Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-27
LOSS OF HINDENBURG
LINE DOOMED HUNS
Germany's Dream of World Power Ended
by Zone Of the Few Enduring Military
Triumphs of Human History"

problem Foch opened his battle on the
tanks reserving his main thrust for
the center and for the appropriate mo-
ment. Thus. of September 26, it was
1 Liggett's LIST American Army, in con-
junction with Gouraud's 4th French
Army, which delivered the blow on
the German left, willie King Albert's
Belgian Army and Plumer's I'd British
| Army delivered the blow on the Ger
man right.
Broke Huns Rail Domination.
The Franco-American blow resulted
in a swift advance by the Americans
north of Verdun, the capture of Mont
| faucon and a dozen other towns and
villages on the west bank of the
| Meuse and between the Mouse and the
| Argonne. villages famous in the oam-
paign for Verdun of 1916. One i'm
mediate effect of this advance was to
| break the German domination of the
Paris-Chalons-Verdu railway. which
had been cut by indirect fire for more
than four years. Gouraud, on his side
of the Argonne. pushed north and took
all the ground famous in the battle
of Champagne of September, 1915.
which had begun one day earlier.
i This advance was then halted. as was
inevitable. because it was an imme-
date threat to all the German lines
of communication between Alsace-
Lorraine and the Rheims-Laon front,
and particularly to the Metz-Mesieres-
iValenciennes railroad. Ludendorff had
front at once, and these reserves. on
their arrival. succeeded not in stop
ping either the French or the Ameri-
cans. but in slowing down their adj
vance; The purpose of the operation
had. however. been already achieved
by the strain made upon German re-
serves
| Meantime the Belgians and British
had been even more successful. Emerg-
ing from Ypres and the old User front
they had taken Dixmude, the forest OF
Houlhoust and all the ground won in
the offensive last year and lost this
spring. They had crossed the Pas
tchendaele ridge and broken out upon the
/ Flanders plain, swiftly advancing to-
ward RoulerS on the north and toward
Menin on the southeast. A wedge was
thus driven between the German arm
les on the coast and about Lille. Lille
! itself was threatened with envelop-
ment, and. as the event proved. the
/ German hold upon the Belgian coast
was broken.
No Useless Allied Sacrifices.
upon German man power. Although he
must have recognized that he could not
permanently hold the Belgian districts
between the Scheldt and the sea.
| Ludendorff was Obliged to gain time in
! which to remove the enormous accumu-
lation of supplies and guns in the
doomed region. Accordingly he sent
more reserve divisions to Flanders and
| Cor the moment the Anglo-French drive
slowed down. 1t did not stop; neither
here nor between the Mouse and the
Argonne was pressure relaxed, but for
4 Re moment allied purpose was achieved
and no useless sacrifice of men was
made in too eager exploitation of I'M
jGeniable success.
| Having made Ludendorff anxious for
both his TANKS, Foch was now ready
| for his master stroke. Already the
British between the Scarpe and the
| Somme. between Douai and st. Quen-
tin had been active, had pushed for
/ ward and taken many valuable
'jumping-off" places. But on October
| 81 on the front between Cambria and
! st. Quentin, aided by Debeney's
French army, between st. Quentin and
the Disc. three British armies. those
| of Horne, Byng and Rawlinson. struck.
What happened was the greatest Brit
| ish achievement in all the centuries
/ of British warfare on the continent.
All the past disappointments were
banished, all the old defeats were
avenged; in three days the British
| drove straight through the twelve
miles of the Hindenburg line. on the
| front where it was strongest. and
| pushed out into the open country be-
yond. BY October IL they were in LIE
Cateau, st. Quentin had fallen. the
| fall of Cambria was assured, the old
| battlefield of first Cambria, where
Smith Dorrien's half of Sir John
| French's expeditionary army was al
| most destroyed. had been crossed by
F, the victorious British. The Hinden-
| burg line was memory.
| This fact. too. should be emphasized
| the British thrust was the final thrust
! of the whole battle. In the decisive
4 battle of the world war Foch had
J called upon Haigs armies. as Napo-
| leon was accustomed to call upon his
| Old Guard, and the British had made
| the response of the Old Guard. For
| the British this battle was the third
battle of Cambria. detail in the vast
| battle of Foch. but 1T was for the
| world, the decisive stroke in the win
! ming of the war.
Enormous Consequences of Success.
! The consequences of the British
| success were Immediately enormous.
I Their own advance was checked a
| few miles south of Valenciennes on
| the line of the Selle river. just north
of LIE Cateau, but their halt was ex-
actly like that of the operative forces
on the TANKS. They had accomplish
| ed their purpose, they had broken the
Hindenburg line, they had driven a
\ WcuSe oCSply iulo lIic lTOUb
| and the Germans both in Lille and
| in all the new salient to the south
between the Disc and the Aisne, in
GLIDING Laon and the St Gobain
forest and facing Rheims, were in a
] dangerous posture. The center had
performed its mission, it was time
| for the TANKS to come to life again.
Once more the Americans and Gou-
raud, aided by Berthelot's army
facing Rheims. struck northward-
! What followed was a swift German
retirement between the Argonne and
Rheims, the surrender of all the posi-
| lions held since the retreat from the
| first Marine in September, 1914, in
, GLIDING the old forts above Rheims.
from which the cathedral had been
ruined and the city destroyed. Less
precipitately, but no less inevitably,
| the Germans began a retirement be-
tween the Disc and the Aisne, which
cleared Laon and the St Gobain
forest and surrendered that great
central stronghold on which all their
line in northern France had been
based Meantime the Americans. far
out beyond the Argonne, were slow
| ly blasting their way forward, and
| had reached the Grandpre gap, hav-
pressure upon the flank, instead OF
diminishing, grew and the second
American army arrived in the bat
| tie line to add to the pressure
But Foch was now done for the mo-
ment both with the German center
and left Turning to the right. about
Lille to which front he had hurried
Degouttes French army. last heard OF
| south of the Marne in July, he again
pushed his wing forward, broke
| through all the German lines of de-
tense and swept onward to the Lys in
the southeast, to Roulers and Thiel In
| the north, and to Bruges and ostend
| in the northwest swift collapse OF
L ~ raciSfonca followed. Nv DC