Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-13
ALLIES MUST FOLLOW
EXAMPLE SET BY u. S.
General Maurice Urges Concentration of ManPower on
West Front-Tells of New Cernan
Defense Lines
By MAJOR GENERAL SIR FREDERICK B. MAURICE
Former Director of Operations OF the British

tons OF the British Army
has, therefore, forbidden the construc.
ton of deep underground chambers
and can now turn the labor which used
to be expended upon them to other
purposes.
Ever since the German front in the
west settled down it has taken the
form of a great bow of which the
string is a line from Lille to Metz.
The bow was bent outward to the
greatest extent by the German offen-
sives of last March and May. 1t has
now been forced back roughly TO
where it was at the beginning of this
year. but it remains a bow. The ex-
tremties of the bow at Lille and Metz
are the pivots upon which the enemy's
defensive systems depend.
Labor for close on to four years
has been expended upon the elabora.
ton of the defenses of Lille and they
are now very formidable. They cover
Belgian Flanders just as Metz covers
Lorraine. The Germans want to hold
on to Belgium because they wish to
have it as a pawn in the peace nego-
tiations They wish to use the Belgian
coast as a base for their submarines
and destroyers. and the Belgian ter
ritory as base for their aircraft.
and they are most anxious that we
should not be able to use Belgium
for either of these latter purposes.
Therefore. they have no intention of
withdrawing in Flanders if this can.
by any possibility be avoided. and are
prepared rather, in case of necessity
to give up ground in France.
Lille a Defensive Pivot
For this reason Lille has been
,,l,n lofo
ago they began the construction of
defensive line. connecting Lille and
Metz. which runs west of Nalenciennes,
Hernon and Mezieres and covers the
railway which connects those places
and forms the enemy'S main artery of
north and south communication. This
is the shortest line which the enemy
can occupy and keep his hold upon
Belgium. To the west of il. that is,
between it and the Hindenburg sys-
TEN. he has at least one line which.
starting from Lille, runs by Douai and
Cambria, east of La Fere and west
of Rethel, to the defenseS of Metz.
BY breaking through the Wotan line,
which we call the DroCourt switch,
built to connect the Hindenburg line
with the Lille pivot. Sir Douglas Haig
has already forced the enemy back
into that portion of this system which
covers Douai.
There have been reports from time
to time of other lines to the east Of
the Nalenciennes-Me MeZieres system. and
it is highly probable that the enemy
Is hard at work on these. In any
event it is safe to assume that he will
not lack lHes of defense upon which
he will try to fall back when forced
out of his present positions. Those
who expected more from the victory
of Drocourt switch than the circum-
stances warranted are now alarmed at
the discovery that the Germans have
not neglected to. prepare for a way
round via the east
One would have thought that the re-
cent events had killed that fallacy. We
have shown that we can penetrate
the most formidable defense which the
enemy can construct without undue
loss. 1t is as clear as daylight that
the one thing which prevented Haig
from following up. further his vic
tories Of August 8 and September 2
was the lack of weight of numbers.
1t is as clear as daylight that the
eastern enterprises, apart altogether