Evening star., 1915-10-03
BY FRANK 81. sIMoNDs.

- BY FRANK ID. S1mONOS.
Copyright. 1sla by the New York TribuneJ
In the present study of the new Of
fensive in the west / shall deal with
three things: First, the history OF the
operations from the beginning OF the
great deadlock to the latest attempt TO
break it: second, the most interesting
deails of the geography and OF the
communications third, the present
operations as they have revealed them
selves. on the date this is written,
Tuesday, September IS.
The German offensive in the west
came to a dead halt in mid-November
OF ast wear November Is the last Sc
rioas effort was made to break
through the British lines ABOUT Ypres.
and the failure marked the termination
of the movement. which had begun in
August; had been carried across the
French frontier after the battle OF
Charleroi. August %; had eliminated
I'm sthe batle of the Marne. September
6 to- September 10: had been prolonged
by the battle of the Aisne. from Sep
tember IS to October 9, and had broken
ont in new fury in the great battles OF
Flanders. from October 19 to November
-$5
The snd of the struggle saw the ailles
c]inging to their wide front from the
North sea to the Swiss frontier VI tne
15O 900 British who had 1ouent III IA, Ia,
ders barely $4,000 were left. me re. Ts
gian army. was mere smer ervs,oms
French army had made mar 'e,ous W
recovery. but it had been strained 10
the utmost in the long battle 10 WIN.
stand a German army at al tifnes S
superior in numbers. France, 4;oS. ~
Ro
thronrh the storm and that was All.
Months were now needed to repair the
damage of the last hundred days.
To the world the western strugsae ;s
Trench warfare had been little expect,
ed. despite the suggestion TO De Iounu
in the Manchurian campaign ana ersn
in the latter days of the civil war. me
explanation of allied inactivity was not
to be found by the observers, VINO were
stfll unaware of the fact that the Ger
mans had outguessed their opponents
in the matter of heavy artillery ana
machine guns
sH No Real Action.
From November to February there
occurred little Of real Importance The
French pushed out small offensives In
Aisace in the effort to regain Null
hausen, won and lost in August. They
made one ambitious thrust on the
xsane front. about Scissors. and were
aoundly beaten and pushed back across
the river. But of real action there was
none In this time experts. ano ou
talked wisely of the spring drive and
al Kitchener's million. Both time was
to disclose as vain /delusions-
but in this time the French appre-
the task of mobilizing national indus
try to produce munitions: the BRUSH
failed to grasp the truth, ana tnelr
mistake was soon to be reveaieo IN a
Eumiiiating fashion: AS d io1 arn.cta- ane na.,-
tions. it is doubtful il there were a
0uarter of a million British troops IN
the trenches when the frst onensive
began.
denly began to talk of fighting on that
Httle known front between the city OF
Rheims and the Argonne. Day aIter
day the cables talked more ana more
az the desperate fighting about VII
hees little known, and even for the
upssession of farmhouses. which ac-
6aired as evil fame as that OF Snaleau
of Hougoumont at Waterloo. The oo!
iect of the French effort was little ap-
meeiated: the fact that 250,00O men
were fighting on either side was not
revealed until many days after the ef-
fort had ended in practical failure. de-
spite incidental gains.
|, More Lost Than at Waterloo.
But far at the other end of the line.
II March. there suddenly broke out
that British effort which instantly filled
the press and the Imagination of the
world. After sudden bombardment,
large British force struck the German
lines between La Bassee and Lille.
broke through, won clear, and then
ha
Avhers Ridge, which is the key to Lille.
did not come off: the victory turned
out to be the advance OF a mile on
four-mile front at cost to Britain OF
more than she paid In her own oiooo
for Waterloo.
Long afterward. partly in Sir John
Feench's candid statement. partly In
the comment of the critics, the fact was
revealed that the British had almost
wpn a swinging victory. but that the
cost of the local triumph had been 30
great that. given the numbers they had.
they could not pay the price of new
ending in the momentary possession of
shfaa No. so. were but the prelude to the
next great effort.
Fate in April. the Germans. using poi
son gas for the first time. suddenly
crashed through the line at the point
where French and Canadian troops
topched. overwhelmed the French. out
hanked the Canadians. rolled up the
whole British front and almost reached
Ypres. They failed. but the extent Of
their temporary success disclosed to
tiiSm and to the observing everywhere
thu plain fact that Kitchener's million
w9s a myth. that British munitions
wRfe inadequate. that the spring drive
was never to come.
British Fail Again.
Finally. in May. the last bid for .
spring gain was made. The French.
under Foch. the brilliant strategist who
had won such renown at the Marne,
after q bombardment in which 100000
shells were used In a brief time, swept
east north of Arras. took a number of
villages. crowned the Lorette heights
ana were almost at the suburbs Of Lens.
But again a British failure came to mar
the possibility of a major success.
m this operation the part assigned to
the. British was TO make an attack upon
the German lines about La Bassee. to
hold in them the reserves that might
otherwise be sent south to repuise
EsOCl After a hrfef n. ~