The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-02
THE BIRMINGHAM AGE-HERAID, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2

had to undergo q difficult time since
 the enemy broke through at Cambria on September 27. Up to October there were violet battles with varying for ! tunes on both sides of Cambria. and We succeeded in holding the town.
 The End Army was not so success full, being pressed further and fur
 ther back towards Le CateIet In the early days of October. Towards Bo-
 hain the enemy gained ground. The right wing of the 18th Army, which
 was also engaged in heavy fighting. was affected by this loss. On the Sth it met another heavy blow in the
 neighborhood of Le CateIet and south
 wards therefrom, which 1t repuIsed. 1 (Here is where New York's ,27th and l the wildcat" division were fightingO ! In the night of October 9th we were l compelled to withdraw the 2nd Army \ into the Mermann line, as there were
 no reserves to aid it. To conform with
 this movement the 17th Army had to | move it's left wing and its center back
 to a line half-way from Cambria to Valencinnes, the right wing for the present being stationed immediately to
 the west of Douai. The 18th Army
 had, like the End to fall back to the Hermann line. Its left wing remained
 at La Fere.
 "A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT 1 The decision that the End and 18th
 Armies should occupy the Hermann | line, whose construction was but Ht-
 tie advanced, wns n great disappoint-
 ment to us. I had hoped that the Setgfried line (the Hindenburg Hneb
 would have held for much longer. Already in the fighting at the begin ming of October to the north of St. 1 Quentin, we had been gradually forced out of the position at many spots, but
 we had. generally speaking. kept the | line. We had not even completed the
 evacuation of the ground in front of the Hermann line.
 The retirements were carried out smoothly. On the 10th already the
 enemy attacked the new positions and was beaten off On the 11th, to the
 northeast of Cambria, he had a local
 success against the 17th Army, which
 was prevented from extending. During
 the days following up to the 17th, there
 was new fighting on the front of the
 2nd and 17th Armies, which on the whole were successful for us. | As result of the withdrawal of the | 4th Army behind the Lys we were now
 compelled to withdraw the 6th and
 17th Armies behind the Scheldt into the Hermann line. On the 17th, the | 9th Army still stood to the west of | on the night of the 18th. Further to the south the right wing of the 17th
 and later the whole of that army, had
 to conform to this movement
 SHAKES UP HIS ARMIES It had been decided that in the event of the occupation of the Hermann line the Boehn Army group was to be with drawn. Its front had now become too narrow, and did not contain sufficient reserve strength. (Von Boenn was put in command of the armies from Sois- sons to Arras after the defeat on the Marne, pushing in between the Crown PrinceS.)
 The End Army now fell under the
 Rupprecht Army group and the 18th under that of the German Crown Prince. In this group, the 9th Army was taken over by the 7th. Here, too, especially
 having regard to the arrangement of longer room for a separate army General von Carlowitz took the com mand of the End Army, and General von Marwitz received that of the 5th Army near Verdun. His chief of staff was Dieut.-Colonel Wetzell who had hitherto acted IS my assistant. spe- cial group H.Q. was established for General von Gallwitz. In this case. too, 1t had proved undesirable to burden a group H. c. with the command of an | army.
 The necessity to economize forces had led, to the end of September, to the German Crown Princes Army group abandoning the Laffaux salient, which had caused us many losses, and with drawing to the position behind the Oise- Aisne Canal, which we had occupied l after the disastrous engagement of | October 22, 1917.
 (The heavy losses he mentions were | mostly caused by Michigan and other | troops from the middle northwest, who
 stormed the almost impregnable heights north of Soissons)
 AMERICANS CRUSH DIVISION On the End of October, as had been
 arranged, the left wing of the 7th and
 the right wing of the 1st Army fell back
 to the position from which the attack
 of May 27, 1918. had started. Unfortunately, before the movement
 was carried out, one division was,
 wholly unexpectedly, crushed on the
 heights northeast of Fishes.
 The centre of the 7th Army held the Chemin des Danes firmly. in the face of many enemy attacks.
 ct was Americans who swept north
 east of FismeS and crushed the divi- sion.)
 The defensive battle in Champagne and on the Mause, on either side of the
 J. a favora ble course. in spite of the ab- solutely overwhelming superiority of
 the enemy. which was considerably greater here than on the fronts of the
 two northern army groups. Our leader ship here distinguished for exceptional
 calm and judgment. and the enemy gained ground but slowly.
 The continual and violent assaults on the left wing of the 1st and on the
 3rd Army caused the army group of German Crown Prince to decide in
 the early days of October to break off the fight and to withdraw all the troops
 to the Funding -Brunhild line. i. e., half way to Laon Marie Sissone -Aisne from
 Rethed upward to Grand Pre-. G. H o.
 was upnable to give this group. which husbanded it's men carefully, any new forces. It approved the proposal, which was carried out as arranged in the days ending with the 18th of October.
 SECOND DIVISIONS GREAT BLOW The Army group of the German Crown Prince began in the early days
 of October to withdraw the troops be- fore Rheims behind the Suippes. In the night of the 10th-11th the whole front from the Chemin des Danes to the Ar gonne was given up, after strong at tacks had been beaten off by the 3rd Army.
 ct was the great att ici. of the End
 Division in the Champagne O5t. 2-3-4, and the dashing capture of Mont Blanc. the dominating height of the hills east of Rheims. which caused .his retire
 ment of the Crown Prince.)
 By the morning of October 13, the
 7th. 3rd and 1st Armies stood ready for defenS Siye fighting in thoir paw and