Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1918-10-04
important Railway Base in Elan.
ders Has Been Taken From
& Germans.
SIXTH BATTLE RAGING
French, American, British and Belgian
Armies Are Striking Vital Blows
at Foe from verdun 70
r. the Sea.

London, Oct. 1.-The Belgians have
captured Roulers, the important Ger
man rail base in Flanders, the British
are lighting their way through the
streets of Cambria, the French and
Americans and other British armies
are striking vital blows on various
other fronts, and the whole German
line in France, from ,Verdun to the
sea, q distance of 25O miles, Is rap
idly crumbling In the greatest battle
Of the ages.
Striking east in their offensive be-
tween Ypres and Dixmude. the armies
Of King Albert surrounded and quick
" forced Roulers to capitulate. This
is vital blow at the enemy. Roulers
is q railway junction point which was
highly important for the maintenance
Of his submarine bases at Ostend and
Zeebrugge as well as his whole Bel
gian Flanders line. VS..
Making the sixth battle front, the
French launched an attack between
the 'vesle and the Aisne rivers. west
Of Rheims. A considerable advance
was attained on seven and half
mile front.
81. Yanks and PoiIus Set Trap.
Steady hammering by General Man
gins armies have already reclaimed
more than half of the famous heights
of the Chemin-des.Dames for the
French. The Germans, retiring from
these positions, are giving up i'm
portant defenses before Laon. The
new attack of General Berthelot be-
tween the Vesle and the Aisne adds
to the difficulties Of the enemy along
the Aisne.
General Hunter Liggett's First army
Of Americans, after having CONSOLE
dated its positions between the Mouse
and the Argonne forest, again is IRE
sistibly forging ahead,
The French west of the Argonne
have practically reached Monthois,
from which they look eastward across
the valley of the sAire toward Grand
pre-. 1t appears that the Americans
and French not only apparently are
going to clear the whole Arxonne Of
the boches, but are. likely to trap, q
considerable part. OF the German ar
mics who must retreat by way of the
Aire valley. Bro
The French are only seven miles
from Vouziers, the German rail juno.
ton through which their lines in the
Argonne and the region northeast of
Verdun are fed. General Gouraud has
advanced his whole line in the Cham.
payne, taking several villages.
The Germans continue to throw
their rapidly dwindling reserves into
the battle opposite the Americans and
French in the Champagne. but the ad.
vance Of the Yankees and the Poilus
is unceasing, despite the tremendous
obstacles which the ingenuity of the
enemy has devised. Thus battling on.
ward the Americans have passed
through miles Of trenches and barbed
wire and have the Kreimhilde line,
the Germans mightiest defenses-un.
der range Of their artillery.
British Make Great Advances.
In Belgium, as on the Cambrai-St.
Quentin line, where Americans are CO.
operating with distinguished success,
the armies of Field Marshal Haig are
sweeping onward.
The British made q big advance and
captured Gheluwe, which puts them
only two miles. outside the Belgian
railroad junction Of Menin.
The German omcial communication
admits Withdrawals from their posi-
tons east of Dixmude and other
points in Belgian Flanders, as we'll as
from the Wytchaete salient.