The New York herald., 1920-12-03
Who Broke the H,pIenburr Line?

| y
A war of dispute usually follows 9
war of steel. Jealous pride cause;
soldiers to wrangle over the details
Of victory. We find Senator SIMMONS
Of North Carolina sending to the Wal
Department protest from Colone
ALBERT L. Cox, president of the Ole
Hickory Association, which declare;
that there has been a continuous eff
fort on the part of the people of New
York State to gain to themselves ant
to the soldiers who in France repre-
| scnted them the entire credit fol
breaking the Hlndenburg line
Colonel Cox demands that the Wal
Department, in placing the American
cemeteries in France, give ''prope,
credit TO the meri who were mainly
responsible for the American offensive
in Flanders"
AS only two divisions of the A. e. f
were present at the breaking Of the
Hindenburg line Colonel Cox's con
Of the occasion, so far as American
soldiers are concerned belongs to tht
Thirtieth Division, recruited from
Tennessee, the Carolinas and the Dis
trict of Columbia, rather than to the
Twenty seventh Division, which was
made up of New York men and com
manded by General O'RYAN.
The New Yorker who turns for com
fort in this controversy to the final
report of the Commander in Chief OF
the A. Il. T. will not find much. Gen
cral PERsHING disposes of the smash
ing Of the Hindenburg line in les
than 200 words, and these words OF
| the calm, measured style which char
acterizes all his official writings:
1.-The Second Army Corps. Major
! General READ commanding. with the
! Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth Divi-
sions on the British front, was as
signed the task In cooperation with
the Australian Corps, Of breaking the
Hindenburg line at LIE Cateau. where
the ST. Quentin Canal passes through
a tunnel under a ridge In this at
tack. carried out on September 20 and
October /, the Thirtieth Division
speedily broke through the main line
of defence and captured all of it's
objectives, while the Twenty-seventh
progressed until some of its elements
reached Gouy."
The Southern Division seems to
have 1t in the Pershlng report. Gen
eral O'RYAN's men progressed" a
rather vague verb, not half so inspir
ing to the reader as a phrase like
speedily broke through" or Captured
all its detectives"
The admirers of the Twenty seventh
must find n warmer historian thar
General PERsuING. We suggest Sil
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, author of 1.-THE
British Campaign in France anc
flanders" Sir ARTHUR was presen-
a. the Dattle In question.
The main attack on what DOYLE
calls this Chinese Wall of Germany
was assigned TO the Australian Corps
the Second American Corps and the
Ninth British Corps. The Americans
were to go ahead, the Australians tc
move forward through them after the
line had been taken. The British
were to mop up. The offensive be
gan at $50 A. M. on September 27
1918. with the preliminary operation
necessary for the jumping off place:
This was done by General LEwrs,s
Thrtieth American Division on the
right with little difficulty"
But, as Sir ARTHUR remarks. "it
was different with the Twenty-sev
enth on the left" Two days previ
ously O'RYAN's men had taken ovel
n front Of $500 yards opposite tC
Gouy. relieving two British divisions
"rhe defences Immediately before
them were particularly strong, in
Guiding the notorious danger points.
the Knoll. Quinnemont Farm and
Guillemont Farm"
Furthermore, the area which th,
Twcnty-seventh was ordered to tax,
was Of such nature that the mer
had to proceed LOO yards before they
could receive any protection from tht
British artillery. While the Thirtietf
Division dashed through the maIr
Hindenburg line In the most gallan
fashion. capturing Bellecourt on tn,
way" the New Workers found 9
strongly posted enemy in front Of
them" The Third Australians. who
were 10 reinforce O'RYAN's division
were held up between the Knoll anc
Gulllemont Farm, two Of the German
strongholds. OF the fierceness Of the