Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1918 — ENEMY BATTLES FOR YPRES ZONE [ARTICLE]

ENEMY BATTLES FOR YPRES ZONE

GERMANS IN DESPERATE EFFORT TO WIDEN THEIR LINES. Washington, April 17. —For the moment the German drive ■ at , the British line has localized on the sector running from Bailleul around to the eastward of Ypres and military men here are watching with eager interest the British counter attacks on this narrow front, where further enemy successes probably would mean the evacuation of a large stretch of territory. While the British official statement that the- lines east .of Ypres had been withdrawn and readjusted on a new front, and did not give the position _ of the new line, it is known that the general trend of the British lines on this flank of the great battle now is represented by almost a right .angle. Troops which faced due east only a week ago are now fighting on front that expends in a general east and west direction and they are facing south. From the lines to the east of Ypres, the British have been swung back on a twelve mile front with the Ypres positions as the hinge of the movement. That hinge now forms a broad salient into the German lines which they are trying to flatten out. Should the German effort fail, it is believed here the British will be left in a strong strategic position. By a counter attack from Ypres they might reconquer all the ground lost in this northern extension of the battle front.

The desperate nature of the attacks aimed at the capture of Ypres indicates the belief of the German that their position will oe untenable unless they can widen it in that direction. Press dispatches noted today the growing fury of bombardment along the whole line. No explanation of the purpose of the gunfire was made. It was regarded here, however, as possibly significant. The allied commander in chief General Foch may have ordered the bombardment preliminary to a counter stroke. Its extent would make the actual front on which he proposed to launch his effort. There was little effort to disguise the fact that the Ypres situation is viewed with apprehension. The fact that a readjustment of the British lines to the east was made necessary was regarded as proof that the position had been shaken under the weight of the German attack.