Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1918 — WAR SUMMARY. [ARTICLE]

WAR SUMMARY.

Another day of incessant reckless, massed assaults by the Germans on a front of forty-five milesi—between Montdidies and Arras—has brought Teuton menace slightly closer to Amiens from three directions after paying an appalling toll of blood. The whole German left flank from Montdidier to Noyon remains paralyzed. Vicious thrusts southward from Montdidier to turn the French front failed. The French hit back and dented the German line in several places after beating off massed assaults of 195,000 picked shock troops, with “cruel losses’’ to the foe. Foch, therefore, Still holds the whip hand against the southern leg of the German wedge. Patiently he is holding the balance in reserve, but he may—and perhaps must—strike within the next twelve hours.

The position of Amiens is now admittedly critical. But equally critical is the position of the Germen left flank, and unless that flank i« presently brought up to a level with the center, or the French front is turned, even the capture of Amiens would not only avail the Germans nothing, but may prove a terrible boomerang. There is one alternative—that the Germans succeed in breaking the British AlbertArras front; provided, however, that they are strong enough in Ehe south to hold the French. Southeast of Grivesnes the French have wrested St. Aigttan farm from the invaders and captured Epinette wood, north of OrvHlers-Serol, and enlarged their positiqns north of Montrenaud. It was in the nature of a nibbing process, this French counter offensive, but the gains exposed the enemy’s weakness on'this vital ffont and may foreshadow something on a larger scale—the “something” that Foch is known to have up his sleeve, the for which the world is waiting with eager confidence.