El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-11-23

Yr@HE MASKING triumph for British arms on the long
front from ST. Quentin to the Scarpe river comes as
tonic It bIscing relief from the series of tenn
porary which the allies have suffered recently.
One must hasten to these did not
entary shake confidence IN the ultimate victory Of
arms but they were depressing IN their very nature
strain upon the fortituue Of ourselves and
allies. More viii from the hand of enemy
losing but stu strong unable to and striking out with
the fury Of mailman because Of his Imprisonment.
meantime this deeply driven wedge in the Hindenburg
line cheers and revives spirits.
It came as much surprise to US as it evidently did
Germany By "us' IS meant just the great Of
civilians Of the entente countries who naturally no
informed Of military plans ard have idea what to expect
except general way For months the British and French
have been taking little bites of the German west line
aibble and little there Especially the British
forging steadily but very slowly ahead the
Flanders and the vicinity Of the Passchendaele
ridge. The British every time The Germans lost
every time and their morale in that sector greatly
shaken by their continual losses especially by the ter
Tific pounding gwen them by the British artillery
However, all these bites were small There was moth
ing to indicate great Iunge contemplated In fact
N other years by this tine infantry operations would prac
cay have ceased, leaving nothing but artillery lombard
ents amounting to little mOse than target pTactceust
such operations the little American force down south
near the German b9r5er is conducting But had
been told that this winter the allies proposed no etup or
infantry aggression They had proved that by the actions
around Ypres recently when conditions could
not have been encountered We could expect then series
Of nbbes at the German line all winter long but great
offensive thrust.
Again this blow surprised Us as surprised the enemy
because was delivered with artillery preparation That
had 70 be looked upon essential 1t thought
by the civilian, perhaps also by military men, that
the concrete positions Of the enemy had to be bOmbarde
the trenches and babed wrecked and the enemy troops
forced seek what refuge they could find deep dugouts
before infantry advance could be attempted And
thought too that the infantry could only advance under
Of ba-Iage fire the barage being lifted when the
enemy trenches reached and transformed into counter
battery fire order 10 keep down the enemy guns.
Not so. By OF very large operation have It
proved that the element Of surprise attack may still
utilized trench warfare The whole Third army
the top ike roaring avalanche and without single
shell fired by way OF preparation and that avalanche OF
fighting fell upon the enemy and demolished him,
heaping up his dead in his trenches and capturing some
thousands OF him
Here paragraph must be given 10 the tanks There
bit Of artillery preparation this surprise attack
but vast line Of tanks went No Mans land in ad
infantry If the tank demonstrated its ef
fecTeuess IN warfare this great occasion. The
tanks went through everything possible and over the rest
They smashed barb wire and earthen distractions, rolled
and of trenches all the time poured from
their steel bodies torrents Of fire into the enemy They went
and and the infantry pressed behind mop
Up what was left Of the Germans.
you feel inclined compare this battle unfavoraby
With the spectacular drive CT the Teutons into
italy, remCmbs- this the all powerful Hndenburg line
or, the Germans called it. the Segried line It the
last word modern defences II wide and Deep
steeed and ccnceted baced and reinforced every
ceivabe fashion It the last word in military excel
lence- Won Ein5enbuTg had it made called it
pIegnable But the British tore through 1t ike cyclone