Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-10
COBAIN NOW
GOALOF FRENCH
Great Crescent Massif Is
= Cornerstone of German
Line
ALLIES REACH EDGE
French Have Conquered In.
-tervening Points by Light
ming Strokes
By C.. H. PERRIS
Special Cable TO Epening Public Ledge

u
4 Copyright, 1918. by Ne,o York Times Co.
With the French Army, Sept. 10.
have been considering at a respect
full distance the southwestern corner
Of the Hindenburg line. There are
several high points on the west side
of the Ailette Valley from which one
has a magnificent panorama of the
mountain block of Coucy and st. Go
balm, near the slopes of which the
2 French lines now stretch with the
Hindenburg system Immediately be-
fore them.
Il The formidable character of this
Y massif is due to its shape in relation
to the direction in which the armies
are moving. From southwest to north
east 1t is like a crescent, with a tongue
I inside the horns, and the junction
Z of the Disc and the Ailette.
The crescent of heights runs from
Amlgny-Rouy on the north by Hill l55
4 to st Gobain village, continues south.
east to the highest point of Hill 22O
which is the heart of the upper Coucy
: forest, and then sweeps around to the
southwest in a long ridge extending
From Bassoles and Aulers to Coucy-le.
Chateau. The central tongue comes
out from Fresnes westward to Folem.
bray.
Will Shame Germany
When the French first recovered
Coucy last year l described how this
splendid historic monument, its tower
( ing walls and donjon and buildings
within had been blown up by the re-
treating boche on the excuse of de-
priving us of a useful observatory.
The village behind it is still flooded
with poison gas and l could not enter
1t. Besides, our interest lies beyond.
Across this ridge you see plainly the
higher tongue of the bare slopes reach.
ing west from Fresnes to Folembray.
Beyond Fresnes, closing the horizon
with an olive green eXpanSe of forest.
rises the half moon of the St. Gobain
and Coucy crests. The French in the
last few days have driven the enemy
back across all the difficult fore.
ground of the picture to the front
SAS-E -
Vauxalillon.
Beyond Last Years Line
said the Germans had been beaten
back from the advanced defenses of
the ST. Gobain massif in the last week.
There was never any question OF
voluntary retirement in this region.
General Mangin has swept them back
Ix miles, despite their desperate
resistance on ground highly favorable
to defense.
northern horn of the crescent. We
hold nearly all the intermediate
Z tongue. and on the south horn we
have got beyond last years line and
impinged upon Hindenburg's works at
Bassoles-Aulers. and it has taken US
not slow months. but a single week
to accomplish this much.
1t is the same old story at L.affauX,
at Fort Conde, on the Aisne and
at many other points of the old battle.
fields. Marshal Foch keeps his own
counsel, and I speak only of what is
evident to the close student. The
heathen deities recalled by the German
Staff to frighten the allied world and
inspirit their own hungry folk are
losing their short.lived terrors. 1t is
not only in numbers that the Allies
are gaining strength, but in mechan
ism and the technique of its use,
tactical resource, and in moral will
: which is an ever-vital condition OF
I Victory