Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-09-08
They Enjoy Small |Leeway In Vermand Region and
 St. Quentin; This is All
EVERY PLACE ELSE
 CLOSE TO OLD LINE,
Enemy Has Been Obliged to Hasten Retreat in Somme
 and Peronne Sector.
(By The Associated.)

Paris, Sept 7.-The allied troops are continuing to kaep the Germans on the run and as result of yester- days operations have pushed them nearly back to the positions they oc- I'cupied March 21 when the first big enemy offensive of the year was launched. The Germans still enjoy 8 little leeway in the Vermand region and before St. Quentin but elsewhere they are extremely close to if not ac- tually in their old lines.
 The rupture of the right hand hinge of the German line at Peronne was an akward blow for the enemy but as long a.. the left hand hinge held on the SoissOns pleateau he could play fo time by piNoting around it and clinging to a temporary line on the heights between the Disc and the Son1l.e. The moment that General N"ngin knocked down the defense oi the Ailette however, that makeshift combination became impossible, for tho range of hills on the Oise-Somme front was turned on the side of Chau- ny and Tergnier.
 Then the enemy was obliged to
 
 similar problem adopted by von Hin denburg in the winter of 1917-a re- tirement to the half finished canal on the front ofrom St. Quentin to Cam brai and the line of the Canal du Nord and he lost no time in eXecut- ing his plan.
 The French progress yesterday in following up the eneIly was rapid, as troops may be seen from the fact that the troops engaged on the Disc at ApDilly, more than six miles south east orf Guiscard moved northeast ward to Viry-Noureuil, the extreme point reached on the Disc yesterday by the allies, which accounts for the advance of ten kilometres mentioned in last nights French communique.
 The enemy also was obliged to hasten his retreat in the sector of the Somme between Ham and Peron- ne. The British progressed southward along the Peronne-Ham road toward Athies. At the same time General Debeny's troops which had crossed the river at Epenancourt obtained a footing on the highway and finally captured the heights of Voyennes and Offoy, breaking the line. A general retreat in the direction of Vermand and St. Quentiun became inevitable for the enemy as did the abandon ment of Ham which was outflanked on the north and south, the latter by General Humbert's advance north of the Disc.
 The progress realized in the St. Gobain region south of the river by General Mangin's left had the same consequences for Chauny.
 The giving up without a blow on have been bitter pill for the Ger man staff, for it's is considered un- likely that the methodical retreat. called for the complete abandonment of these two positions, the one of which constituted bridgehead on the reverse side of the St. Quentin range of hills -Adld the other stood as an outer defense of St. Quentin.
 The midday communique from the war office today was welcomed as one of the finest of the recent en- couraging series, as it showed that General Mangin had taken another bite out of the Hindenburg line. He did this by capturing Barisis, of which the allies only occupied the out skirts at the furtherest point of their 1917 advance.
 The inroad upon the cid line was further emphasized by the capture of Aulers and Bassoles- -Aulers, which the Germans had held since 1914.