A TITANIC STRUGGLE FORESEEN.

“The struggle in the western theater of war promises to be a titanic one,” said an eye-witness at British headquarters, April 16.  “The Allies are prepared as never before, both in material and personnel, and are co-operating with a smoothness which comes from a complete understanding and thorough appreciation of the work in hand.

“The Germans have more divisions on the western front than would have been thought possible a year ago, but already a half score of Germany’s best divisions have been smashed to pieces by the British onslaught and their own unsuccessful counter-attacks.  The Bavarian divisions were sacrificed first, but the Prussian Guard divisions, thrown in to stem the British flood tide, have suffered such casualties in the last few days that they will have to be relieved.”

The Canadians accounted for a large contingent of Prussian grenadiers in the fighting about “The Pimple” on Vimy ridge while an engagement at Lagnicourt April 15 took its heaviest toll both in dead and prisoners from five German guard regiments.

GERMAN ROUT AT LAGNICOURT.

The rout of the Germans at Lagnicourt, after what they believed to have been a successful attack, will ever be one of the striking pictures of the war.  Repulsed and running for their own trenches, they were trapped by the barbed wire entanglements which had been built with such great strength and thickness in front of them.  The boast of the Hindenburg line had been its belts of protective wire.

Caught within the meshes of this wire, the German guardsmen screamed madly for help and guidance.  Some, like trapped rabbits, scurried up and down the outer barrier, searching in vain for openings.  The British troops meantime had the greatest opportunity for open field rifle shooting since the battle of the Marne.  Lying flat upon the ground, they poured bullets into the panic-stricken, gray-coated Germans until each man had fired a full 100 rounds.

While this was going on the British field guns came into play with a shrapnel barrage fire which completed the demolition of the entrapped enemy.  It was little wonder that later 1,500 German dead could be counted, or that 400 guardsmen surrendered with upheld hands and emotional cries of “Kamerad!”

FRENCH CONTINUE ADVANCE IN APRIL

The French under General Nivelle continued their victorious advance on the Soissons-Craonne line April 18, crushing the German resistance along a front of thirty-five miles, and raising the total of German prisoners taken during the movement to 17,000.  Seventy-five guns, including a number of heavy siege pieces, were captured.

CHAPTER XXX

GEN.  PERSHING’S OWN STORY

  American Operations in France Described by the Commander-in-
  Chief—­Glowing Tribute to His Men.