The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-16
France Issues Official Sum- mary of War Operations Since the First Battle Last Summer
JOFFRE'S PLANS AND
 HOW THEY FAILED
 OR MET SUCCESS
Absorbing Account of the Inside of the War With Details of Various Great Battles

London, March 5.-tCorrespondcuce
 of the Associated rrcss.)--The Associ-
 ntcd Press has received m historical
 review, emanating from French official ] sources of the operations iu the west
 crn wnr theatre, from its beginning
 up to the end Of Jsuunry--the first
 six months of the war. It Is long, de-
 tailed and In some respects tecanicai
 In the military sense, hut h contains
 matter Of absorbing interest, both for
 the loyman md tho expert.
 The plans Of General Joffrc are set forth and explanations given as to how and why they always could not
 he carried out. how they were mod flied from time to time. and in what manner they were successful.
 The review closes with nate of satisfaction at tho results achieved and of the utmost confidence in the final
 issue.
 The papers arc too lons to permit Of their being given otherwise shan in instalments. which will be con- | tinued from time to time. It should be understood that the nar-
 rative Is made purely from the French
 standpoint. The first of the install-
 ments of the document is as follows: | Chapter one)
 l The French setbacks in August The first month of the campaign be- gan with successes and finished with
 defeats for the French troops, Under l what circumstances did these come | about?
 Operations in Alsace our plan of concentration had fore
 seen the possibility of two principal actions--the one on the right between ! the Vosges and tho Moselle, the other on the left to tho north of the Yer
 dun Toul line--thIs double possibility 1 involving the eventual variation of our transport. On August 9 owing to | the Germans passing through Belgium. | our concentration was substantially l modified by General Joffe, that our principal effort might be directed to | tho north.
 was apparent that the length of time | required for the British army to begin to move would delay our action in con nection with 1t. This delay is one req son whiehr explains our failures at the
 end of August
 Awaiting the moment when the op- erntions in the north could begin and to prepare for 1t by retaining in AL
 sace the greatest possible number of German forces, the general in chief ordered our troops to occupy Mulhouse, to cut the bridges of the Rhine AL Huningue and below, and then to flank the attack of our troops operating In Lorraine. This operation was badly | carried out by n leader who was at once relieved of his command. Our troops, after having carried Mulhousc. | lost it and were thrown back on Bel | fort. The work, therefore, had 10 be | ecommenced afresh and this was done | from August 14 under new command. Mulhouse was taken on the 19Sh. aft CT brilliant fight at Dornach. Twenty four guns were captured from the en-
 emy On the 20tl we held the ap- brooches to Colmar, Voth by the plain
 and by the Vosges. The enemy had un-
 dergone enormous losses and abandoned great stores of shells and forage but from this moment what was happening in Lorraine and on our left prevented from carrying our successes further. for our troops in Alsace wore needed elsewhere. On August 2S. the Alsacs army was broken up. only small part
 remaining to hold the region of Thanh and the Vosges.
 Operations in Lorraine The purpose of the operations in Alsace was. namely, to retain large part of the enemy's forces far from the northern theatre of operations; it was for our offensive in Lorraine to pur sue still more directly by holding be- fore it the German army corps operat-
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