Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-09-30
GOURAUD BREAKS
ENEMY'S HOLD ON
ARG0NNE REGION
Germans Rush Up Fresh
Troops in Vain Effort to Halt
French Advance Toward
VouzierS.
By Associated Press.

With the french Army on tht
Champagne Front, Sept. 29.-Ths
battle of Champagne has greatly in
creased in violence with the arriva
of fresh German divisions. The
enemy is making strong fight te
halt the advance of Genera. Gou
raud's troops toward Vouziers.
Northwest of Bouconville. Belle
VIE and Busy farm were captured
this morning, giving the French
position which commands the I'M
portant railway junction at Challe'
range and the dehle of the Argonne
at Grand-Pre, which Domouriez in
his campaign in 1892 called the
Thermopylae of France. The
French have also taken Mount Ou'
velet, another commanding position
west of Bouconville.
With the French dominating the
western exit from the Argonne, and
the Americans advancing along the
eastern edge, one of the strategic
objects of the battle, which may be
to provoke the fall of the entire Ar
come position, is we'll advanced.
Further west fresh ground has
been gained in the region of Aube-
rive, which increases the menace to
the strong German positions on the
mounts north of the old Roman
road, lying east, from Rheims, the
Teton, Mount Cornillet, Mount
Sans-Nom and Mount Haul.
Grand-Pre Big Stake.
The possession of Grand-Pre is
one of the big stakes Of this battle.
When it falls the Germans must
make haste to get out of the Ar
gonne region. which explains the
desperate defense of its approaches
by the best forces the Germans have
available. Those taken prisoner
yesterday gave up only after most
bitter combats; they not only
fought we'll but their appearance is
far superior to that of most of the
prisoners taken in the last month.
General Mangin's forces, driving
back the enemy in the region of the
Chemin Des Danes during the
night, advanced to the Ailette river
north of Pinon forest, took Chavlg-
non and reached the Canal basin to
the southeast, where they met sharp
machine gun fire. to prevent them
from crossing.
Further south the Germans are
resisting on the line of Chapelle,
Sainte Berthe, Ostel and Chavonne.
They are relying principally on ar
tillery in this region.
With Chatterange under fire OF
the French guns, the enemys
movements OF troops will encounter
vastly increased difficulties. AS he
is short of motor transports, he has
relied mainly on railroads and has
supplemented the old French lines
with several branches since occupy
ing the region. These railroads
now are useless for all concentra-
tons of the troops south of Grand
Pre-.
Vouziers, another important cen
ter of concentration, also IS d.
rectly menaced, Gouraud's forces
being only about 10 miles away. A
little further advance will enable
them to render this junction also
useless, and the whole German sys-
tenn of communications toward the
Stenay Gap will crumble.
Display Extraordinary Courage.
French Headquarters in Cham
payne, Sept. 29.-(Reuters.) -The
Germans fought desperately to re-
tain possession of Somme-Py. They
counter-attacked repeatedly in the
teeth of French machine guns.
French tanks displayed extraor--
binary gallantry in the capture OF
tunnel which the Germans were
employing to feed reserves to the
front and which had been organized
into a regular fortress. The tanks
had to traverse a labyrinth OF
trenches under the attack OF heavy
artillery but succeeded in their dit
fcult and dangerous mission, ena-
bling the infantry to surround the
tunnel and turn the whole Somme-
Py position from the east.
Further east the heigth of Graf
reuil was captured by surprise at
tack delivered with such speed that
the garrison was surrounded before
il realized it was being attacked.
The village had to be cleared by
street fighting, however, for the Ger
mans apparently did not realize they
were surrounded.
The enemys resistance has been
intensified along the whole front as
the infantry and machine gunners
fell back upon their reserves in new
lines which, although neither so
strong naturally nor so well en-
trenched as the abandoned posi-
tons, are far more strongly held and
the problem OF piercing them is one
of the utmost difficulty.
Probably no troops ever made
such an advance as General Gour-
aud's infantry in the last two days
over such a maze of Notifications.
Five distinct trench systems were
counted in the space of thousand
yards. After the first hours Ger
man reserves began to appear.
among them at least one division OF
Prussian guards. and they counter