ADVANCE ON CAMBRAI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16969, 1 October 1918, Page 4

ADVANCE ON CAMBRAI.

Englishmen of' Marlborough's time were accustomed to"efcpact.a victory every morning. .In the = few days that have passed since the opening of - the Allies' ; general offensive'; we have been treated ,to an even larger measure of military success, and there is generous promise of a still greater reward for the trials and vicissitudes of four years. Events are; moving so hit on the western front that it is difficult; to j bring them into reasonable perspective, but it is -doing no injustice to our allies to put the British advance on Cambrai in the place of v first importance, v The ; Canadian troops who / are /approaching Ramilles',; are due north of Cambraij at a distance of about two miles from' That oity. They and their., comrades in , arms, among whom" New Zealanders . and Americans have played- a distin- . guished part,' have broken through the Hindenburg . line, its support and reserve trenches, piercing a belt four and a-half miles broad fortified to?; a point /of / supposed impregnability. /-The'■ advance .has;. swept over /theij: positions ;/: captured last November, but ■on -.■■ this occasion .appears' to be no danger of the enemy arresting the /offensive by a counter-attack. / ! ;/ Cambrai is out;; flanked, • the' CambraiSt. Quentin railway been j crossed, arid the Allies are : drawing, closer .to. St. ' Quentin. ~'\& /complete|breach of the Hindenburg /line' at its most vital i* point;/the centre, appears to be imminent. This means much; so far as the present German front is ,i concerned. it means,/everything. The Hindenburg line was constructed /£/ cover ■; Cambrai and St. Quentin, because they /are'junctions necessary>to'"ithe maintenance I>f the Ciermwi front as it now runs. No improvised junction, can take their place,: and no , field railways will serve for the great trunk lines passing through them. 1 The loss of a junction upon which several firstclass lines converge always means a heavy .blow/ to^the/coherence/of a front, and Cambrai is of :, quite * exceptional importance. >//; In,to f the town comes from the north the line from Douai and Lille; : ; from the north-east the line from Valenciennes and Belgium j from the east the line which passes / through Le Cateau and connects with the great international / route, through , Maubeuge to; Liege; /by ; another line, linked with this, there is communication through Hirson to German headquarters at r Mcziereu; ; and < a railway, now cut by the British, through St. Quentin"leadß to the southern sector of the front. * Three great national highways cross at Cambrai, that from Arras through Le Cateau to ', Mezieres, :'that from Amiens through Bapaume to Valenciennes, and that .from St. ' Quentin to Lille. " Cambrai is the hub of; a whole circle of communications. To save -it the stolid mind of Hindenburg evolved the fortifications which bear his name and the more nimble genius of Ludendorff planned. the March offensive. / The building of the V protective • line was made possible by. the deportation of civilians, "and the gross ; abuse of; the labour of war prisoners. "..r The front before Cambrai was stained by a thousand German crimes. Now it is pierced and broken, and the world \ awaits the fall of a city which is a prize in itself and the gate other cities. ;/