The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-11-16
BY FRANK n. sIMoNps.
Author of "The World War, "They
Shall Not Pass"

BY FRANK n. SiMoNps.
Author of "The World War, "They
| Shall Not Pass"
Copyright, 1918, New York Tribune
Inc.)
The decisive phase of the last bat
tie OF the World war opened on Oct
ober 8, when Foch threw three Brit
ish armies against the Hindenburg
line between st. Quentin and Cam
brai. Exactly five weeks later Ger
many abandoned the war, her power
for resistance broken, her armies
| forced from the last organized sys-
tenn of defenses, the allied armies
in Belgian territory all the way from
| Sedan to Client. In all military
| history no more swift and complete
| overthrow of a military nation is
recorded, save in the case of Prus-
STA, after Jena. Waterloo overthrow
Napoleon, but not France. But Ger
many fell even more promptly than
Pier army. To complete the nara
! tive of military events in these arti-
| Giles, it is now necessary to recount
| the circumstances of the final battle.
When in the opening days of Sep
TENDER Ludendorff, retiring from his
defeats at the Marine in July and at
the Somme in August, arrived at the
Hindenburg line, he took his posi-
ton in the most intricate and Ella
borate system of defensive works
ever fashioned by the ingenuity Of
man. He believed them to be i'm
pregnable, but whatever doubt may
have existed in any German mind
as to the capacity of the defence
systems for permanent resistance,
nothing seemed less likely than that
in the ten weeks of campaigning
weather which remained, Foch could,
force or turn these works.
German Defense System.
In the present article I purpose in
defence system, the fruit OF four
years Of labor. manned by more than
100000 veteran troops, provided
with every known contrivance Of
war, fashioned on the experience of
the greatest contest in human his
tory, the line, or series of lines,
which was shattered between Sep
TENDER 26, when Foch opened the
battle by throwing Pershing's troops
in north of Verdun, and the first
days Of November when the British
success at Valenciennes penetrated
the last detail of the final line Of
QSJenCe In France.
AS Foch faced the problem in Sep
TENDER it was this: From the Bel
giap coast at Newport to the Swiss
frontier there existed a continuous
line of defences, which corresponded
in the main to the lines to which
the Germans had retired in 1917, and
from which they had started on
their colossal sortie in March of the,
present year. OF this extent Of front
only that portion west of Metz
needs description now, since aside
from the brief preliminary operation
at st. Mihiel, it was not affected by
the September and October opera
tons.
Four Connected Trench Lines.
This line of intrenchments which
the allies faced was the first of four
separate lines constituting the major
circumstances of German defence.
But between these four lines.
stretching in the main from west to
east, were a number of other lines
running north and south, dividing
the front into compartments COM
parable in all respects to the water
tight compartments Of a steamer and
having the same purpose. Thus, If
the first or second line were pene-
trated in some sector, the dislocation
would not communicate itself on
either side, because it was localized
by the north and south trench sys-
TENS and by the rearward parallel
line.
The salient features of these de-
fence systems were the fortified areas
about Lille and Metz. Those were
the anchorages which held the great
cablelike trench systems stretched
across from Flanders to German
Lorraine All four Of the systems
all four at their other extremity rest
ed upon Lille; but there was this
difference, that, while the fall Of
Metz would have been fatal to all
four lines, the third and fourth
lines on their western end touched
the Scheldt river and were thus still
tenable after Lille had fallen.
Location of Four Lines.
The first Of the four systems or
lines which we have come to call
the Hindenburg line began Just
north of Newport, on the North sea,
followed the line facing Passchen
daele ridge, which the Germans had
defended last year, clrcled about
Lille. came south before La Basee,
through Lens, before Douai, Cam
brai, through St Quentin followed
the east bank of the Disc to La Fere,
crossed the st. Gobain Forest. which
acted as a sort of central bastion,
turned east above scissors, follow
ed the old Chemlin. des Danes works,
included the forts north Of Rheims,
crossed the plain of Champagne and
the Argonne Forest to reach the
Meuse just north of Verdun, and
ctrcling about the familiar lines Of
that fort reached the Moselle south
Of the outer line Of Metz forts.
Defence System IL Miles Deep.
This system was by all odds the
strongest of the four. From La
Bassee southwark it was not a line
in the most elaborate conceivable
fashion. following a number of can
ais and rivers. thus gaining the in
estimable advantage OF a water bar
rier, limiting the peril from tanks.
This deep zone extended to the Disc
south OF st. Quentin and thence to
the Aisne, above Scissors, the Aisne
and the st. Gobain Forest supplying
obstacles which were impregnable to
direct attack.
Behind this first line the second
ran at distance so small in many
instances as to make 1t indts-
tinguishable from the first. It
stretched from Lille behind La Bas-
see and Lens before Douai and be-
hind Cambria and st, Quentin, bur-
rowed the Disc trace as far as La
Fere, but then ran east, north OF
Laon, behind the Serre and the Sis
sons canal, reaching the Aisne at
Chateau Porcien and following its
north bank around to Vouziers,
whence 1t cut across the upper end
of the Argonne to the Mouse above