New-York tribune., 1918-10-05
The
Third Battle of Cambria
BY Frank II. Simonds

reach of British artillery at the
@ present hour was fought the First
Battle Of Cambrai. The conflict was the
consequence Of an enforced stand OF
Smith Dorrien's half Of Sir John French's
expeditionary army, then making its
great retreat from Belgium to the Marine.
For hours, faced with destruction, the
gallant fragment, hardly more than
thirty thousand strong, bore the brunt
of Kluck's army in full advance, and
then wearily but successfully withdrew.
This was "the most critical day of
all" for the British between Mons and
the Marne, and on that day Smith-Dor-
rien saved his force, although forty
eight hours later the Germans claimed to
have annihilated it at ST. Quentin, just
retaken.
Three years later Sir Julian Byng won
and lost the Second Battle of Cambria
on ground all of which is now in British
hands. The battle, which narrowly
missed being one Of the great victories
Of the war, revolutionized the methods OF
combat 1t established the tank, 1t con-
futed the well-grounded faith that no
penetration of positions, no break
through, was possible. After it German
victories in the spring and Allied sue
cesses later followed logically.
And now the British are fighting and
winning the Third Battle of Cambria,
which is itself a major circumstance in
the far more considerable Battle Of
France AT this moment British cavalry
may actually be crossing the fields
where so many Of the First Army, of
the immortal "Old Contemptibles," sleep
their last sleep. Surely there never was
a better example of British persistence.
The young dispatch rider, whose story
of the Great Retreat remains the best,
told the French peasants in August,
1914, that the British would return.
They have returned.
And in the battle for the Hindenburg
line, which is now decisively won, the
tremendous thrust of the British between
st. Quentin and Cambria seems to be the
charge that wins the day" AS it now
stands the British are advancing across
the rear and communications of all the
German forces to the south from the
environs of ST. Quentin to those of Laon.
In the north Anglo French Belgian
armies are winning for all time the
Battle of Ypres, which has lasted two
weeks less than four years. In the east
Pershing is pushing the Germans out of
the Verdun country, with Gouraud's vital
assistance On both fanks the German
is recoiling-but at the critical moment,
when the whole battle is swaying and in
the balance, the tremendous blow of Haig
at Cambria seems to be settling all prob
lens.
To grasp the strategic situation it is
only necessary to glance at any map of
Northern France. Haig's troops are now
reported at Fresnoy; there they cut the
main Paris -Namur-Liege railway. Five
miles to the east is the alternative route
via Wassigny When this town Of Was
signy is reached the main line of COM
muncations serving the Germans in the
Laon position is doomed.
More than this, the British advance is
driving a wedge between the German
front in French and Belgian Flanders
on the north and that in Champagne and
Lorraine. Only general retirement to
the frontier can restore communications
and abolish the obvious peril due to
the rapidly advancing British wedge.
And at the south before Laon and be-
tween st. Quentin and Rheims this re-
tirement must be rapid.
The British victory at Cambrai, then,
is. the last and decisive circumstance of
the battle for the Hindenburg line In
the early days Of September Ludendorfr
accepted battle on the front between
Lille and Verdun, which was in the
main, the front from which he had ad-
vanced to his great victories of the
spring. He undertook on this front to
break Foch's offensive and by stonewall
defensive close the campaign of 1918 by
defensive success, which would give to
the whole years struggle the character
of draw.
Ludendorff has now been beaten. The
Hindenburg line has been turned on
either flank and broken in the centre.
Foch has won his third successive VIC
tory. What remains to be decided is
the condition in which the German ar
nVes will reach Belgium and the Meuse.
We are entering the now familiar phase
of positional warfare, the pursuit be-
tween organized systems Of defence. In
this phase there is the old-fashioned war
of movement-limited, terminating when
the next system of defences is reached,
but inevitably involving great losses in
guns, prisoners and material to the van
quished.