Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1918 — 16,000 TAKEN IS HUN CLAIM [ARTICLE]

16,000 TAKEN IS HUN CLAIM

TEUTONS LAUNCH CONCENTRATED ATTACK ALONG ' 50 MILE FRONT, In a battle that has rivalled in ferocity any that has preceded it during three and a half years of warfare, the British on a fifty-mile front hate withstood a grdht German offensive in its initial stages. At some points the British line has bent back, but not as much as had been expected by military experts acquainted with the forces the Germans had brought up and <he power of the guns they had relied upon behind tiie lines. As the result of the struggle, on that part of the front just west of Cambrai, where the fighting was apparently hottest, the British line has nowhere been broken, and Field Marshal Haig’s men have inflicted frightful casualties on the enemy.' * As an indication of the sanguinary nature of the fighting the Berlin foreign office states that 16,000 men and 200 guns have been captured. This may be compared to the British losses in the German counter offensive of December 14, 1917, when 6,000 men and 100 guns were captured.

The first reports of infantry fighting were indicative of an attempt on the part of the Germans to drive wedges into both sides of the Cambrai salient, isolate the British troops further east and regain the Hindenburg line from which they were driven on November 22, 1917, by General Byng’s sudden blow. Subsequent dispatches have proved that this was indeed the, plan of the German general staff. The fighting on the rest of the fifty mile front was but a side issue to thp terrific onslaugh aimed at Gauche wood and Lagnicourt, the south and noyth bases of the salient. There is no data upon which it is possible to estimate the success attained by the Germans to the south, but names of towns where the armies were battling on Friday show that on the northern side of the salient the Germans bent the British line back about two and a half miles. It was reported that St. Leger was the scene of a hard struggle and that Doignies had been retaken by the British. These points are about fouy kilometres or 2.48 fiiiles back of the British lines as they stood before the attack began. Berlin claims that British first line positions from Arras to Lafere were captured. The concentration of men and artillery on the British front as shown in official fronts demonstrations that the Germans are making a determined effort to smash the British front. Forty divisions or about 400,000 Teutonic troops are in the fight. The total number of cannon the Germans are employing cannot be estimated, but unofficial reports say that there were 1,000 guns on one small sector. Austrian and Bulgarian troops have made their appearance on the British front. The attack was launched under the eyes of Emperor William, Field Marshal von Hindenburg and General Lurendorff, the three guiding spirits of the German war machine. The French report fighting in various sectors especially in Champagne and Lorraine.