The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-10-14
OF
 V0N HlNDEKBURC DEFENSE LINES

The celebrated Hindenburg line or Siegfried line barring the allies road to Berlin, has been compared by the German leaders to the great wall of China. Until the British broke it in the spring of 1917 they believed it impregnable to assault as was once the Chinese wall and re- garded it is the eighth wonder of the world.
 The Hindenburg line as generally defined is about 60 miles long run. ming in a general north and south di. rection across the Picardy Plains in France. It's northern extremity was guarded by the heavily fortified bas. tion of Vimy Ridge and by the min. ing city of Lens, whose underground corridors and chambers long have barred the British. The southern end of the Hindenburg line proper Is in the vicinity of La Fere or Laon. That end is protected in part by the forest of St Gobain and the fortifi. cations around Laon.
 Between Vimy Ridge on the north and La Fere on the south the line passes west of Cambrai and St. Quen- tin so as to protect those two inn portant industrial and railway centers which are routes for bringing up SUD- plies for the German army.
 Some war correspondents describe the German line as continuing south eastward from La Fere to the Aisne river and Rheims following the line that part of the line southeast of La Fere the Albriech line. This would add about forty-five miles, making a total length of more than 100 miles. Generally, however, the Hindenburg line has been described as running only from Vimy Ridge to La Fere.
 Fearing that the northern end of the line might be turned the Ger mans established a switch" line connecting with the Hindenburg line at Queant and running north about twenty-five miles to Drocourt. They called this switch the Wotan line
 The northern end of the linden cuA5 AAAS oiiu liO Noluu llhC Dolh have been broken more than once by the British armies and both are now in possession of the British armies. Long ago the Germans lost Vimy Ridge and have failed to retake lit
 The Hindenburg line is not a 3 rch but q system of fl Id fo. tiff To-, .% l,- ten miles deep. consisting not on.y y lof the trench system but of multiple lines of barbed wire entanglements, concrete positions for artillery, deep Idugouts capable of housing a battal- ion of troops. numerous pill-boXes for machine-guns and. in fact, every de- vice the Germans have been able to assemble to block the way to Ger many.
 Near ~Bullecourt was a. formidable underground fertilization known as the Tunnel Trench" which the Ger. mans believed to be impregnable. This tunnel connecting the trenches was more than a mile long and was mined for it's whole length, lighted with electricity and had entrances at short intervals. It was reinforc- ed by concrete pill-boxes and support trenches. The British captured it in November, 1917.
 Below Graincourt the British troops found great catacombs along the Hindenburg line. These were elaborately fitted up as battalion headquarters, electrically lighted and protected by concrete trenches. In front of Cambrai the villages behind the line had beneath them great chambers which would be a islander to call dugouts. They were more like hotels, fitted with electricity, water, sewers, drying rooms and kitchens. They were shellproof and bomb proof. The trenches there were built along the banks of the Canal Du Nord which runs north and south near Havrincourt.
 Important German strongholds pro- tect the southern section of the line near La Fere. The forest of St. Co., bain presents an almost insuperable obstacle in attacking this end of the line.
 Laon, lying within the Big Cor ner" where the line turns eastward along the Chemin des Danes Is re- garded as the keystone of the whole German system. Hundreds of Ger man batteries were installed in the screened ravines around that city and in the forests of St. Gobain.
 Southwest of > Laon the town was |protected by Massif of Monampteuil behind whose crest are nuge under ground ravines and shelters, some big enough to hold whole regiment. The forest west of Laon was cram med with vast store of munitions and materials. Divisions of troops could concentrate in it unseen.
 Recently the Germans discovered that the big dugouts along the Hin' denburg line were nothing but death traps. An order by the German di- visional commander forbade the Ger man troops to occupy dugouts witch descend more than eight steps un- derground.
 Behind the Hindenburg line the Germans are credited with three other lines of defenses.
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