24 AUGUST 1918, Page 1

General Mangin followed up his advantage on Wednesday with such

vigour that the enemy could not make a stand anywhere. By the afternoon the French were holding the main Noyon-Soissons road from Pontoise on the Oise to Pommiers on the Aisne, a distance of over twenty miles. Their rapid advance had brought them to the east of Noyon. The enemy in the Lassigny hills on the far side of the Oise was thus exposed to enfilading fire from the south, while General Humbert was pressing him hard from the north and west. The immediate result was the collapse of the enemy's resistance north of the Oise. General Humbert captured Lassigny, gained a foothold on the famous hill of Le Plemont, which was the scene of desperate fighting in the spring, and went forward up the Oise to within two miles west of Noyon. General Mangin's stroke has not only weakened the whole German line west of the Somme, but has also threatened the flank of the German line on the Aisne.