New-York tribune. [volume], August 18, 1918, Image 33

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PART V EIGHT PAGES
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 1918
PART V EIGHT PAGES
HOW THEY RUN!
The Sad Plight of a Superman
?From The New York World.
IF George M. Cohan is to get the
credit for discovering that gun
rhymes with run, then several
hundred thousand of his country- j
men over in Europe share the honor of j
discovering at first hand that both words
rhyme with Hun. I
For the Ger?
mans are really ?
on the run.
It may be a
mere coincidence
that their Berlin
ward sprint began
with the crack of
an American gun,
and then again it
may not be a
coincidence. But
the important point is that the Boche
seems to be moving his watch back to
the Rhine.
"The Crown Prince," in the words of
one commentator, "instead of following
his nose, seems to be following his re?
tiring chin."
And the scrappy Yanks and their -
comrades are following the "invincible"
Germans at a pace that is setting new
records in the four-year marathon.
In his review of the military situa?
tion, General Peyton C. March, chief of
staff of the American armies, said that
Ifanhal Foch has the enemy on the run.
Marshal Foch, according to General
March, is working on the sound princi?
ple "that when you get an enemy going j
you keep him going; never give him a i
chance to recuperate or think it over;
keep on hitting him."
Observers agree that the enemy is
really going at a pace that exceeds any
of his previous movements. In a dis?
patch to "The New York Sun" Gerald
Campbell describes it thus:
"For the fourth time, without reckoning ?
the innumerable ripples and eddies along
the shore line, the great tide of battle is
sweeping across the same tract of France's
?oil. But this time there is a difference.
*h? tide is rushing out faster and more
irresiEtibly than it ever came in.
"So far, while both the ebb and flow
w the battle tide have been governed by
the immutable law 'So far and no further,'
the inward flow has been swifter than the
*bb. Twice the enemy almost overwhelmed
"Die Wacht mm Rhein"
*?Frpm The Knickerbocker Prtt?.
VLB, and twice in pushing him back we
seemed to be working uphill.
"This time it is not too much to believe
?the spring flood of our hopes will sweep
the enemy back to his proper frontier.
"Each hour blow follows blow as Marshal
Foch and the British generals working with
him keep after the enemy, giving him no
breathing spell. We need talk no more of
counter offensives, for the initiative is now
in our hands."
When ^the tanks, both the large ones
and the "whippets," began clearing the
way for infantry action there was the
greatest confusion among the disorgan?
ized Germans. Percival Phillips, after
long service as correspondent with the
British armies, says he had seen noth?
ing like it previously. He cabled this
version to "The New York Herald":
"Never have I seen more striking evidence
of dismay and disorganization among a
surprised enemy than on the battlefield I
visited this morning. The story of the
headlong flight before tanks and armored
cars, with infantry advancing in their wake
with dreadful deliberation, is written plain
on the Plateau of Santcrre, beyond our old
front line.
"From the forward machine gun nests to
the snug headquarters of the 11th German
Corps at Framervllle the fugitives left a
trail of d?briB and booty dropped pellmell
in their wild desire to reach the Somme.
Deserted batteries confront you at the edge
of ruined villages, and some of the fields
are dotted with documents strewn hap
hazard by the fleeing staffs.
"I passed through eight miles of re?
claimed country and four villages which
Germans held until yesterday morning, and
every yard of this interesting journey re?
vealed fresh proof of the consternation of
the enemy and the inability to check the
panic among his troops.
"Here and there a German lay where ho
fell, staring at the flow of khaki with
astonished eyes. In lairs they used as
living places were bits of mouldy bread
prepared for breakfast when the tanks
rolled up the wire. Along the level high?
way one passes the gaunt skeleton of a
British aerodrome, tangled wisps of rusty
iron and crumpled fragments of the hut
encampment which we abandoned and then
shelled until no German dared show his
face above the level of the grass."
An Associated Press dispatch gives a
vivid picture of a frightened German
general running up a road, pursued by
a British "whippet" tank:
"Where the tanks and the armored car
batteries pressed far forward in the rolling
country there was much agitation among
the enemy. A report came back that a
British tank, probably one of the fast little
whippets, had been seen chHsing a frightened
German general up the road. But the enemy
general was not pilone in the direction in
which he was going. Observera reported
considerable columns of enemy transport
going eastward in a hurry during the middle
of the day."
The magnificent work of the tanks
against enemy machine guns was illus?
trated at a gmaU town ?outh ol th?
Look Out, He Has Tasted B^ood!
?From The Baltimore Sun.
Amiens-Roye road, where the advanc- ;
ing French infantrymen were delayed
by machine gun fire. According to an?
other Associated Press dispatch:
"Five ponderous, armored monsters went
over and rolled directly into the place
Their crews discovered that the houses
were crowded with Germans manning ma?
chine guns, principally from second story
windows. One tank leisurely advanced upon
a house while a hail of bullets splashed
off its metal hide. After reconnoitring at
close range, the tank backed oft* and charged
home. Its great weight crushed in the
whole building, and it continued forward
until the structure was flattened out with
the enemy machine gunners thoroughly
effaced.
"After this success the four companion
tanks engaged serious groups of the enemy
and the house-wrecking machine proceeded
to roll down and flatten nine other houses.
This tank literally crushed the entire vil?
lage and all the enemy within."
Further testimony as to the headlong
flight of the Germans is furnished by
"The New York Sun":
"The tanks and cavalry had gone still
further and were having a merry time along
roads blocked by great masses of retreating
Germans. These advanced patrols rounded
up prisoners and obliterated machine gun
nests and even captured two batteries of
artillery.
"These batteries were so thoroughly sur?
prised that they and their servants were
made prisoners in their shelters. Little
wicker baskets filled with supplies for
breakfast were found in the shelters. Still
another indication of the rapidity of the
advance was seen in the unmarked condi
' tion of large stretches of the country over
which the French moved up. So precipitate
was the German retreat that they did not
wait to fire a gun."
A French officer is quoted by Pau
Scott Mower in his dispatch to "Th<
Chicago Daily News" as saying:
"The reconquered ground is strewn lit
Our Collector Will Call at Berlin
?From The Columbva Dispatch.
erally everywhere with stacks of German
cartridge boxes, trench mortars and other
materials. The dugouts and posts of com?
mand contain clothing, boots and half-writ
i
ten letters. Everything proves the disorder !
in which the enemy retreated.
"Some officers were even soundly sleep?
ing in their dugouts a couple of kilometres
(one and a quarter miles) behind the lines
when our infantry arrived. At Ressons-sur
Metz I saw an immense store of grenades |
of all sorts, also rockets, papers, handbags, j
paper bandages, cartridge boxes and ma- I
chine gun bands."
Nor were the'tanks the only disor
ganizing force. Cavalry got into action
on a scale previously unknown, with the
following results, as reported by Joseph i
W. Grigs to "The New York World" :
"At no time since the earliest days of |
the war has so much cavalry been used, \
nor so successfully, and to a squadron of
this division lies the credit of having per- i
formed a real Wild West train hold-up j
! which resulted in the capture of nearly 400 '
Germans returning from leave.
"They had heard the heavy gunfire, but
had no inkling their lines had been pierced.
When they reached that part of the road
between Harbonnieres and Vauvillers a
daring British airman dropped a bomb on
their train, bringing it to a standstill. Be?
fore they could get under way again a
squadron of British cavalry rushed up and
surrounded it, demanding its surrender,
whereupon Boche prisoners soon started on
the next lap of their journey under cavalry
escort to a British prison camp."
The cavalrymen went after the Ger?
mans like hounds in a chase, according
to "The New York Sun" correspondent:
"Our cavalry was held up at Marcolave
by machine guns, so the horsemen with?
drew until a fleet of small tanks could be
called into action. These rambled into the
town and made short work of the machine
gunners and snipers. When the Germans
saw the tanks coming they scooted out of
the houses and tried to escape across the
open country.
"Our cavalrymen, noting this, leaped their
horses over the fences and were on them
like hounds in a chase, sabering the panic
stricken Germans right and left. Seven
hundred prisoners were taken by the horse?
men."
And then the Allied airmen swooped
down with their machine-gun fire. Jo?
seph W. Grigg describes their part in
"The New York World":
"Chasing the enemy troops by airplane
was one of the most common diversions
and wrought havoc among the fleeing enemy
detachments. Seeing British troops at one
point held up by a strong enemy party in
a trench with machine guns, another air?
man routed the whole lot with fire and
scattered bodies all over the field as the
enemy fled precipitately. Four hundred of
the enemy retreated to a gulch, hoping to
hold it with rifle and machine gun fire, but
the airmen swooped dov/n upon it and from
a height of fifty feet slaughtered the Ger
A Map That Needs No Explanation
Looking for a Strategic Line
?From The New York Evening Post.
mans with bombs and machine gun fire
At another place 100 of the enemy sur?
rendered to a small party of British in?
fantry. When they realized that it would
be impossible for any of them to get out.
alive under such a rain of bullets they
capitulated forthwith."
"The varied achievements of the avi?
ators is suggested by the following dis?
patch to "The New York Herald" from
Percival Phillips:
?
"The airmen have scored many sensa?
tional successes since the beginning of the
advance. They have pursued anti-tank
guns, shot down crews, attacked trains
bringing fresh troops toward the broken
line, circling around them at fifty feet and
firing into the windows of cars on both
sides, chased teams of horses drawing ob?
servation balloons out of danger and killed
them all, including machine gun men and
the occupants of staff cars coming forward
to try to investigate the situation. Some
of these staff officers as well as ordinary
infantry of the line marching away from
in front of the Australians and Canadians
must have had a horrible time avoiding
the machine guns in the air."
And then the airmen returned to re?
port what they had observed. Perry !
Robinson writes to "The New York j
Sun" about them :
"With tho rapidity of our advance the
first day something like panic seems to
have set in back of the enemy lines. Scenes
of the utmost confusion were noted by our
aviators, who reported that men and
vehicles were streaming over the roads in
a wild mass, the soldiers throwing away
their rifles and all equipment in their hurry
to reach safety. Even their wounded were
left behind. German orders which we in?
tercepted show that confusion ruled even
in the minds of the commanding officers." j
Writing of the work of the armored
cars, the same correspondent said:
"The crew of one car said they met a '
German transport which tried to turn
around to escape. Four mounted officers
came galloping up to see what had hap
pened iind all were shot from the car, which !
then proceeded to round up the personnel :
of the transport. At several places our
armored cars overtook both mechanical and
horse drawn transport along the roads, and
after shooting the horses took the men
prisoner. At one place the crews of the
armored cars stopped a railway train and
jet it afire. At another place the cars
irove through a village, where the soldiers
were still asleep, unaware of danger. The
car drove through, shooting into windows.
In one house officers were just preparing
to sit down to breakfast, but their meal
was Interrupted by a hail of bullets."
With the enemy retreating, specula?
tion arises as to how far he will be
forced to go. "The New York Mail"
observe*:
"It would not' be too much to say at ',
this stage of the operation that if Allied
victories on the Marne closed Germany'?
road to Parla, the victories in 1'icardy ?re j
openinp the Allies' road to the Rhine. How
much further that road will lead, ?>ven to*
Berlin, is a subject for hopeful specula?
tion."
"The New York Evening World"
thinks there are scant hopes that the
Kaiser's warriors can continue to keep
215 miles between the Allies und the
Rhine:
"The nearest point of the Allied battlo
front to the Rhine lies about the junction
of the bit of Belgium still free with that
part in German hands. It is 215 miles from
the Rhine.
"During the four years of war the test
of strength has seesawed backward and
forward over a range of about sixty miles,
with the Grrman3 now fast retreating to
the outermost line held by them.
"The German Emperor has made, his chief
bid for the support of his people on-the
fact that no fighting has taken place on
German soil, the slight invasion of Alsace
not counting in his claim. It would be a
living lesson could Germany be made to
endure some of the cruel sufTerinpr she has
caused the innocent, people of France. A
German force which has been beaten with
such celerity during the past month could
hardly endure to reach the Rhine, or, if
it did, would be in pretty poor fighting shape
when it arrived.
"It is neither absurd nor impossible, how?
ever, to imagine a retreat of such magni?
tude. The great Napoleon once made a
longer one, and brought back but one-twen?
tieth of his 'irrand army.'"
The New York Tribune has struck
the popular chord of American opinion.
As its "unmilitary expert" observed in
an editorial which has been widely re?
printed :
"Plain unmilitary Americans with never
a square inch of khaki in their wardrobes
and not a smidge of Napoleon's wisdom at
their tongue's end are out to cheer and
celebrate a battle that speaks for itself.
"Whether there are pincers to snap or
salients to be squeezed we do not give
a hoot. The most exposed flank in the
world leaves us cold as cold." The Allies
are licking the tar oat of the Boches, the
Allies are going forward as fast as tanks
can take them, and the Germans are going
back, back, back. For us, the Allies, hip,
hip, hooray!
"The objective11 We know and we'll tel!
which is more than most experts" will
take a chance on doing.
"The objective is Berlin!"
Wading Home
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