November 22, 1917

We believe we have sprung today as sharp and bitter a surprise upon the Germans as they have ever experienced. When all attention was concentrated on the Flanders front, and the Passchendaele ridge in particular, we have suddenly struck at the main Hindenburg Line in the old Somme area, beyond Bapaume. There is every reason to believe the blow, when it fell, was completely unexpected by the enemy.
Next to the secrecy with which this attack was planned, the great feature of the operation was the overwhelming share played in the earlier stages of the advance by the Tanks. The condition of the ground here, which is little cut up by shell-holes and is dry, made their use possible, as it has not been possible of late in Flanders. His Majesty’s landships have at last had a real opportunity, and they seem to have made magnificent use of it. The strength of the positions selected for attack was enormous, what is known as the Hindenburg Line consisting, in effect, of three elaborate trench systems, each perfected with every detail known to German military science and defended witli tier after tier of the stoutest wire. That wire had not been cut, for there was no preliminary bombardment, or any warning to the enemy that an attack was impending. It was the Tanks’ first duty to roll out that wire, so that the infantry could get through, and they seem to have done it everywhere, and the infantry poured through after them.
Our line has been practically stationary all the summer, running some hundred yards northeast of the village of Trescault and about 1,000 yards on the same side of Beaucamp and Villers-Plouich. Thence it turned southwards to pass 300 yards on the cast side of Gonnelieu, and then on to nearly a mile on the east of Villers-Guislain. The first German line, or Hindenburg Advanced Line, has run roughly parallel to this at a distance of from 200 to 500 yards, the space growing wider to the south. The main Hindenburg Line, the strongest of the three, was, perhaps, 1,000 yards behind the advanced line, the village of La Vacquerie, for instance, being behind the advanced line, but in front of the main line. The third line, or Hindenburg Support Line, was about the same distance behind the main line. These three lines together made an enormously formidable obstacle, but, so far as we know now, our attack, led by the Tanks, seems to have penetrated it at many points. We hear joyous reports of Tanks, singly or in droves, romping about at all sorts of places in the neighbourhood of the support line, and showing the infantry the way towards various villages. But at this stage of the battle it would be useless to try to give punctilious details. We have gained initial success by an extraordinarily bold manoeuvre, and it is impossible to define the limits of that success today.
I have said that British cavalry has been taking part in the great coup, and it has been a brilliant part. In at least two places I know that cavalry have charged batteries, sabred gunners, and captured guns. I know that they have taken villages and, having dismounted, have held them till the infantry came up. This happened at Marcoing and Masnieres, two places of critical importance by reason of their positions at the crossing of the canal. “Where the cavalry is rollicking now, or what pranks it is planning I do not know. One must, however, have misgivings that in such weather, where the going is getting so slippery and heavy, horses may well be growing tired.
As to the part played in the operation by the Tanks, it was overwhelming. A whole grand fleet of them was engaged, and they were led by their distinguished Commanding Officer in person, who flew his Admiral’s flag at the peak of his Tank and sent a message to all his captains on the eve of the engagement which ran: “England expects that every Tank today will do its damnedest.” Every Tank seems to have done it. There are tales of Tanks which chased the crews of 5.9 gun batteries round their own guns and captured the battery, and there is another tale of a Tank which fell into the Canal, and the commanding officer was surprised to find it did not float.
An interesting detail of the operation is that we have penetrated so deep into the enemy’s territory that we have found and taken villages full of their civilian population. It is said that we have freed over four hundred in Masnieres and nearly 1,000 in another village. This alone would show the completeness of the surprise to the Germans and how far they were from anticipating any such move, for the first evidence that the Germans are growing fearful of any threat on a particular region is the evacuation of all civilians. I understand that some of the newly-released cried unaffectedly with joy at their awakening from the three years of nightmare.