ON MAIN BULWARK OF GERMAN DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 207, 30 August 1918, Page 5

ON MAIN BULWARK OF GERMAN DEFENCE.

FIGHTING ON HINGE OF THE HINDENBURG LINE. LONDON. August 2i>. Mr. H. Perry Robinson states:—The position on tlit? Scarps on Tuesday morning almost exactly reproducpd tlic situation in May, I'.HT. The lifternoon saw our troops advancing over tlie rollinjj country in ttic valleys of tlic Cojeul and Scnscc, well beyond t.lie furthest cast reached in l'.'lT. We are holding positions nortli of Pelvis, with the same Scottish units as battered their way to Roeux in I!U7. Below the river the Canadians have renebed tlic edge of I'.oiry Notre Dame. The Canadians and Scots arc now lighting in ground "ever readied since 1014; being within two miles of Drocollrt and Quoant. This extension has been made, despite the High Command's desperate efforts to make the Germans fight, holding every point wit'i considerable troop?. It is believed our troops nrc now in Bullecourt, which is only two miles from Queunt, the main hinge of the Ffindenburg line and the so-called switch extension. Therefore we are now against (,;,<• very face of the chief bulwark of the German defence. 1 do not pretend to know whether it is intended to break the great defence line, but the Cicrmans arc distinctly uneasy at the rapid advance. The position is full of possibilities, and is as dramatic as anything in the war. During tlie fighting at Croisilles a luidy of troops was cut ofT and escape seemed impossible, but the artillery put down a skilful smoke barrage, under cover of whicli the soldiers regained our line. ("Time*. ,, ) Renter's correspondent at British headquarters, writing this afternoon, states:—The British this morning, l>y hard lighting in wet and mild weather, advanced east of -Arras, thus carrying the line a mile further east along tin' Scarpc than ever previously penetrated. Tlic Canadians licgan pushing beyond Yis-en-Artois soon after daylight, after which a second Canadian attack was delivered on a front of five miles, fairly evenly outflanking the Arraa-Cambrai road. The significance of the present fighting is that it is carrying us into the main arteries of the llindenburg line. Croisilles. 7\ miles southeast of Arras, was carried by the Guard* in the face of tremendous odds. The Canadians readied tlic old Gorman line on a Considerable sector, while Ablaineourt, a mile and a-quartcr north-cast of Chaulnes, and Fay, in the same sector, three miles south of the Sommc, nre in our hands. The French on tlic right captured Marchelcpot, which is very close to the Sommc where it bends to the south. North of the Scarp* General Home's army was unable In hold all its gains in the face of heavy counter-attacks from Oppy. Knemy reinforcement* were rushed Up by train and thrown into the struggle at headlong speed, losing heavily from our machine-gun''and artillery lire. BnglMl battalions nevertheless hold Arlcux-en-Golielle, and the Highlanders stand staunchly on the line from Plouvain to (lavrelle. — (Renter.) The Hindcnburg line, on part, of which the British arr now fighting, is ■ the line to which the Germans retreated when they carried out their voluntary retirement at the end of the Kittle of itie Somine. The line was well known to etratc-'igts long before Hindenburg was born, and it ma upon the "cographical position of this line that Vauban based his system of defence of the northern frontier of France. The line extends from the we*t of Douai and ( ambrai to St. Qucntin. and thence, to the ]-a Fere-1-aon position, which acts ns v Hanking bastion on the. south just, as the dominating position of Vimy north-east of Arras performs a similar function on the northern flank. If one looks at the strategical line ot "defence one sees that there arc three main routes in this central sector of the northern frontier of France along whirl, the Germane have advanced into ThesP routes, as is natural, follow the valley* of the main rivers which •traverse the plains of Belgium and of Northern Franco. There is first of all the line of the Scarpe, which (lows from its eource west of Arras throu-rh Douai'to the Belgian frontier, where it empties its waters into the Scheldt. Then come the line of the Scheldt, which rises south of Cambrai. where it link- up with both the Oise and Somme Kivcrs by the I'rozat or St. Quentin Canal Tin Paris-Brueeels railway follows the course of the Scheldt from Cambrai to Valenciennes, where if leaves the river and reaches Brussels through Mona and Hal. The third, route ie that which goes up the Oise, which river is canalised above La Fere, and enters the Sacnbre valley a fewmiles south-west of Maubcnge. This is the historic route to and from T'arie, and one which has lieen traversed by nearly rvery army wineli has Invaded Fiance Ironi the north or Belgium frotn the south. It was up the Sambrc that our little Expeditionary Force retreated in August, l!il4, on its way to rhe I'isc valley at Noyon. Tlic trunk railway from Paris to Berlin follows tins route, and hence the signiliciinre of pu?se«sing i{. Douai, an important road and railway centre astride of the Scarpe. blocks the way into the Lille salient and Flanders, Cambrai guards the road down the Scheldt into Central Belgium, while at St. Quentin and La Fere the Uermtwiß close the approaches into the valley of the Pa-mbre. A line of entrenchments has been laid between Drocourt and Oucant, and thence east of St. Quentin to the Oise. The line i> weak in the centre and Htrong on the Hanks. On the north the Vimy Kidge, extending from Civenchy to Bailleul lor srx miles or more north-east of Arras, is a powerful point d'nppui. On the south the La-Fere-Laon position flanks the new line, and as long :i« it. remains in German possession prevents any attempt, on the side of the French to 'break through to the Mouse by the trouee do Chimay. La Fere and Liion are situated at the Feet of the northern spurs of the Falaise de Cliampagnc. which is the name given to a. semi-ctrele of low-lying hills separating the plains of Champagne from the Brie plateau extending round I'aris. North of the Aienb, rising from the river-bed between Soiesons and Bcrry-au-i;.a<\ are a series of rugged and thickly-wooded heights, which, culminating in the forests of Covey iind St. d'obain, constitute a formidable obstacle to a force advancing northwards with the object of reaching the La Fere-Lavn position. About, half-way between the two rivers, the Aisrie ami the Oise. is the Ailette River, which, rising nortli-weet of Ciaoniie, Hows in v westerly direction nearly parallel to the Aisne till it reaches the Oise a fpw tnilcs below C'haiiny. The Ailettiis canalised from its mouth to Clievregny, where t"ic- canal leaves the rivet and then follows a south-easterly direction till it joins the Aisnc about a mile above Pont Arey.