AMERICAN ADVANCE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 22, 25 July 1918, Page 7

AMERICAN ADVANCE

STRONG RESISTANCE ON THE OURCQ

LONDON, 23rd July,

The Daily Chronicle's correspondent with the American Army says that tho German withdrawal up the valley of the Ourcq has come to a halt. The American pursuers have met with a stiffening of the resistance—first from nests of machine-guns, then from shrapnel, and finally from field artillery. The Germans are working from previously-prepared strongholds. s Prisoners state that all orders for retreat were revoked on Sunday evening, and stout opposition enjoined, probably because the German lines of communication are hopelessly congested. The Americans were so eager to pursue that they did not wait for the construction of the pontoons when they reached the Marne, but swam the river and engaged the enemy. The roads are full of abandoned supplies, including boxes of ammountion and infantry packs. The Marne villages are all hideous shambles and monstrosities of smashed masonry.