Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1914 — SAW GERMAN RETREAT [ARTICLE]

SAW GERMAN RETREAT

French Aviator Describes Flight of Kaiser's Men. VFlyer Witnessed Scene From Air and Says Troop* Were in Disorder. By GEORGE DRU. Paris, Sept. -15.—The best view of the retreating German armies was oh talned by a French military aviator, who, Ascending from a point near flew northward across the Marne, then eastward by way of liheims to the region of Verdun, and back again in a zigzag course to a spot near Soissons. He saw the German hosts. not merely in retreat, but in flight, and in some places in disorderly flight. It was a wonderful sight to look down upon tens and hundreds of thou sands of the kaiser's picked troops, some marching in northerly, others in northeasterly directions, and all moving with a tremendous rapidity which w'as eloquent of their desire to place themselves beyond reach of the allied armies, who were harassing them , every step of the way.

The retreat was not confined to the highways. Many German soldiers W’ere running across fields, jumping over fences, crawling through hedges and wending their way through woods without any semblance of order or discipline. These men doubtless belong to regiments which were badly cut up in the fierce fighting which preceded the general retreat. Deprived of a majority of their officers ans noncommissioned officers, they became a mere rabble of fugitives. Many had abandoned their weapons in their mad haste to escape the vengeance of their French and. British purifiers^ T hese scenes of almost 1 panlestrjeken flight were wjtn|B§ed at tlje end of a week's hard fighting, it is quite clear that the Germans did their best and were beaten in a battle which they themselves recognized as the turning point of the campaign in France.

The retreat developed into flight partly owing to the collapse of the supplies of ammunition and food. -Many German prisoners say they were without food for periods varying from twenty-four to forty-eight hours Scores of German soldiers were found in a condition of complete exhaustion. Apart from the heavy losses which the Germans sustained during the fighting, they have been severely punished by their pursuers during the hurried retreat. Judging from unoffi cial accounts of the great battle which are beginning to come in, there is every reason to believe that the French official communication understated the extent of the victory.