[Copyrighted]
_The turning point of the great battle came on June 11, when the French
delivered a desperate counterblow south of Montdidier and drove the
Germans back from the Aronde River, regaining important ground along a
front of seven and one-half miles, and capturing 1,000 prisoners and
many heavy guns. This phase of the struggle is described by Walter
Duranty, another special correspondent, whose dispatch is copyrighted
for_ CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE. _It is dated June 11, 1918._
As the battle continues it seems that the second week of June will
rank as one of the bloodiest and most decisive periods in the world's
history.
It is the veritable climax of four years of struggle. In the last
twenty-four hours the violence of the fighting has increased still
further. The limit of human endurance has been forced yet another notch
higher. Along a front of nearly twenty miles the Germans are driving
more than a quarter of a million men forward through a sea of blood.
The defenders say that it is as though the whole of the German Army
is engaged against them; no sooner is one battalion annihilated than
another takes its place, and another and another.
Early yesterday morning a handful of dismounted cavalry, greatly
employed for liaison work, fought their way back to the French lines
from the surrounded hill of Plemont. They reported that the survivors
of the French battalion occupying the position were still holding out
when they left, and that no less than fourteen attacks had already been
repulsed.