Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-29
MAURICE LAUDS
BRITISH. ..PROWESS
Declares Sufficient Credit
Has Not Been Given to
Haig's Men
EARLY LOSSES MADE UP
Ceneralship and Valor of
Troops Deserve Praises of
Nation. He Declares
EARLY LOSSES MADE UP
BY MAJOR GEN. SIR =. r. MAURICE
Former Director of Operations Of the
British Army

BY MAJOR GEN. SIR =. B. MAURICE
Former Dircctor of Opcratiors of the
British Army
Special Cable to Eue,ing Public Ledger
! Copyright. 1918. bv Ne,o York Times Co.
London. Oct 30.
II is very natural. but none the less
unfortunate. that public interest for
some time past shoald have been almost
certainly concentrated on the corres-
pondence between Berlin and Washing
! ton.
We have never given ourselves credit
| for what we have done in the war. In
the early years thi" was mainly due to
an organized and systematic campaign
of depreciation designed to spur us on to
greater efforts. Then there was n pc
riod. after the new armies had gone to
France. in which high hopes were formed
before each of our many offensires
began. and. when these hopes had all
been disappointed the inevitable reaction
| followed. and we became very shy of
hailing any achievement of our arms as
a success.
This year. when things began to go
well. there was tendency TO ascribe
/ our change of fortune entirely to Mar
shal Foch. TO the unity of command and
to the arrival of the Americans. and
now, when our army is fighting as skill
fully and as gallantly as troops have
ever fought in war. we are too much
occupied to attend to them. I wonder
how many people. there are in England
today who realize that on October 8 our
Third and Fourth Armies accomplished
one of the greatest feats Of this or any
other war
Broke HindenburE Line
When in the darkness OF the wild au-
tumn night they attacked on a twenty
rlile front and broke through the hast
defenses of the Hindenburg system It
was n fitting climax 10 n fortnight of
intense, bitter. but ever-victorious Tight
! ing through that labyrinth of fortifica-
tions More than a fortnight later an
honorable member asks in the House of
Commons whether it is really true that
British troops were the first to break
through the Hindenburg system.
! In following up that victory We
reached the old battlefield of August 26.
1914. on which Smith Dorrien's Second
Corps withstood almost the whole of
Won Kluck's army and arrived at Selle
between lie Cateau and Solesmes. Here
the enemy meant TO stand II he could. at
least until he had completed the read
iustments of his front in the north and
in the south: and today our men who
have been fighting continuously on one
of the two most vital sections of the
whole front have driven him eight miles
/ beyond The Selle and captured 5000 pri-
soners and $50 guns.
By this advance we have outfanked
great part of Normal forest, which
in tine retreat from Mons separated Sir
Douglas Haig's corps from Sir Horace
Smith Dorrien's. and have also out
fianked the upper Scheldt.
Along the whole battlefront. from
! Tournai on the Scheldt to Landrecies on
| the Sambre, our men are on historic
ground our right flank is in the area
in which our first four divisions concen-
trated under shelter of the fortress OF
Maubeuge for the advance to Mons. II
| is on the outskirts of Landrecies. where
Sir Douglas Haigs Twenty first Guards
! Brigade on the night of the o5th Of
August, 1914 repulsed tn. leading troops
of Won Klucl's Ninth Corps. who tried
| to enter the place disguised in French
uniforms. and answered our challenges
/ in French.
! Reached Historic Line
In the center we have reached the
Nalenciennes-Le Quesnoy railway. which
| lateral of communications On August
25. 1914, trains were waiting on this
| line near lie Quesnoy station to take
back such of our infantry who fought
at Mons as were too exhausted to march
any longer.
There Is no question that the
enemy has fought his best. Sir Douglas
Haig's reports have frequently borne
testimony to the ferceness OF his
resistance. and II the average quality OF
| his troops is deteriorating and I'M some
| places Is low there is no question
that his machine gunners are still fight
| ing with much Of their old skill and
yalor. and his artillery, II weakened by
the large number of guns which we have
captured or destroyed, is still very effec-
tive.
The first results of our victory will
be that We shall gain Valenciennes
and Normal forest, and Sc open the road
to Maubeuge, Mons and the valley of
the Sambre. But his heavy losses and
repeated defeats since July Is have all
but exhausted the encmy's fresh re.
serves. and he will be put to 1t to find
re endorsements to fll even the ten-mile
gap quickly, while our airmen are
bombarding the railway functions OF
Aulnoye and Hirson SO assiduously tina,
the movements Of his troops by rail must