The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-10-03
TERRIFIC BLOWSBY ALLIES
TITANIC OFFENSIVE FROM YER
DUN TO NORTH SEA.
With Hindenburg Lines Shattered in
Several Places Enemy Faces Most
Critical Situation in 4 Years.

Washington, Sept. 29.-Contiued
and increasing pressure by Marshal
Foch along virtually the whole West
ern front from Verdun to the North
Sea has brought the Germans face
to face with a critical situation in the
opinion of observers here. With the
enemy main defense position-the
Hindenburg lines-shattered in sew
eral places, his secondary line to the
east, the Kreimhild position pune
tured, and his own official reports ad-
mitting withdrawal on all fronts,
there is growing possibility, it is
thought, of serious disaster.
French troops are over the Chemin-
des-Dames barriers on a wide front
and as they are now pressing on the
flank of the retreating Germans, the
situation appears to observers as the
most critical. The collapse of the
whole Laon bastion on which the vast
Hindenburg line hangs for support
was believed to be foreshadowed.
Farther north, British, Belgian and
American troops are smashing
through interviewer trench systems
and across canals and other naturally
strong positions at rate that show
ed the desperate straits of the enemy
to find men to meet the drive. No
hedlp for Laon can be looked for
from that direction.
To the west, General Pershing's
first army apparently has broken the
new Kreimhild line with the capture
of Bomagne. The Hindenburg posi-
ton already is behind the Americans
on their whole front and to their left
the French also have swept over the
enemy defenses on wide sector.
An examination of the map tonight
showed that the Hindenburg lines
have been smashed in at least six diff
ferent places. There seemed to be no
possibility that the enemy could cling
to the fragments that remained for
more than a matter of hours. Cam
brai, st. Quentin, La Fere, St. Gobian
forest, it seemed, might be engulfed
by the tide of allied and American
soldiers at any moment, although it
may prove necessary to pass them
for later occupation as 1t has been
the German parctice to fill evacuated
towns full of gas.
While the center of immediate at
tention was the French sweep to-
wards Laon, now in plain sight of
General Mangin's men who have
cleared the wide plateau on the west
ern end of the Chemin-des-Dames and
hurled the enemy down through the
valley beyond, of even deeper signifi-
canoe is the continued swift progress
OF Pershing's forces along the heights
of the Meuse and on wide front to
the westward of the river. To most
observers, this thrust has the great
est potential menace for the enemy
and the whole titanic offensive now
raging from Verdun to the North
Sea is viewed as a single battle in
which the Americans on the right are
relied upon to carry forward threat
of such a nature that the enemy dare
not linger in intermediate defense
positions, but must make all haste
back to the Belgian border or face
the encirclement of a large portion
of his forces.
The probable immediate effort of
the enemy, it was suggested, would
be to get back his forces on the north
to the first of the series of secondary
defense positions he is known to have
been building since Marshal Foch
launched the surprise attack in the
Marne salient in July. The mainte-
nance of that line, however, will de-
pend on developments both north and
south of it's known extent and the be-
lief here is that there is no position
short of the Belgian border that could
be relied on certainly to block the
wide flanking movement indicated by
General Pershing's swift advance.
From every angle, the German
high command appears to be faced
with possibilities of crushing disast-
ers. If, as is thought, they have al
ready ordered general withdrawal,
the slightest hitch would mean Sec
ton of the army cut off, with break
through likely at any weak point.