Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1918 — WAR SUMMARY. [ARTICLE]

WAR SUMMARY.

A British fighting retirement out of the Cambrai salient appeals to be in progress, if not nearing cmpletion. The Germans ha-*e renewed their titanic drive on the fifty-mils front, launched by fully half a miliicn picked “shock” troops, deigned to cut intothe salient’s sides and Settle up, annihilate or capture the bulk of the British for- therein!! Berlin claims the capture of 16,000 prisoners and 200 guns, as well as tremendous stores of material.

Relatively, the abandonment of the Cambrai .wedge, which was today regarded a* a foregone conclusion, a* the result of the day’s developments, brings the advantage of a straightened line and thus goes far towardKre-establishing the strategical equilibrium on the Cambrai front. It was one of the ugliest positions for the defense on the entire west front, a hold-over from the reverse that followed Byng’s “tank” victory. The war’s fiercest battle raged all day. The British were confronted with odds such as probably no other ’single army has had to contend with in the whole conflict. Considering these odds and considering above all the ultimate objective the Germans had set themselves, Haig’s forces gave 'a splendid account of themselves. Terrific losses were inflicted on the dense on-surging masses of attacking Teutons. But the Teuton onslaught was so concentrated, so recklessly persistent, that the sanest, strategically and tactically wisest course for the British was to yield. Violent gun duels have developed further southward from LaFere, as far as Soissons. And Still further down, in the Champagne, on both sides of Rheims, and at Verdun, the big guns' are thundering forth a tune that betrays' evil intent. On the Italian front, both in the mountains and along the Piave, a battle has flared up; whether it is one of the major scale or merely a concerted infantry maneuver to keep the French and British auxiliary expedition there, is as yet unclear. Lively artillery action also is reported from the Macedonian theater. ' There is, indeed, a well defined theory in military quarters here that Hindenburg has scheduled for this year as imitation of the past great efforts of the entente: Simultaneous maximum pressure on all fronts, in the hope of locating, somewhere, sometime, a aveak spot that will permit a breakthrough.