The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-02-11

Half a Year Of World War.

| OH UlOulHS dlleI lHe OulDiS can VI
the world war the outstanding fact
was that peace seemed as distant,
almost more distant than, it did in
September. Yet if the close of the
conflict remained still subject for
speculation, it was now plain that
the issue had been determined IN
September and that all that had hap
pened since the battle Of the Marne
had in fact been the natural conse-
uuence of one more decisive battle
of the world. On fields and hills but
little distant from the plain where
Roman civilization turned back At
tia, the German bid for world su-
premacy, the kaiser's chance to play
Napoleon were abolished.
In the opening month of the war
there was a chance, real chance
that Germany might destroy France
before Russia was up, force Russia
to make terms before England was
ready and then, master of the con-
tinent as the France Of Napoleon,
renew the duel with the British en-
pire that France had abandoned pre-
cisely a century before. After the
battle of the Marne the chance had
vanished. Week by week, month by
month, Russian, British, French
military power, developed. On jan
uary 20 Germany held less of France
than on September 1; instead Of a
100000 British troops, the advance
guard of a fresh million were al
ready in Flanders; French troops
were breaking out in Alsace.
In the period between the battle
of the Marne and January, 1915, Ger
many had made three great cam
paigns. On the User the very flower
Of her troops had gone down under
the eyes of the kaiser in a frantic
attempt to gain the French coast
cities, to grasp the eastern shore OF
the Straits of Dover, to get within
reach of the hated Englishman' S
home. A first attempt to seize War
saw, to crush Russia, France being
indestructible. had failed before the
Polish capital. A second offensive
into Poland, after great victories and
terrible losses had come to a halt
before the Bzura.
Six months after war had begun
Germany was still faced by three
great nations, their military force
wholly unshaken, their armies still
gaining in numbers, their deicien-
cies in artillery, in machinery all but
made good. Such advantage as her
preparedness had given her, the
credit balance in her favor, was now
exhausted.
In the same period her Austrian
ally had three times been beaten al
most to her knees by Russian vic
tories, was now facing an invasion
across the Carpathians into Hungary.
Twice, too, the Hapsburg emperor
had seen splendid armies ignoml-
niously routed, destroyed by the hat
ed Serbs. who in their turn were pre-
pairing to flow over the Danube into
Hungary.
Around the world the German
hopes had equally proven vain. The
Turk had suffered disaster, the holy
war had fallen to empty nothing, the
South African revolution had flicker
ed out as an abortive revolt, with no
other permanent consequence than
to insure the loss of German South
west Africa. In Asia her colony had
disappeared into Japanese hands, in
the Pacific her islands were lost lr-
revocably, in Africa her remaining
colonies were being slowly but steadl-
" consumed by her enemies as one
eats an artichoke, leaf by leaf.
| To balance this, Germans could
still point to conquered lands and
provinces. In Poland, in Flanders,
in Champagne her lines held, her
counter-attacks regained the lost
trenches regularly. In Alsace. along
the Aisne, in Artois and Belgium
Anglo-French attacks, ambitious Of
fensive, were speedily beaten down.
East and west Germany was still a
match for her enemies, but east and
west the moment for victory had
passed. irrevocably passed, east and
west German operations more and
more tended toward the defensive.
What Gettysburg had been to the
South, the Marne was now proving
to have been to Germany. Nowhere
in January was there the slightest
sign of new promise for German vic
tory and what was true in January
had been true in the earlier months.