The success of the Germans in throwing bridgeheads across the Aisne River caused the French to retreat in the sector around Soissons and south of Chemin.des-Dames. Despite five days of force fighting, however, the total German advance that sector has been only twenty miles, French military dispatches said.
The gigantic operations making up the Baltic of France were bein fought last night on the same battle fields where the Germans were finally defeated in the autumn of 1918.
About one-half the total German attacking strength—or about 1,000,000 men—was concentrated yesterday in. the centre of the smashing German drive directly on Paris down the Oise River and across the Aisne, The German armies have not yet reached the farthest point attained by the Kalser's armies in September 1914 before the French victory in the, Battle of the Marne, Gen, Weygand, in another dramatic order of the day addressed to the yesterday urged stiff resistance and' assured his men that the fierce German pressure repre sented the "last quarler of an heir" of German military effort.
The French High Command, official Government communiques and the War Office analysis of the fighting fast night all frankly admitted the full enormity of the battle. In every sense, they Indicated, this was the true Battle of France.
For the North Sea to the heights of Meuse there are no trenches. It is Jopen fighting on a scale that hes never been "attempted since Napoleon's From Sedan to the Swits Frontier along the Western Front it is a battle of fortresses with the Maginot and Siegfried Line easements yammering each other relentlessly.
OfMclal French reparls from all parts of the front said the Germans were suffering terrific losses. Division. after division attacked the French lines in steady waves under the broll-Ing hot sun all day, French reports stated.
The French befeve the German losses inthe pist five days have Dumbered 400,000 in addition to an alleged 600,000 casualties suffered by the Germans ir'the Battle of Flanders.
The French password. yesterday, therefore, waf: "To hold is to wiat™
The OMleill French communique yesterday said the Allies have destroyed 3,000 German tanks in four
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