The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1917-11-24

tanks first crushed the way through
! the German lines. The Tommies are
now almost within grasp of the Ger
man depot of Cambria as this dispatch
is written.
Every hour makes the British vic
tory more gigantic in its scope, more
astounding in its conception and ex-
ecution. The Hindenburg line has
been smashed to flinders.
In some sections of the battle front
the fighting is practically in the open.
British cavalry has been in action.
The vast and intricate trench defense
of the Hindenburg line and its sub
sidiary lines have in many places
been stormed and the enemy forced
into defense from the open.
Literally delirious with joy. 500
citizens repatriated to France by the
British stroke came back from the
front to-day. They had been. hur-
riedly removed from Masnieres to
Gouzeacourt by the Germans and
then abandoned. At Gouzeacourt
they welcomed the sweating Tom
mics as they streamed into the town.
With their stories and the tales
wrung from the German prisoners,
still dazed with surprise of the Brit
ish blow, it was possible to-day to
piece together some idea of the con-
dition in the luxurious and-suppos-
edly-impregnable German position
of the Hindenburg line when Gener-
al Byng loosed his surprise party.
Not a German had any knowledge
of the attack until the tanks doomed
over their heads. Then they literal.
ly blew up in panic. French civil
ians in towns just behind the lines
described the officers and men as run
) ming around like chickens with their
!, heads cut off," The whole army
q~uivered and shook with the sudden,
E ness of the thing;th great ghost-like
r steel monsters that battered through
cement and earth and human walls
' were fearsome giants; the swearing
= yelling fiends who followed then
were gnomes who suddenly sprani
to life out of the ground.
! Awaken To Living Horror
1t must have been hours befor,
e this palsy of surprise, of fear and o
s what almost amounted to supersti
: tious panic that something superna
tural had occurred, passed ava
0 among the Germans.
British "moppers-up" told of hoy
men from whose heads the letharg,
d of sleep had hardly passed, blinking
:, ly, dazedly crowded out of their dug
outs; or how, uncomprehending tina
it was reality and not dream. the.
q duly let great tanks crush them flat
e or furiously cleaning British bayo'
net find them a mark.
II In trenches and dugouts. blankets
y and cots were still warm from sleep
ers' bodies. or breakfast tables fo'
officers, daintily set. still smoked APP
p%etizingly. A tangle of personal be
{ longings in line after line of dugout
showed sleepers in their hunks ant
on the cots had leaped to their fee
u in the first terror of the moment
{ and fled to the rghostly dawn abov'
without hats, without blouses. with
out guns. almost without their sense
Many sections of the boosted Hin
denburg line came into British hand
absolutely intact. The tanks hat
smashed great gaps. Through thes
the infantry poured and spread out
fan wise, behind. taking yard afte
. yard of the ''impregnable positions
from the rear.
The correspondents were sum
moned to the line during the night
We stood that memorable morning
] in the very light before dawn. in th'
? midst of great droves Of tanks-al
camouf1aged and bedizened-a veri
table multitude of the Things.