The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-22
Officers "Like Chickens With
Their Heads Cut Or"
British Sweep Found Many
Huns Asleep in Bunks.
FORCE TEUTONS into OPEN
Cavalry in Action Pursuing As
founded German Soldiers.
Didn't Know of Attack Until
"Tanks" RumbIed Above.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP sINfNfs.


With the British Armies Behind the
Hindenburg Line, Nov. 2.-Victorious
Britain carried on today with her
triumphant smashing of the Esnden-
burg lines.
Tanks, cavalry, infantry--all were
closing steadily around Camprai-the
great war machine rumbling over the.
enemy just as the tanks first crushed
the way thru the German lines.
The Tommies now are almost with
in grasp of the German depot of Cam
brai as this dispatch is written.
Every hour makes the British vic
tory more gigantic in its scope, more
astounding in its conception and exc
cution.
The Hindenburg line has been
smashed to flinders. W
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 defenses
of the Hindenburg line and its subsi-
diary lines have in many places been
stormed and the enemy forced into
defense from the open
500 Civilians Repatriated.
Literally delirious with joy, 500 civ
ilians repatriated to France by the
British stroke. came back from, the
front today. They had been hurried-
ly moved from Masnieres to Gouzeau-
court by the Germans and then aban-
doned. At Gouzeaucourt they well
coined the sweating Tommies as they
streamed into the town
with their stories and the tales
wrung from German prisoners stiIl
dazed with surprise of the British
blow, 1t was possible today to piece
together some idea of the conditions
IN the luxurious and-supposedly--
lmDregnable German positions of the
| linz
ioosed his surprise party sss.- -
Not a German had any knowledge
or the attack until the tanks Ioomed
over their heads Then they literally
oIeW up" in panic. French civilians
| IN towns just behind the lines de-
scribed the officers and men as rum
ming around like chickens with their
| heads cut off, The whole army
quivered and shook with the sudden
ness of the thing; the great ghostlfke
steel monsters that battered thru
cement and earth and human walls
were fearsomS giants: the swearing.
yelling fiends WHO followed them
were gnomes who suddenly sprang to
life out of the ground.
Fled Without Arms or Clothing
1t must have been hours before this
| palsy of surprise, of fear and of what
almost amounted to superstitious
panic that something supernatural
had occurred. passed away among the
GeE1nanS.
British "moppers up" told of how
men from whose heads the lethargy
of sleep had hardly passed, blinking
| ly, daZedly, crowded out of their dug
outs; or how, uncomprehending that
it was reality and not dreams, they
DULY let great tanks crush them flat
or furiously cleaning British bayonets
| find their mark.
In trenches and dugouts, blankets
and cots were still warm from sleep
ers' bodies, or breakfast tables for Of
| fl GERS. daintily set, still smoked appe-
| tizingly. A tangle of personal belong
! ings in line after line of dugouts
showed sleepers in the hunks and on
the cots had leaped to their feet in
| the first terror of the moment=and
/ fled to the ghostly dawn above, with
out hats, without blouses, without
guns, almost without their senses
Officers Left Stores of Luxuries.
/ Vast stores of choice wines were
found in the Officers quarters. Cigars
and cigarets were packed there pro-
! fusely.
Many sections of the boasted Him
denburg line came into British hands
absolutely intact. The tanks had
smashed great gaps. Thru these the
| infantry poured and spread out, fam
wise, behind. taking yard after yard
of the 'impregnable positions from
| the rear.
See Whole Herd of Tanks.
The correspondents were summoned
| Continued on Page Twol
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