WEST FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 October 1918, Page 6

WEST FRONT.

I SEAT 'ALTERATION IN .WHOLE SITUATION. ERMANS IN DANGER AT ALL. POINTS. LONDON, Oct 12. A great alteration in the whole bass : the West front is now in progress. ie German army is definitely fall-, g back. It is difficult to say where e movement will end. The British Lve advanced towards pouai. They Lve passed the Drocourt-Queant ie and reached the Lens-Douai railay in the heighbournbod of Beauont and Quierry la Motte. More irthward, they have reached Henin iefcard on the Douai-Carvin road. The Lemy will probably take up a posion in front of Douai. We have capred St. Aubert, more to the soutnard, and are now within less than sven miles from the German lateral unmunication railway, Lille-Valen-ennes-Hirson, which is the main unk line behind the whole German •ont. : Its severance means throwing ack all .the . enemy communications ad gravely endangering everything orthward of Valenciennes, especially ie Lille salient. More to the southward, along the whole front between he Soissons-Laon road and Grandpra half-way between Rheims and V<er,un) the enemy is retreating. The ' 'ranco-Italians are closely pursuing, 'he-enemy's hold on the Chemin des )ames is slackening hourly. More to he eastward the French crossed the Juippe at several places and they adranced from four to five miles. They lave, captured Mauhult and the ensmy is falling back in the direction or Jouzieres to a line behind the Aisne. Reuter's correspondent at Frencn headquarters, writing at midnight on the 11th, says: General Gouraud's army, which was checked for days by desperate resistance, made a most important advance across the Suippe asmost everywhere on the whole twenty- I mile front. The Germans are making unmistakable preparations for further xetreat. The advance in eastern Cham- ! pagne is even more rapid. Between the Aisne and the Oise the enemy's retirement has been unexpectedly] slow. The Germans' position in tne ■ I.aon salient is most precarious, the j Anglo-French having cut the main lines. General Mangin*s army "nevertheless is meeting with considerable resistance. The rate of advance has teen prudent. Debeney's army has prisonered 4000 during the last ten days, all being small bodies. comprising garrisons of concreted centres or resistance in the Hindenburg Line. A message despatched this afternoon states that the Germans are retreating rapidly on three sectors. The most pronounced is in Champagne. The French advanced considerably l»eyond Vouzieres, practically unopposed. WHAT CAN THE ENEMY DO? LONDON, Oct 12. News from the West front emphasises the enemy's difficulties. Our latest advance has turned the Hindenburg Line. The enemy's next lino of. retreat is roughly behind the SerreSlssonn barrier switch line. The British are now well, in the rear of the Hunding Line. The enemy will certainly evacuate the St. Gobain massif immediately. He will also be compelled to straighten out the line between Lille and the Scarpe. It is difficult to inow exactly how the enemy will join up these two lines. It depends on what the Allies ha"ve in store. The enemy's days of retirement according fo plan are past now. He is evacuating Chemin des Dames. The FrancbAmerican forces have joined hancrs north of the Argonne in the Grandpr*? gap.