The Allied Adv Ance Contin'ued October, 1918
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CHAPTER CCXCI. THE ALLIED ADV ANCE CONTIN'UED OCTOBER, 1918. POSITION AT BEGINNING OF OCTOBER, 1918- THE BEAUREVOIR-FoNSOMME LINE ATTACKED, OCTOBER 3-AMERICAN PROGRESS IN THE ARGONNE-GOURAUD 'S SUCCESS AT MORONVILLERS REIMS FREED-GREAT BRITISH ATTACK OF OCTOBER 8 BETWEEN CAMBRAI AND ST. QUENTIN FALL OF CAMBRAI-GERMANS EVACUATE THE ST. GOBAIN SALIENT-GERMAN STAND ON THE SELLE - LE CATEAU STORMED-THE ENEMY DEFEATED IN CHAMPAGNE-LA F~RE AND LAON TAKEN AMERICANS REACH GRAND PRE- ALLIED OFFENSIVE IN FLANDERS UNDER KING ALBERT- RoULERS TAKEN"-THE LyS CROSSED-WAR IN THE Am. N September 25, 1918, Foch had said, of September two arrnies from the United "vVe shall continue our advancc States were figLting by the side of the French and O without stopping and we shall arrive British. The Gorman and Austro-Hungarian at the Rhine." The present chapter offensives in France and Haly had failed. The deals with the events in the W est ern theatre 10ng-cherish ec1 plans of gaining the 8hores of the of war from October 3 to October 16, and P ersian Gulf and invac1ing India through P ersia describes another stage of the German retreat and Aighanistan, anc1 of expelling the British away from the formidable lines of fortification from Egypt, had been definitely defeated. On they had constructed to bar the march of the October 3 Bulgaria capitulated to Franchet Allies to the Rhine. d'Esperey and Turkey was isolated from the These lines had now been broken ' in many T eutonic Powers. The Turks themselves were places. The rupture was con1.plete on the on their last 1egs. Mesopotamia and Arabia Dixmllrle~Cornines front; it was almost con1. wel'e lost, and in Syria they and their German plete between Call1.brai ancl St. Quentin, and direetors were being driven by Allenby towards between the Morom'iller3 H eights and the Aleppo. The Kaiser could count on no army western fringo of the Argonno. beyond his own troops in France, and these On October 3, at which <late this chapter were being compelled by stress of war to retire commences, the position of the Germans was along their whole front. becorning grave. They had drawn all the Nol' was there any hope of their being able troops they could from their Eastern frontier ; to stern the oncoming tide of victory. For the the recruits of the 1919 Class had been in French and American Armies were well east of corporate r~ in Septeml:er, 1917; those of the the Meuse, threatening Lorraine. The Meuse Class 1920 were lmdergoing training. On the was already turned. West of the Meuse, the side of their opponents, apart from the man Americans of Liggett's army were i:llowly but power still available of tre British and Fren ch surely t urning the line of the middle Aisne and It.alian nations, the American force in from the east. Mangin's army north of the Europe had become considerable. By the end Aisne and Oise tl.lrned that line, on the west. VoI. XX.-Part 251 109 110 THE TIMES HI STORY OF THE liVAR. Huysselede 0 Scale of Miles UU U· !p '·5 THE LINE OF OCTOBER 16 FROM DIX MUDE TO RETHEL. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 111 The retention by the Germans of the bulk of troops between the mouth of the Yser and the the Chemin des Dames ridge and the St. Gobain Dutch frontier. Forest, which had yet to he taken, prevented The Hague Correspondent of The Times, Mangin for the time from entering the plain of writing on October 6, stated that:- Laon and attacking the Hunding line. But the Refugees st,ate that a v ery strong defensive line is St. Gobain bastion m the German front where being further elaborated from just south of Ostend it inclined northwards ha d been rendered in towards Thourout, and the Germans are compelling the local inhabitants, including those ')f Thourout, to secure by D ebeney's seizUl'e of Moy on the Oise work on it. A few kilometres farther north a second and of St. Quentin on the Somme. The line is nearly read y protecting the German line of retirement from Bruges and Zeebrugge. This line fortified zone from the Oise to the Somme north crosses, n ear Ruysselede, the road running trom" Thielt, of St. Quentin was still in the enemy's hands, . while the piercing of the Hindenburg line by Rawlinson's ancl Byng's armies left only the comparatively weak Lesdain - B eaurevoir Fonsomme line to k eep the Allies from turning that fortified zone in the north. If, as was to be expect ed, the L esdain-Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line were overrun, D eb eney w01:ud be soon on the Oise at a11 point,s and, should he force a passage south of Guise and north of the con fluence of the Serre and Oise, the Hunding line would be tw'ned from the north. Accordingly, aven if the Kriemhilde and Hunding zones resisted A.llied pressure, they would become valueless if D ebeney, Rawlinson and Byng stormed the Lesdain-Beaurevoir-Fonsomme trenches. North of Cambrai the position of the enemy [Offic~al photograph. between the Scheldt ancl the Lys was similar to TRACK OF A TANK OVER THE HINDENBURG LINE. that of his troops b etween the Oise and the Aisn e. The rupture of the Hindenburg line north-eastwards. W Ol'k is also bemg done on the and the triumphant movement eastward of the d efences of Bruges and Zeebrugge, whither the Germans are said to b e conveying h eavy, but easily transportable, British threatened the communicatio'ns of the fi eld artillery t.o replace the fixed position guns. Germans in the Lens and Lille regions. If At Zeebrugge, a warship has always to b e ready for sea. It is common talk that the submarines have N amur were reached by us, the Germans north already b een removecl , froru Bruges by train, but 1 and west af the Sambre and Meuse would be have b een unable to obtain reliable confirmation. The Germans try m0re than ever to prevent any cont.act hemmecl in. They woulcl have to make their between refugees in Dutch Flanders and the inhabitants escape through the 40-mile wide front of land ot the occupied di f': tricts. They have b een obliged to traversed by the Meuse between Namur and reduce the sentries a Ion@' the electrie wire, but have adopted a system ' of electrw lamps connected with the Vise, north-east of Liege. wire at short intervals. The str p-am of fugitives reported Outflanked on the south, the enemy in and to be passing the wire is purely imaginary. before Lille and between Lens and Douai was Evidently the Germans did not vnink their also b eing t 'mned to the north of the Lys. As position in the west of Belgium to be very we have seen in Chapter CCLXXXVII, Plumer secure, whatever new defenslve constructions had recovered the Wytschaete-Messines ridge, they might have put upo The recent successful and wa.s in front of Wervicq and Menin, clue operatlOns of the Allies along the whole battle north of Lille. To his left, the right wing of front had brought this home to them. the B elgian Army prolonged the Allied line to The initiative had passed definitely into the enVlTons of Roulers. Facing Roulers the hands of Foch, and the German fate was was D egoutte's French Army. The left wing as certain as had been Napoleon's in October, of the B elgians, deployed between the western 1813. Emperor, generals and troops were all environs of Roulers and the north of Dixmude, alike losing heart. They had no chance of was making r eady to march on Bruges and manamvrmg against a General who thoroughly Ostend. Under cover of the fire of monitors understood their condition ancl was pressing troops might be landed behind Von Armin's onward with indomitable resolution and calcu- 251-2 112 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE W AR. fPltoto{!raphed during the A rmislice. THE HINDEN BURG LINE NEAR LENS. lated skill towards the final blow, from which Our people, who have giv en so freely of aIl their nothing could save them. strength for the cause of humanity, can no longer count theil' wounds. They have lived so long in the In the minds of the Allied Commanders there land of hope t hat they have the right to the d ay so was no doubt as to what the final result would long awaited and now dawning. The sole reward they ask is to collaborate with all nations of right con<;;cience be. M. Clemenceau on 0ctober 3 sent the in solving the problems of lofty and socia l justice, which following reply to congratulations he had re will b e t.h e generous fruit of the gr andest victory of all ages. ceived from the Conseil GEmeral of the Depart ment of the Loire : The Allied offensive was for a tin1e hainpered, owing to the need for constructing rQacl s acro!"s The D epartmental As sembli e~ have affirmed their desire to see us prosecute Ollr national d efonce activity the shell-torn, water-logged are.a north, east with ever-increasing vigour. They may COllnt on and south of Ypres. B etween the Lys Rnd the Government as on Marshal Foch, seconded by t h e magnificent elite of military chi e f ~, Allied ss well ss Lens, the army of von Quast.