New-York tribune., 1918-10-16
lnuasion of Germany
BY Frank H. Simonds
Copyright. 1918, New York Tribune Inc)

last stage OF the liberation OF
French territory. 1t is also the first step
in the freeing of Belgium. At the pres
ent moment the troops of Horne and
Byng, south of Lille, have advanced east,
beyond Douai and even east of Bou-
chain they are slowly but surely push
ing in upon ValencienneS Meantime
the troops Of King Albert, Plumer and
Degouette at the other end of the loop
are swinging in behind Lille A narrow
and indefensble salient is thus rapidly
developing
We may, then, expect at any moment
now to see the Germans quit Lille, the
largest French city they have occupied,
evacuate all the region between the Lys
and the Scheldt, and at the same time
retreat from the Belgian coast and
stand behind the Scheldt from Conde,
in France, to Ghent, holding the line of
the canal north Of Client to the Dutch
frontier. Such retirement had, in fact,
been going on in recent days, when, as
we are informed, the inevitable bad
weather held up Flanders operations
w ACA Lilly ollO VIC 0uJOllllIlS ClLlcS Ol
Roubaix and Tourcoing in French hands,
with the consequent strengthening of the
line, the Germans will hold next to moth
ing French between the Meuse and the
Scheldt. East Of the Meuse they will
hold the considerable fraction of the
Ardennes and Meurthe- ct -Moselle de-
partments, which include the Briey and
Longwy iron districts All else of their
conquests in France have gone or must
go within the week.
Lille itself, a city of more than
100000 inhabitants-there are 100000
people in Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing,
which are practically single agglome-
ration-cannot be attacked directly. It
is covered by forts and would unques-
tionably be destroyed by the Germans
if directly assailed. Indeed, there is
very grave reason to fear that it will
be destroyed completely in any event,
and at least one-quarter was destroyed
in the fighting of the autumn of 1914.
With the capture of La Fere and
Laon the German grip on the second
line of French organized defences Of
Paris was broken. This line ran from
Verdun, through Rheims and Laon, to
the Oise at La Fere 1t was prolonged
westward by the Somme River. In the
Marne campaign it could not be held
after the defeats at the frontier because
of the rapidity of Kluck's advance, nor
could it be won back by the British and
French after the first Marne because
of the fashion in which the Germans
had fortified it, Thus, for four years
the enemy have held the intermediate
position between Paris and the frontier,
and from it have launched their often
sives.
The surrender of all these important
positions closes the German adventure
in France. All that remains is the task
of cleaning up the German support lines
south of the Belgian frontier, and these
are being cleaned up with very great
rapidity. At no distant time we may
expect to see the German standing be-
hind the Scheldt as far south as Condo
and then along the frontier to the
Meuse below. Mezieres. Back of this is
the line covering Antwerp and Brussels,
crossing the Sambre at Charleroi and
reaching the Meuse south of Namur. In
this line Namur will play the part of St.
Gobain and Laon in the old line just
broken and Antwerp will replace Lille.
Along the whole of this line the Ger
mans will have water barrier, river, or
canal, thing absolutely essential now
that the tank has become such an i'm
portant factor in the conflict. This line
will, too, be at least seventy-fve miles
shorter than the Hindenburg line, and
on it we may now expect to see the
Germans make their final stand for the
year. Driven out of this, they can
hardly fail to fall back behind the Meuse,
covering their own frontier, with Liege
as the anchorage and Namur as the kew
stone.
But if the latest Foch stroke fails to
precipitate general German rout-and
it may bring this to pass-it seems to me
that the further stages of the great
offensive will come not in the north but
in the east, in Alsace- Lorraine and not
in Belgium. It was matter of life
and death to drive the enemy from his
Paris front and break his hold upon the
North Sea littoral facing Britain. Not
until these things were accomplished
could Foch safely turn his attention to
the old Franco German frontier, where
the first fighting of the war took place.
But at all times it has been plain that
if the menace to Paris and to the Chan
mel ports were abolished the next step
would be to carry the war into Germany
This is possible, because from Metz to
Belfort the Allies are either on the
frontier or inside it. Once Germany is
fhraatanad alonr the Rhina Sho ,,.;u