VON KLUCK THROWN BACK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 136, 2 November 1914, Page 6

VON KLUCK THROWN BACK.

On Monday nighj the army of Geaeral von Kluek then had been thrown back from the Qurcq, from the Manic, and from the Grand Morin—that is to say, from the region of Meaux to the region of Sezanne. The position was serious, and immediate steps were necessary to save the line of communications and of retreat. To this end reinforcements were hurried north to the Meaux district and to the Ourcq, and a tremendous effort made to .break up the French resistance in this quarter. For Meaux is to Paris as, Reading is to London. It* was ■by this way that an avenue was to be opened up to the capital. The second attempt on the Ourcq shared the fate of the first. Though all night and well on into Tuesday the great German guns boomed along this river, the resistance of the Allies could not be broken. "To hold" was the command. Every man braced himself to obey. While the. Ourcq was being held, the struggle at La. Forte Gaudier and Sezanne was bearing splendid fruit. The German resistance on this Tuesday morning was broken. I had the news in tw« ways—the cannon were silent, the wounded poured down to the baseswounded men no longer down-hearted, but full of spirit, eager to be back to the fray. "Their army is in full retreat; they have crossed the river; they have left La Forte Gaucher; they are rushing back ■home" —so the good story ran. And from every French lip there was a generous addendum to it —"And your compatriots—they have, fought like lions. They have smashed the Germans. Nothing can withstand them." Certainly that fight from the Grand Morin northwards to lite Marne was and is an achievement to be proud of. The Germans fought well, but they were outclassed and out-manoeuvred. '''They were hurled.back across the fields to La j Ferte-sous-Jouarre, Charly, Chateau | Thierry, and north towards the region of Compiegne and'Soissons. The tremendous attack of the Allies along the Ourcq on Tuesday is the keynote to theso doings of Wednesday. It was this terrific attack which suddenly showed the German commander that his lines of communication were threatened, and which, in company with the splendid stand of his enemy at Sezanne, caused him to retreat with all haste in a northerly direction. Now came the crowning stroke. The army of the Ourcq and of -Meaux and the army of Sezanne drew together like the blades of a pair of scissors,' the pivot of which was in the region of the Grand Morin. The German retreat was thus forced towards the east, and speedily became a rout. England scarcely realises as yet what Wednesday and Thursday have achieved, alike in breaking up the enemy and in heartening our troops. Guns, ammunition, hospital stores and thousands of prisoners have been taken. The tactics of Mons and Charleroi are justified to the hilt.