Hindenburg Line

“ The main Hindenburg Line lay a couple of hundred yards west of the tunnel, a heavily-wired system of trenches. About a mile farther east was a strong support line joining the villages of Nauroy and Le Catelet, while {152} two or three miles farther on was yet another strong position, known as the Beaurevoir line. The way in which Americans, Australians, and British combined with equal valour to hunt the Germans out of this terrific series of positions is a story which will go down in the common traditions of the English-speaking race. ”

“ There were wounded men hobbling seven miles from the Drocourt-Quéant line where I was hit, to the hospital at Arras. The roads were packed with transports—ammunition, pontoons, rations—streaming forward, gunners and infantry marching up to the carnage with eager faces, passing the back-going traffic which was a scarlet tide of blood. It was worth living for—worth doing—that busting of the Hindenburg Line. I hope to be patched up in two months, so that I may be in on the final rush to the Rhine. I've only been out of the fighting three days and I want to be in it again. ”

“ Similar experiments were made with a man who could not swim, and he was able by means of a life-line to pull himself across hand over hand, being convinced, and in a position to convince his companions, that there was no danger of men thus equipped getting into difficulties. These trials were actually carried out by men of the Stafford Brigade, which was to have the honour of leading the Division across the Canal and making the initial breach in the Hindenburg Line beyond. ”

“ Here were a number of deep dug-outs and one or two strong cement shelters which had formerly been the Headquarters of one of the German formations holding the main Hindenburg Line east of the Canal. This Report Centre with the necessary signal office and local telephone lines to “G,” “Q,” and other essential offices sited in the neighbouring dug-outs, was completed during the 1st and 2nd October, and communication successfully established with Corps Headquarters; with all three Infantry Brigades in their reserve positions ”

“ Meanwhile advanced guards, patrols and reconnoitring detachments pushed ahead and maintained touch with the enemy, and roads, railways, bridges, telegraphs and telephones were constructed or restored with rapidity.
As the Allies approached the Hindenburg Line, the resistance of the enemy stiffened and the fighting for the various tactical localities became more severe. During the first week in April the British had almost reached the Hindenburg Line, and had gained possession of the villages of Lempire, Epehy, Metz-en-Couture, Lagnecourt, Noreuil, Croisilles, Henin-sur-Cojeul and Beurains. ”

“ We passed slowly along the road to the east of Arras, honeycombed still with dug-outs, and gun emplacements, and past trenches and wire fields, till suddenly a mere sign-board, nothing more—"Gavrelle!"—shows us that we are approaching the famous Drocourt-Quéant switch of the Hindenburg line, which the Canadians and the 17th British Corps, under Sir Henry Horne, stormed and took in September of last year. Presently, on either side of the road as we drive slowly eastward, a wilderness of trenches runs north and south. ”

“ My faithful orderly—a gigantic, inarticulate Lowland hind named Herriott—jogged along in rear of us. It was a distressing ride. A badly mangled terrain, restored to France and cultivation by Hindenburg's operatic retirement to the Siegfried line, was being overrun once more: and the plucky, industrious peasant population, which had been so busily employed for the past twelve months in rebuilding their villages and re-ploughing their emancipated soil behind the traditionally sure shield of a British trench line, found itself uprooted and cast forth for the second time. ”

“ General Byng's attack covered the whole length of what had become known as the redoubtable and supposedly impregnable "Hindenburg line," so called because it had been established by that greatest of all German military geniuses, Field Marshal von Hindenburg. From Drocourt, just to the northwest of Douai, the line stretched for forty miles in a fairly straight line down through Vitryen-Artois, Villiers, Cagnocourt to Queant and Pronville, thence on to Boursies, Havrincourt, Gour Zeacourt, Epehy and St. ”

“ Obviously the most practical way of attacking the Hindenburg Line was to turn it​—​to fight down it, and not against it. Our preparations for an attack in the Arras sector and on the Vimy Ridge to the north of it were far advanced. It was decided in consequence to carry out with modifications the attack on the German trench system opposite Arras and on the Vimy Ridge. Operations from the Ancre valley, the southern re-entrant of the old Arras salient, were out of the question. The Fifth Army was fully occupied in keeping touch with the enemy. ”

“ We learn to-day with the very keenest emotion of the complete and brilliant evacuation of the Siegfried Line, to the east of Douai, and the re-establishment of a new measure of liquidity. British aeroplanes (of which 133 have been brought down according to plan) have been making long flights over our territory with a view to observation of the Hindenburg Line—on the left bank of the Meuse. It is said that two of our machines are missing, but a recount has been ordered. There must be some mistake. ”

“ Quentin are developing in accordance with our wildest dreams, our troops, after their brief respite in the so-called Wotan Line, displaying their ability in a war of rapid movement. The hesitating British are disconcerted by the recrudescence of fluidity on the front. We learn with satisfaction that our Northern divisions are now safely established in the Hindenburg Line—to the east of Douai. ”

“ A trench may begin in the ruins of a house, may run up out of a ditch; may be cut into a rise of ground sheltered under a hill, and is built in many ways by many men. As to who is the best builder of trenches there can be little doubt, and any British soldier would probably admit that for painstaking work and excellence of construction there are few to rival Von Hindenburg. His Hindenburg line is a model of neatness and comfort, and it would be only a very ungrateful British soldier who would deny it. ”

“ At dawn on September 28 the grand assault on the Hindenburg Line began. It was quite [228] successful on our left and on the left of our front, but the Division on our right had great difficulty in getting forward. By the following day, however, the line was advanced along the whole front, and the N.Z. Division, taking over the pursuit from us, made good captures of men and guns. ”

“ The optimist has been informed that the enemy have literally been blown out of their trenches, and tells us that a headlong retreat that will not stop till it reaches the Rhine has begun, while the pessimist sees in the movement only a strategical retreat which will shorten the German line, and enable the enemy both to send reinforcements to other fronts, and establish himself with ever greater security on what is known as the "Hindenburg Line." ”

“ As soon as the machine-gun nests and posts immediately on the bank of the Canal had been cleared sufficiently to enable our men to deploy, the officers sorted out their commands as far as possible, and the leading companies advanced to the attack of the Blue line, a continuous line of trenches with numerous and well-constructed strong-points. ”

“ Commandeering every available motor vehicle from the entire surrounding countryside, he immediately extended his line and swung around the Russian right as previously he had swung around their left. Almost every road, rail or otherwise, that was of any importance was now in the hands of the Germans and along them could be sent men and guns with overwhelming rapidity. With relentless energy Von Hindenburg now used his intimate knowledge of the territory in which he was fighting. Wherever he knew the most hopeless territory to be, there he drove the Russians. ”

“ D Company (2/Lieut. J. L. Backhouse) on the right—to advance over the area west of the Hindenburg line by way of Sensée Avenue, Nelly Avenue and Queen's Lane.
B Company (2/Lieut. G. G. Lewis) to advance down Burg Support, the old Hindenburg front trench.
A Company (Capt. H. N. Williams, M.C.) and C Company (Capt. J. W. Price) , Headquarters and 1 section M.G.C. attached, to advance down Tunnel Trench, the old Hindenburg support trench.
The attack was to be launched at 12.30 p.m. on the 24th August under a creeping barrage. ”

“ Actually a close examination of the line after its capture by our troops alters the values of the photographic representation considerably. Aeroplane photographs will show a line of trenches well and will betray the chief strong-points, but the details of a carefully-prepared system such as the one under present consideration are not so easily seen. The Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line was both stronger and weaker than it appeared. ”

“ No rule of modern war is more true than that which limits the speed of advance of an army by the rate at which the railhead on which it is based can be moved forward. Throughout the whole of the present advance and the greater one which was to follow, the movement of our railhead proved to be the decisive factor. So thoroughly had the German Engineers done their work, that the position of railhead was never certain for two or three days together. ”

“ As far as the eye could see, our troops were pushing forward; batteries were crossing the Canal and coming into action; Engineers everywhere were at work; large bodies of prisoners were coming in from all sides; and the men of the 32nd Division were advancing fast. The enemy were shelling the line of the Canal and Bellenglise, but no one seemed to mind. ”

“ It was one of many bringing up the German reserves to launch their formidable counter-attack upon the men who had broken Hindenburg's line.
"Whack her up for all she's worth," ordered Ralph, addressing the motor mechanic. "Now, lads, it's a race. It's up to us to get to that viaduct before the train can cross."
The bridge, although not marked on Ralph's military map, was in the position indicated by the impersonator of Captain Cludderborough. ”

“ All troops in the front line were instructed to keep their heads down and to let as little movement as possible be seen, while movement of transport behind the lines, beyond the normal activity inseparable from the supply and maintenance of a division in comparatively peaceful times, was restricted to the hours of darkness.
The enemy airmen at this time were very active and daring, and frequently his reconnaissance machines would, in spite of machine-gun and rifle fire, swoop down and pass over our front and support trenches at a very low altitude, watching for signs of unusual activity. ”

“ Von Hindenburg and Ludendorff arrived at the place that had been chosen as headquarters and he took command of the Army of the East. You know what happened, you know how the Russian invasion poured in across East Prussia, past the Masurian lakes in a semi-circle from Tilsit southwards.
You know that Hindenburg elected to give battle on a field that was four times as large as Sedan. Back of the German line Hindenburg and his staff were watching the big maps. Like a great pair of tongs his soldiers were closing in from north and south. ”

“ The final objective of the Division was a line on the high ground beyond the villages of Lehaucourt and Magny-la-Fosse. The 1st Division on our right were ordered to protect our right flank and to hold themselves in readiness to advance eastwards south of the Canal and conform to the movements of the enemy should he retire, occupying the village of Thorigny and the high ground around that village. In the event, the enemy resistance proved too stubborn on the day of the attack ”

“ From time to time, therefore, our troops could press forward close on his heels, sure of the necessary supplies of rations and ammunition, while on occasion he was hustled very unpleasantly indeed. The rapid advance of a modern army, however, is not possible without the aid of railways, or at least of mechanical transport, and the system of delay-action mines used by the Germans was well calculated to hold up our progress. At every cross-roads mines had been buried—some of them timed to explode a few hours after the enemy had left, others a few days, some even after a delay of several weeks. ”

“ Quentin and Le Cateau, were full of delay-action mines, cunningly hidden and, even if found, impossible of extrication without the chance of an explosion. Day after day, fresh mines went up, when all work forward of the new gap would be rendered useless. So railhead wavered backwards and forwards, and the lorry transport of the Armies was overtaxed and unable to cope with the situation. ”

“ A glance at the map showing the tactical situation on the 23rd September betrays at once this backward bend of the British line on the right of the front held on that date by the Division. The enemy held Pontruet in force, and even had strong posts well up in and about the group of farm buildings known as St. Helène and situated on the Vadencourt-Bellenglise Road. On the 24th September a minor operation was undertaken by the 1st and 6th Divisions on our right, having in view the capture of certain high ground in front of their line to the south of Pontruet. ”

“ The enemy having very thoroughly destroyed the bridge over the Canal at Catillon, all the Divisional transport and the Field Artillery were compelled to cross the Canal by a pontoon bridge thrown across by the Divisional Engineers west of Bois de l'Abbaye. Transport difficulties were thus considerable. The pontoon bridges were in themselves barely sufficient to take the traffic, and the approach to the bridges from both banks was across open fields. These were soon churned into a sea of mud in which limbers and guns more often than not stuck fast, in their attempts to pass over. ”