SUCCESSFUL ATTACK AT MONTDIDIER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 263, 25 July 1918, Page 7

SUCCESSFUL ATTACK AT MONTDIDIER

SEVERAL VILLAGES CAPTURED

ENEMf PREPARES FOR RETREAT

PLANS FOR BLOW AT THE ■ BRITISH

To-day's dispatches from the Western front indicate a new development in the situation. Tho French have opened a new offensive movement on a four-mile front at Montdidier, and captured eevernl villages. In all tho references except the French official communiquo tho attack is described as a "now offensive," Tho French official report merely describes tho operation as a local attack. Whatever the objective it is another evidence of the fact that Foch now has the initiative. There aro many indications in the dispatches of the Germans' preparations for retreat, but tho enemy's resistance is increasing, giving him time to restore some semblance of order in his iongeetcd lines of communications. One dispatch states that Foch's pincers—tho flanks of tho 6alient—havo closed iu to tho extent that 100,000 Germans are pinned in a narrow passage of seven miles in which to manoeuvre and bring up supplies, Taking the situation as a whole, however, tho public is cautioued not to expect it to develop rapidly. Eupprecht'e forces, which aro facing tho main British front, are stated to have been keyed up to the minute for an offensive, the date of which, in view of the battles in tho Champagne and their disastrous results to tho enemy, has been frequently postponed.