ST. MIHIEL POCKET

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 67, 16 September 1918, Page 7

ST. MIHIEL POCKET

THE SALIENT WIPED OUT

FRONT REDUCED TWENTY MILES

(AT7STBALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

' LONDON, 13th September. To-day's news from the American front is excellent. The prisoners at 10 o'clock this morning ] numbered BSOO, and 60 guns had been • captured. The advance is such, as to seriously endanger the German troops still in the St. Mihiel pocket, of which the Americans have narrowed the bottle-neck to less than six miles. It was reported last night that two German divisions ;were in the necfc

and it -was doubtful whether they would succeed in escaping. . Probably they will be trapped. The advance continues with such rapidity that it is difficult to keep in touch with the movements. It is reported that the Americans have captured Beney, Thiaucourt, Vigneulles, and Heudicourt. The line thence apparently runs from Montsec to the lake at Vargevaux, where it joins the old line. If this is the true line, the Americans have advanced on the south side, on a fourteen-mile front, to a depth of eight miles. Upon the west, where the country is much more difficult, and-there was probably greater resistance, the Allies have advanced on a twelve-mile front to a depth of three miles. The capture of Vigneulles. if certain, would mean an advance on the south side to a depth of ten miles. The Germans are blowing up dumps at Hannonville (east of Fresnes} and Dampvitoux, both of which are outside the pocket. Prisoners say the attack was .expected, but was delivered so rapidly that they were overwhelmed, and the defenders had not time to put up the stubborn resistance which they were sternly ordered- to make. The French Staff give as an instance that the Americans easily captured the village of Pannes, which was capable of a strong defence. The American line now runs directly from Pagny, on the Moselle, to Hannonville (four miles south of Fresnes), thence along the foot of the heights of the Meuse. All the villages in the salient have been captured, and the front is reduced from forty to twenty miles. The German claim that they foresaw the evacuation and prepared for it, but the number of prisoners fails to bear this out. The loss of twelve thousand men can hardly be. described as a successful operation, but the few stores left shows that the Germans were preparing to leave the ground. The town of St. Mihiel is practically undamaged. The railway from Verdun to Commercy,. Toul. and Nancy is intact, and will be used at once, and the Thiaucourt-St. Mihiel railway is also intact. The operation must be regarded- as a big local success.