AMERICAN COMMISSION IN EUROPE

A special American Commission, headed by Colonel Edward M. House, personal friend and trusted adviser of President Wilson, arrived in London on November 8, on its way to attend the Allies’ conference which met in Paris November 22, to perfect a system of co-ordination among the nations at war with Germany and secure a better understanding of their respective needs.

BRITISH NEAR JERUSALEM

On November 24 the British forces contending against the Turks in Palestine had advanced to the suburbs of Jerusalem, after inflicting a severe defeat upon the enemy at Askelon, with Turkish casualties of 10,000.  More than seventy guns were captured at Askelon, and the British subsequently occupied the ancient port of Jaffa (Poppa).  The fall of Jerusalem was then considered imminent and the end of Turkish dominion in the Holy Land was plainly in sight.

[Illustration:  ITALIAN BATTLE FRONT, MAY 4, 1918.

The Heavy Line Shows the Position of the Hostile Armies, When the Austrians Threatened A New Drive in 1918.  The Shaded Line Shows the Italian Positions Before the Austro-German Offensive, in the Fall of 1917.]

WIN AND LOSE AT CAMBRAI

For the first time since the war began England celebrated on November the victory of Field Marshal Haig and General Byng at Cambrai, in the old-fashioned way, by the ringing of bells in London and other cities.  Heavy fighting continued for several days at the apex of the wedge driven into the German line, especially at Bourlon Wood and the village of Fontaine, where attacks and counter-attacks followed in rapid succession.

Up to November 30 the British held their gains near Cambrai and that city lay under their guns.  Then the Germans in a determined attack surprised the British in their turn, and forced them, back from their new positions for a distance of about two miles, nearly to the Bapaume-Cambrai road.

Next day, by fierce fighting, the British recaptured Gouzeau-court.  The battle then raged over a fifteen-mile front, desperate efforts being made by the Germans to regain all the ground taken by the British west and south of Cambrai.  The British had had no chance to dig themselves in and consolidate their positions in the ground won, and on December 1 and 2 the struggle was in the open, a fierce hand-to-hand conflict unlike anything previously seen in the war.  The British lost guns, for the first time in more than thirty months.  They also lost many men, taken prisoner by the enemy, but soon succeeded in checking the counter-offensive.

In their attempt to deliver a great simultaneous encircling attack, to surround the victorious British in their new Cambrai salient, the Germans sent forward great forces of infantry, supported by a terrific bombardment.  The British met the shock brilliantly, finally held their own, and the German drive was declared to have missed its end, at enormous sacrifice of life.