Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-11
Foch's Master Offensive
Soon to Make Rapid Cen
eral Retirement Necessary
TYPOGRAPHY UTILIZED
Teutons Base Great Defense
Systems on Natural Fea-
lures of France
By C. II. PERRIS
SpeciaI Gable to Euening Public Ledger
Copyrioht. 1918. b. Nctc York Times 60.
with the French Armies, oct IL.

Copyri0ht. 1918. b. Ncic YORK fm'' TO-
with the French Armies oct IL.
II is too soon TO say mat the 'eI-
man retreat is general, but We nave
rrossed the Suippe at several points.
prisoners say they belong 70 d'laln-
n,ents left behind to cover Won Muuia
y retreat and there are other Indications
that the victories on our left ana rEht
winrs are bearing their fruit at the cen
y ter.
I have never heard the French sol
dfers speak so fairly Of their Allles
as in referring to the Cambral oHens.N We.
ON our part il should he recalled tnd'
General Debeneys men held anout 'he
third of the front Of attack ana nave
won their full share Of praise Tor thlS
magnificent result Of long-sustained et-
fort
Nine German armies--those Of Below.
Narwftz. Hutier Boehm. Carlowitz, Eh-
erhard Mudra, Einen ana GallWltl-are
\ now i'm peril II would be rash TO "N-
meet a sudden debaclo, but the develop
ment of events has been so RAPID ana
eupon such an immense scale thdt even
that is possible.
The anticipation Of my earlier mcs-
sage was already being Justlied Whrh
wrote: "Non Hutier's army Is in re-
treat. General Debeney has advanced
10 Marcy on lnt bulst l't'N "l'N '''''''
eres-sur-O Oise, taking 2oOO prisoners
Lesson in Geography
schoolmasters and schoolmistro-sgs at
home might make a pretty geography
lesson on these events. II Womb start
BY showing the natural features "I
northern France and Belgium, WhIcn,
directly and indirectly nave from lne
first till now determined the shape ot
Aot "a tho west. Tile tlltt
communications OF northern France. the
railways roads and waterways, radiate
from Paris in the shape of hat-opeu
fan of which the upright arm j. rep
resented by the ways north To- Dunkrk
and the fiat arm by the roads east OF
verdun and Nancy. II is no injustice
TO the armies in the southern terrain
and Alsace to say that the greater ana
most important teld OF war Hes Withh
the triangle thus defined. When the
handle of the fan was pushed up to
Noyon the shape of the front remained
the same The French system was ctys-
tallized from the sea at Nieuport south
to Noyon and thence east along the
Aisne and Champagne hills through Ar
gonne to the Meuse near Nerdun The
large triangle was, and the smaller is,
disclosed by line of river valleys, the
Belgian Meuse. Sambre and Oise, which
run nearly straight from Liege to Paris,
and for that reason were, as before in
history. the chief path of invasion and
remain the most considerable route of
German supplies.
To change the simile, the triangle and
this supply line We're for four years,
like a mighty bow with an arrow across
It. ever pointed at the heart of the re-
public,
Based on Natural Features
Before Russia collapsed the Allies
came near breaking the west side Of the
triangle in the battles of Artois and
the Somme and its southern side in the
first Champagne offensive. Against any
renewal of this menace Hindenburg Gre
ated the most prodigous system Of
fortifications of all time. 1t in turn
necessarily rested upon the natural fea-
lures of the triangle, the unbrokeu line
of water Courses on his west side. and
on the south the Aisne and Champagne
hills and Argonne, with the ST Gobain-
Malmaison mountain block as the CEN
trail bastion.
The Hindenburg system drew most of
its strength from the positions Of these
heights and water barriers Marshal
Foch had therefore to take prime ac-
count of them in designing the Allied
plan of campaign of the last two months
Already the result is sufficiently de-
sveloped to enable us to see how shrewd
was his calculation, Pockets have been
driven into the German front by hard
fighting. but with rapid and large con-
sequences.
The Flanders offensive toward Roulers
will oblige the enemy to leave the coast
and give us a good base for pursuit
when he does so. At the other end the
thampagne-Meus offensive has Vir-
tually driven him from his strongholds
IN the Argonne and the Nerdun hills.
The central push avoids the hill bastion
between the Disc and the Aisne, which
will very shortly fall by menace Of en-
circiement, and aims directly at the
central supply line along the north bank
Of the Disc.