mediate path OF the German attack and
our counter offensive are the seven divi-
s.ons I have indicated. These divisions
are not operating as a corps. but are
used wherever It Is necessary for US to
use them.
we have nothing to indicate how
costly our casualty lists are. No re-
ports on casualties have come in and
We do not know yet what 1t will cost us
Il can give no information as to the
number Of prisoners because the only
reports we have refer to prisoners which
we're captured by French corps In which
American divisions were operating, and
no disassociation was made in the re-
ports. but as far as I can judge they
followed quite closely the newspaper
accounts.
Taking the salient as II stands. one