Evening star., 1918-11-17
BY FRANK H. sIMONDs.

~ HE decisive phase OF the
last battle Of the world
war opened on October s.,
when Foch threw three
British armies against the
Hindenburg line between
st. Quentin and Cambria. Exactly
five weeks later Germany abandoned
the war. her power for resistance
broken. her armies forced from the
last organized system 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 military ma
ton is recorded. save in the case of
Prussia after Jena. Waterloo over
threw Napoleon. but not Franco But
Germany fell even more promptly
than her army. To complete the mar
rative of military events in these ar
ticles, 1t is now necessary to recount
the circumstances Of the final battle.
When in the opening days Of Sep
tember Ludendorff, retiring from his
defeats at the Marne in July and at
the Somme in August, arrived at the
Hindenburg line. he took his position
in the most intricate and elaborate
system of defensive works ever fash
ioned by the ingenuity of man. He
believed them to be impregnab1e. but
whatever doubt may have existed in
any German mind as to the capacity
of the defense systems for permanent
resistance, nothing seemed less likely
than that, in the ten weeks of cam
paigning weather which remained.
Foch could force or turn these works.
German Defense System.
In the present article 1 purpose in
some detail to describe this German de-
fense system, the fruit of four years of
labor, manned by more than 1900, 900
veteran troops, provided with every
known contrivance of war, fashioned on
the experience of the greatest contest in
human history, the line, or series of
lines, which was shattered between Sep
tember rs. when Foch opened the battle
by throwing Pershing's troops in north
of Verdunj and the first days of Novem-
ber, when the British success at Valen-
ciennes penetrated the last detail Of the
final line of defense in France.
AS Foch faced the problem in Septem-
Der it was this: From the Belgian coast
at Nieuport to the Swiss frontier there
existed continuous line of defenses,
which corresponded in the main to the
lines to which the Germans had retired
in 1917, and from which they had start
ed 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
Tthe brief preliminary operation at St.
Mihiei, it was not affected by the Sep
tember and October operations.
This line OF antrenehments which the
foo f1A Hff
arate lines constituting the major cir
cumstances of German defense. But be-
tween 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
comparable in all respects to the water
tight compartments of steamer and
having the same purpose. Thus, if the
first or second line were penetrated in
some sector, the dislocation would not
communicate itself on either side. be-
cause it was localized by the north and
south trench systems and by the rear
ward parallel line.
The salient features Of these de-
fense systems were the fortified areas
about Lille and Metz. Those were
the anchorages which held the great
cable-Iike trench systems stretched
across from Flanders to German Lor-
raine. All four of the systems rested
upon the Metz circle of forts, all
four at their other extremity rested
upon Lille; but there was this differ
ence, 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.
The first Of the four systems or
lines which we have come to call
the Hindenburg line began just north
of Nieuport, on the North sea, fol-
lowed the line facing Passchendaele
ridge, which the Germans had de-
Tended last year; cfrcled about Lille,
came south before La Bassee, through
Lens, before Douai, Cambria, 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, followed the old
Chemin des Danes works, included
the forts north of Rheims. crossed
the plain of Champagne and the Ar
gonne forest to reach the Meuse
Just north of Verdun, and circling
about the familiar lines of that fort
reached the Moselle south of the
outer line of Metz forts.
Twelve Miles Across.
This system was by all odds the
strongest of the four. From La Bas-
see southwark it was not a line, but
a zone, twelve miles deep, organized
in the most elaborate conceivable