Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-23
HAIG'S SURPRISE
IS UNPARALLELED
IN MODERN WARS
Tactics of British Leader in
Victory Over Germans Com
pared to Use of Wooden
Horse at Troy
BY WILLIAM PHILIP sImnns.

WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN
THE FIELD, Nov 21.-The strangest
battle in the worlds history was that
by which the British today smashed the
Hindenburg line.
There has been no other battle like it
in the annals of warfare. Only the
wooden horse of Troy offers a compar-
ison with Haig's blow in tactical orig
inaIity.
General Pershing, commander-in-chief
of the American army in France, wit
messed this most staggering of all the
blows which the British have launched
against the enemy
At moment when the world was say
ing that surprise attacks in this war
were no longer possible, when the Prus-
slams were thinking the same thing
and sleeping soundly in their comforta-
bic dugouts. without the faintest sus-
picion that anything was brewing,
British army tanks, leading British in
fantry, rose up from the ground like
magic and swung to the attack.
No Artillery Preparation.
There was no artillery preparation.
The numbering tanks did the pulveriz-
ing of the way. They blazed the trail,
their scientifically ponderous paths Of
fering free entrance to the infantry i'm
mediately behind. They crashed over
wire entanglements, over artfully con-
cealed chevaux de friese, over trenches
themselves, and the walking Tommies
followed.
Prisoners pouring back OF the lines
today were still dazed with the surprise
of the attack
They were utterly fiabbergasted Not
an officer nor man had the slightest
idea the British could possibly strike
on their quiet sector at a time when 1t
was supposed every ounce of British
strength was concentrated in Flanders.
Since the battle of Arras, the Cam
brai sector had dozed in peace and quiet.
The line seemed impregnable. The
Germans had heard that so often they
were certain of it. They were conf
dent that it would take weeks of high
cutting expeditions as we'll as unprece-
denied barrages to DO the trick.
What the Germans Thought.
So they dozed and slept and took life
easy in the German lines. There was
practically no artillery fire felt from
the British side-the "Englischer
Schwine" were too busy with their con-
centrated guns at Passchendaele, and
besides, they didn't have enough guns
to concentrates why worry? That
must have been the German psychology.
No more utterly demoralized human
beings in the world were seen than these
same sleekly confident Boches as they
crawled from their dugouts, sleep barely
out of their eyes. at the sound of
crunching, numbering juggernauts above
them-to find British soldiers swarminS
everywhere. They raised their arms N
shrilling cries of "Kamerad! Kamerad!'
and fed hither and thither dazed and
terror-stricken. Guns that never fired a
shot in this battle were seized by the
Tommies. or else crushed into the yield
ing earth by the steely weight Of the
tanks.
Cement emplacement. steel-bound
roofs of dugouts crunched in. burying
Germans like ants in hills trodden un-
der foot.
All of the stereotyped rules of pre-
paration for war and of the actual bat
tie strategy itself were thrown aside in
the British coup.
Sometime Monday night, a large
number of British tanks took their
berth behind the lines. The Germans
didn't hear them; il was too dark for
them to be seen.
In the early morning Tuesday
these monsters crawled forth in the
navy llSnI DclWeeH Sdhu udS
light. A smoke barrage concealed their
camouflaged sides. The Germans did
not know they were in action until they
rumbled and wheezed over their heads.
The Hindenburg line-the impregna-
BILE, the never-yielding, the last word
in defenses was taken, therefore. with
out a single preparatory gun shot
How complete was the surprise for
the Germans was evidenced by the fact
that at one point a German division was
in the process of relieving another at
the very moment of the attack.
Britain's victory came after a pre-
lirninary advance early Tuesday morn
ing. It was then, under black skies,
that the tanks numbered forward as the
new barrage for the infantry. Wednes-
day completed the triumph.