The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-09-09
Foch May Turn Hindenberg
Line at Two Points

| MdTSnal Och ; succession OF Eah.
mer blows along the German lines
| from Rheims TO Arras since July Il
| have now well-nigh completely fat
tened out the great bulges created l.,
the German offensives of the spring
and early summer
Further still, the well co-ordina1cd
progress of his attack has brought
him to a point where he may Will y,
able to strike a still more disastrous
blow to the German defensive system
in the west.
From Laon to Cambrai tie Hinden-
burg line stood all last year in the
way of the Allied armies seeking to
drive back the enemy from Northern
France and Flanders. Little impress
sion was made in that line except
temporarily in General Byng's drive
below Cambria last fall. Already in
this summers campaign. however, the
line has been pierced on Il wide front
along its northerly stretches by the
British and within the past few hours
it has been penetrated in its souther-
ly reaches by the French.
1t appears that Marshal Foch S
plan may prove to involve the turn
ing of the line on both it's flanks-at
Cambrai and Laon. In the north the
British have been for several days
in a position to deliver what might
easily prove a vital stroke to the
west of Cambrai, where they have
halted at the Canal du Nord and
made no move toward driving home
the blow which the logic of the sit
uation points to as inevitable.
In the south the armies of General
Petain have now fought their way TO
positions where the left flank of the
line is under their guns and the
edges of the defensive positions are
beginning to feel the effect of the
pounding.
On the western outskirts of the
bastion of 81. Gobain, defending
Laon, the French already at Barisis,
are in advance OF the line they oc-
cupied in 1917 and further south, be
low the main bastion, are standing on
ground which had not been in Allied
hands since 1914. Further north
they are before La Fere, whence an
eastward drive would carry them
north of the St Gobain massif.
The French drive seems clearly
aimed at this massif. which, appar-
emily safe from capture by a frontal
attack, seems not unlikely to prove
the objective of an encircling move
ment. This, however, may have TO
await the further retirement of the
Germans northward from the Aisne,
to the east Such a retirement is re-
garded as inevitable, because of the
Allied position on the German left
flank, from the Aisne at Conde, to
Vauxaillon, and there are not want
ing military critics who argue that
the Germans here will not be per
mitted to halt, even at the Chemin
des Danes position, but that the enc
nv will be forced to retreat still fur
ther north, thus additionally expos
ing Laon on the east.
The Allied unified command makes
it certain that the expected drives at
the vital points on both the north, in
the Cambria sector, and in the south,
around the Laon positions, will be so
co-ordinated as to insure the maxi
mum result.
The process of closing in toward
the Hindenburg line at the points
where it had not yet been reached
was continued rapidly yesterday by
both the French and the British. The
British moved forward at an accele-
rated pace below the Cambrai-Peron-
ne front and on that front itself they
already are close to the line. South
of the Somme the French pressed on
beyond Tergnier and moved up
speedily along all the line opposite
the front between La Fere and st.
Quentin.
On the AiSne there was little
change towards the western part OF
the front. where the Americans and
French are on the river, facing the
Germans entrenched along the canal
which parallels the stream. Further
east the Germans are giving up
grudgingly the angle formed by the
line trending off southeastward to-
wards Rheims, Offering particularly
stiff opposition to the Franco-Ameri-
can forces near Roman, between Re-
villon and Montigny-sur-Nesle.
In Flanders the British made some
further headway, but found the Ger
man resistance stiffening around La
Bassee. The Germans. apparently, do
not intend to give up Armentieres, in
this sector, but are reported hurried
ly fortifying tho region defending it.
-O-