The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-11-30

had begun. There our troops raced from victory to victory.
 BYNG'S SURPRISE BLOW
 In the west the crisis caused by the battle of Flanders, the battle of the Lauffaux salient. and their after ef- fleets, passed away. We were expect ing a continuation of the attacks in Flanders and on the French front, when. on November 20. We were sur prised by fresh blow at Cambrai.
 The sSiegfried position was but weak : ly held. The fighting further north, particularly tkA heavy concentration in Flanders. h4d induced the army group of Prince Rupprecht, with the consen, of c. H. @, to weaken the troops hold ing the Siegfried line-tired. or Land wehr divisions-more and more. This brought about a serious element of danger which we at once endeavored to make good
 As things were. we had commenced the relief of tired western divisions by strong eastern ones in the east and the forth division. which had entrained in the east about the middle of No- vember. was intended tor the neigh borhood of Cambrai. It's leading troops had just arrived wherA the blow fell.
 Under cover of darkness and the great Havringcourt Wood. the English had, during several nights. concentrat- cd a considerable number of tanks and cavalry divisions between the two roads converging on Cambrai from Bapaume and Peronne. On the morn ing of the goth, after short, heavy bombardment. they advanced to the attack.
 HURRIEDLY SENDS TROOPS
 The tanks overcame obstacles and trenches, and so opened the way for the infantry and cavalry divisions. When, soon after s a. m.. I spoke with the chief of staff of the second army he reported that the enemy had already broken into our line at several points. I at once ordered several divisions which were more e less rested, in rear of the group of the German Grown Prince. to be railed to the neighbor- hood of Cambrai and south of it, and requested the group of Prince Rup- precht to move forces to the north of Cambrai General von Kuhl had left by car for the fourth army before hear ing about the battle on the second army front. The divisons of this group were thereby delayed.
 The order for unit to entrain is by no means the same thing as it's ar rival It has to march to the entrain- ing stations. where trains have to be got ready for it. On the various lines the trains can only follow each other at CeELdln uSIlHlCe lHleTNdlS Ol lllntt and the normal duration of the journey has to be. added to all this. So it gen. eral1y took two or three days for division, Cang some 30 trains, to reach it's destination. It could seldom be done in less.
 The first endorsements could not reach Cambrai by train before the morning of the 21st; not until the 23d would sufficient troops be collected to tho al Ia ok of mo IF transport for moving troops was now much felt.
 GIT MADE ME VERY ANXIOUS"
 It was not until noon that I ob- tained a clear idea of the extent of the enemy's success. It made me very anxious. Everything possible. how ever, was already being done. So here again I had to leave things to take their course.
 The English army commander did not exploit his great initial success, or we should not have been able to limit the extent of the gap. If he had done so. what would have been the judg- ment on the Italian campaign?
 That was the sort of war we had to wage against the world. As a matter of fact. the blow was parried on the afternoon of the 22d and on the 2Sd, on the line Moeuvres-Bourlon- taine-Noyelles-Ma Even the troops which had been run over by tanks on the first day fought well, and so did the newly arrived 107th infantry division. To it's intervention the early check to the enemy's attack Is mainly due.
 It was imm ediately decided, if pos sible, to take the English attack in flank. Tn theory. a decision of that ~ is easy to make; but in practice, It's execution was enormously difficult in the west. The assembling of the troops, their disposal for attack and bringing up the huge quantities of ammunition required take time. In the meanwhile. the defense itself con- sumes troops.
 HITS HARD BLOW IN RETURN
 At other points the English and French armies undertook nothing of importance. In the re-entrant in our line the fighting died down without the employment of excessive numbers on our part
 By the evening of the 2sth the com (Continued on Page Five)