The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-06-11
IS GOAL
OF THE ENEMY
CAPTURE OF FRENCH CAPITAL
AMBITIOUS AIM OF THE GER
MANS LATEST ATTACK.
RHE FRENCH AND AMERICAN
FORCES FIGHTING LIKE TIGERS

Are Holding Crown Princes Armies
at Heads of the Marine, Cirque and
Aisne Valleys. A Week of San
culinary Fighting.
With tiger-like ferocity the battle
for Paris has been raging two weeks
40 miles northeast of the French cap
ital. French, Americans and Ger
mans have been locked in one of the
most sanguinary struggles of the war
in the valleys of the Marine, the
Oroue and the Aisne rivers, down
which the Germans are attempting
to hack their way to the French me-
tropolis. Having definitely commit
ed themselves to the Champagne
drive as a major offensive, the Ger
man commanders have been hurting
their massed reserves at the allied
lines blocking the way to Paris, seek
ing by mere weight of numbers to
crush all opposition. But the French
reserves, aided by large forces of
American troops, have been fighting
with the desperation which made
them famous at Verdun, and the bat
tie has degenerated from a sweeping
advance into a number of smaller
battles for local positions, some of
which have changed hands a dozen
times during the last few days.
Line Nearly Stabilized.
There may be further small re-
treats or advances by both armies,
but the opposing forces are now too
nearly equal in strength for any
sweeping change in positions. The
Germans have been hurting reserve
division after reserve division into
the struggle, until it is estimated that
So divisions-more than 100000
troops-have been used by the crown
prince during the last two weeks. But
the allied reserves also have been
coming up in strength to the line all
the past week.
British troops, except the four di-
visions fighting around Rheims, have
not been engaged in the present bat
tie. 1t has been the French army,
with the assistance of the Americans,
that has stemmed the tide which, two
weeks ago, set in so strongly towards
Paris. American troops, perhaps in
organizations as large as divisions
the American divisions numbers 81
600 men-have been in the thickest
of the bloody struggle for several
days.
German Strategy Revealed.
1t is evident, from the turn the
crown princes attack on the French
is taking, that the Germans began
the drive with the ambitious plan to
occupy Paris. The Germans reached
the River Marine, &c miles from their
starting point, on the fifth day of the
battle, but instead of attempting to
cross the stream in force the direc-
ton of attack, which had been due
south, was switched west. The result
has been that virtually all the hard
fighting has been on the 40-mile line
from Noyon, on the Somme battle
field, south to the Marine river, line
which forms the western edge of the
salient driven into the French posi-
ton by the crown prince. The Ger
mans are believed to have nearly a
half million men fighting on this 40
mile line, and it was evidently the
intention of Hindenburg to cut his
way westward until the armies of the
crown prince link up with the Ger
man armies holding the tip of the
Amiens salient, a move which, if sue
cessful, would place Paris in very
precarious position. But the Ger
mans are still 80 miles short of their
goal, andn at the rate they are now
trading lives for square mile of
ground there are not enough men
IN all Germany to pay the price.