The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-17
| Cover The World
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SINTMS :

Ma I April ia man whose
w genius might have ended the World War
full year earlier is now modest guest in the
nations capital
He is Field Marshal Viscount Byng of Vimy,
former commander of the British Third Army
in France, the one Allied leader to whom Ger
manys iron man, Field Marshal Paul Won
Hindenburg, took off his hat.
If he had had his way, Gen. Sir Julian Byng
Gas he was them, very likely would have saved
the Allies half the cost Of the war and the lives
of 100000 men. Almost no American troops
would have left bones to bleach on Flanders
field.
In the raw, blustery dawn of Easter Monday
April 9, 1911 watched with Sir Julian and
his staff the beginning of the Battle of Arras.
Three days later CanadaS magnificent troops
took Vimy Ridge-which later was to give Sir
Julian his title-never to let go again.
ArraS is best described as an offensive de-
fensive." week later the French in a syn
chronized offensive, stormed the Hindenburg line
near Laon to the south. But though the two
battles Melted some 10000 prisoners and more
than 300 captured guns, both gradually begged
down without achieving their objective.
DY May, British guns were pounding away
ID farther north The whole crest of Mes
sines Ridge was blown off by the explosion of
100000 kilos of ammonite, the detonation being
heard $50 miles away. Those Of us who watched
it from comparatively near at hand, reeled as
IL shaken Dy a L6rrll1C earthquake accompanied
by hurricane.
From Messines, the British sideslipped still
farther northward, to the general region of the
CHASTITY Ypres salient. Ostend and Zebrugge,
the Kaiser's U-boat nests were the chief OBJ
jectiveS. But they were never reached The
entire summer and part of the autumn were
consumed merely to gain the high ground of
PaSschendaele Ridge
PaSSchendaele Ridge is ridge by comparison
only. All about it as fiat as a pancake. The
ridge Is just few feet above sea level. The rest
is hardly above high tide some not even that
Damp even in dry weather, when it rains it be-
comes quagmire
Here 100000 men, the flower of the British
army, went to their death in the bog. AS they
struggled waist deep in the mire, machine guns
on the ridge put-put-putted day and night, tear
ing them to pieces. Tanks were useless
MEANTIME Gen. Byng south of Arras and
1V1 opposite Cambria pleading with the
British General Staff for a chance.
my terrain is perfect" he said in effect. cts
like a golf course. 1t is ideal for tanks Give
me all the tanks you've got, and all the guns and
men you can spare, and I'll crack the linden
burg Line"
Sir Julian wanted to start his offensive not
later than Sept. 20. They did not let him start
until Nov. 20-not until every unit in the entire
British army had been worn to a fragile and
decimated by the bone crackng, Misunderstanding,
futile offensive IN FldQQerS
Insane egotism," former Premier Lloyd
George calls that campaign in the mud-"one
OF the blacklist horrors of history"
Thus, on another bleak dawn, just as raw and
just as guSty, again stood with Sir Julian and
his staff and watched the getaway OF what
Field Marshal Won Hindenburg on the other side
later called the one show that took imagination
Until zero hour not a sign of life had been
shown in Byng's apparently dormant sector Re-
Inducements came into line at night with
muf1ed tread and in utter silence. Artillery
took position in the same way. Pits were dug
practically in the front line to accommodate
the tanks, whose tops were flush with the
ground Dug at night, the dirt rom these pits
was scattered about and covered u the day time,
holes and ALL by mats of camoudage grass.
A IR pictures taken by the enemy showed no
N change whatever in the positions. To cover
the threshing machine clatter Of the tanks
themselves as they came up under cover of dark
ness to take their position in the pits low-fying
planes zoomed deafeningly over no-mans land
The attack took the Germans entirely by sur
prise. They fed, demoralized. Hindenburg
Line was smashed. Cambria was evacuated
Cavalry and reserve troops could have gone
through and enveloped the two TANKS thus
exposed.
Won Hindenburg wrote in his memoirs that
he could not understand why the British did
not go on. He admitted the initial victory was
complete. The hreak-through had been accom-
pliShed. Had it been exploited, he said, the
whole course of the war would have been
changed then and there
I happen to know the answer to the Hin
denburg riddle. Gen. Byng didn't have the
troops. He had no reserves whatever. The in
sane egotism" which led to the slaughter OF
400 900 fighting men in Flanders and the 60-day
poStponement of Sir Julian's great conception.
is the solution.
But if you think viscount Byng is bitter. you
have another th5Ight coming. Far from it. I
talked with him here. But not so much about
the past What have set down is what my
self saw-not what he says. His spirit is as
sweet as new-mown hay. The only thing he
hates is war. And the only people he dislikes
are the statesmen whose activities conduce war.
They are simply mad" he says.
President Roosevelt promises the people he
Mill do ,,trr,I,ct "a s.,o..S nnn nnn tr.