Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-05-27
OUR MEN FACE
GERMAN WEDGE !.
BEFORE AM|ENS
Help French in Defending
Positions Which Bar !.
Way to Paris.
ENEMY BOMBARDS BRITISH
LINES WEST OF HINGES
Haig's Soldiers Conduct Success
full Raids at Several Diff
ferent Points.
REPULSE ATTACKS OF TEUTONS
Berlin Report May Indicate That
Big Blow Will Be Delivered
on Belgian Front. III.
REPULSE ATTACKS OF TEUToNs

LONDON. May 26.-The outsta nding
piece OF news in Sundays official re-
ports. all of which show the armies in
the west. as boiling up for the big
battle, is the claim, contained in Ber-
Inns day communique. that Americans
were captured west OF Montdidier.''
1t shows that Pershings units. which
for some time have been known to be
on the Picardy front. are squarely face
TO face with the spearhead of the Ger
man wedge threatening Amiens, and
that when the next blow is struck by
HindenburS toward that great allied
base. American troops will be in the
thick OF Armageddon's third-perhaps
final-round.
1t is square head. not a pointed
one this "spearhead" of the German
Picardy wedge. 1t cannot plunge for
ward and cut into the allies line like
a thin-pointed knife. 1t must shove
itself westward along the whole OF
Its nineteen-mile front. which pivots in
the south on Montdidier. and in tho
north on Corbie. The allied lines west
of Montdidier bar the Teutons' way, to
Paris as we'll as to Amiens. so that
the American troops there. shoulder
to shoulder with the French. are hold
ing at once the hinge and axle of the
allied defense in impending battle.
BoCHEs SHOW GREATER .>l
ACTIVITY IN MAKING RAIDS
AS for the developments Of the last
twenty-four hours. they may be sun1-
married. in the term raider warfare,'
with the Teutons showing greater ac-
tivity than they have displayed Tor
leo
nous significance in Sunday nights an
nouncement by Haig that the Germans
Sunday morning carried out a heavy
gas she'll bombardment to the west OF
Hinges. This is the sector west by
north Of Festubert near the tip of the
southern leg OF the German Flanders
wedge. where the rail-sate of Bethure
is menaced. The German shelling also
has been heavy at Villers- -Bretonneu1.
nine miles east Of Amiens.
British raidinG parties were success
full Saturday night and Sunday in bag
ginG prisoners and machine guns south
OF Bucquoy halfway between Albert
and Arras), east OF Hebuterne (north
OF Albert, and south OF Neuvill. -Vai-
tasse (Arras sector).
The Germans. on their part, carried
out raids north OF Sailly-le-Sec, on
the Somme. near Bucquoy, and Abiain-
zeville (north Of Albert), and near Fcs-
tubert and Merris, in Flanders. All
these raids were repulsed
a, paragraph in the Berlin dayitre.
port. dealing with operations on tho
Belgian front. gives support to- the
theory that the next German blow
may fall on that extreme northern sec.
tor OF the western front where the
battle line rests upon the sea at Nieu-
port plausible strategy for the
Germans. 1t was suggested, would be-
to swing their main shock forces north
ward by means of their excellent
lateral railway system. in the eleventh
hour and make their chief thrust there
with a view to turning the British
lines. a the same time feintinx with
major attacks in Picardy and Elan
ders e,.lz
The passage referred to tells OF tha
capture OF seventy Belgians south OF
tho Nieuport canal and on both sides
OF Di1mude- German raids on the
Belgian front have been frequent OF
late. though their artillery has shown
no sign OF important intentions.
BRITISH AvIATORS CONTINUE
TO ANNOY ENEMY
The British aviators are keeping IN
their relentless harassing campaign on
the west. as the official report on ayias
ton shows. In Italy. too. they are CIV
ing splendid aid to General Diaz's
flyers. Tf7
Scrutiny Of the comments by leading
French and British military experts
upon the reasons for the delay In
the German offensive shows four main
factors speculated upon as the causes
for Hindenburg's surprising waiting
game:
l. The allied air supremacy.
2 Increasing mutinies in the Ger
man army.
8. An epidemic OF influenza among
the German forces.
4. Discord among the Teuton alliea.
Germany waiting impaticntly, but 90
far Vainly. for Austrian cooperation.
Even the Germans at home, preyis
ously adopting the tactics OF sneerinE
at the Americans. now are beeominY
aware of their strength and virility.
No less an authority than tho sersi-
oficial North German Gazette 70 ys.
marking on the maturing Americas,