Fighting in a Tunnel
Fighting in a Tunnel is an article written by C. E. W. Bean published in The Times on 2 october 1918.
Fighting in a Tunnel
AUSTRALIANS PUSHING THE GERMANS THROUGH.
From C. E. W. Bean.
WAR CORRESPONDENTS' HEADQUARTERS, Oct. 1.
The Germans have been beaten from their great defence, the Hindenburg Line, on which their newspapers, their generals, and their public men have been assuring them they could place trust, and are now apparently retiring eastwards. The heavy blow delivered by Americans and Australians on September 29 straight at the Hindenburg Line, at its point of greatest strength between Bellicourt and Bony, with the deeper blow magnificently delivered by English troops immediately to the south, staggered the German troops holding this most vital point.
The German Staff hastily rushed in every division available in order to stop the gap. The 121st, 54th, and 185th Divisions and the 75th Reserve Division were in the Hindenburg line opposite the American divisions, which made their great assault on Sunday. That day's heavy fighting shattered and disorganized them to such an extent that the Germans rushed up three divisions immediately into the line at the same point. These were the 2nd Guard Division and the 21st Division, which had already been smashed by Australian attacks at Mont St. Quentin and Péronne, and had only been resting a fortnight, and the 119th Division, which was driven back by the last Australian assault on September 18.
These troops fought solidly yesterday against the Australians who, with a certain number of Americans, were attacking up the Hindenburg line towards Bony, and also bombing up the second system of the line towards Le Catelet and before Nauroy. But the Germans knew the Hindenburg line was already lost. All yesterday, from noon onwards, the German troops and transport were withdrawing along the roads leading east from the great defence, and some gung were seen later moving back. The Australians and Americans managed yesterday to reach the outskirts of the small village of Bony, which for two days held up the northern part of the advance, and to-day Australian patrols are well beyond it, and are nearing the northern entrance of the great tunnel of which they already hold the southern end.
This morning, after dawn, the Australians attacked beyond Nauroy, over open rolling country, between the second and last system of the Hindenburg Line. Advancing with a certain number of Tanks behind an artillery barrage, they passed north-west of Joncourt, took Follemprise Farm, and later worked through Estrées, and brought the line to a position facing the third and last line of the Hindenburg system which runs from Beaurevoir to West Wiancourt and Ramicourt. There for the present moment the line rests, with the British facing the same line farther south, and the Germans holding the position before Gouy, Beaurevoir, and Ramicourt with strong nests of machine-guns, and possibly with greater force. The position this morning was that the Germans still hold the northern end of the great Canal tunnel while we held the south. The barges on which the German troops lived still lie inside the tunnel, and beside the towpath inside the tunnel entrance.
The entrance to the tunnel is 80ft. below the hill surface. Somewhere in that black interior lies the point where the Australian possession of the towpath ends and the German begins, but probably neither Australian nor German knows where that point is. Possibly by the present moment our troops are through, but the fighting yesterday was always stiff in the labyrinth of surface trenches, and our troops always found machine-gun fire coming from some portions of the railway track or the sunken road which marks on the surface the course of the tunnel a hundred feet beneath. During the fighting yesterday the commander of one of the battalions of the 2nd Guards Division was captured with the battalion headquarters. The information obtained shows that the 2nd battalion of the 2nd Guard Regiment was actually reduced to 90 men.
The weather on Sunday night became what seamen call dirty, with wild squalls and fitful rain. The rain ceased yesterday, but the day remained dull. Last night. was bright, but for the first time turned to chill winter. To-day there is a bright sun with a cold wind, similar to an Australian winter's day. The country reached by our troops is now green and less broken by shell fire. The shell-shattered band where the British and German Armies faced one another along the Hindenburg line last winter is now definitely passed.
Sir Joseph Cook, Australian Minister for the Navy, and Sir A. Conan Doyle visited the very centre of the battleground, within 250 yards of Bellicourt, and obtained probably the best and closest view of a battle it has ever been possible for a Minister of the Crown to see. The Australians were exceedingly interested in Sir A. Conan Doyle, whom they all knew as the author of "Sherlock Holmes." Both Sir Joseph Cook and Sir A. Conan Doyle addressed the troops later behind the battlefield. Sir J. Cook gave them a message from the people at home, and Sir A. Conan Doyle told them what the English people thought of their part in this war, especially this year, and told them also what their English comrades thought of them, and what their English, Scottish, and Irish comrades had done and suffered. The speech had a tremendous reception, the troops cheering again and again.
