New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-31
Hindenburg.


r,onotion of Field Marshal HindenourS
70 replace Falkenhayn as chief Of the
Great General Stat Of Germany. Inc
truth is that Hindenburg is one OF the
familiar but thoroughly dangerous men
ahout whom there grows up legend. In
fact he fulfs NJ Clemenceau's dehmtiol
Of a symbol "a man about whom the peo-
rle still believe what was never true
No one. will deny the greatness OF HIM
ds,hurg's first victory, and only in Ger
many has the value of Tannenoerg Oeeh
accurately appraised. Had Hlndenours
failed where he succeeded, Germany IN
,be second week of September, 1914 would
have been faced with wholly desperate
situation. The defeat Of the Marine the
rout Of the Austrians at Lem0erg' lol-
lowed by the temporary collapse OF IheI
military establishment; the brilliant VIC
.or,, of the Serbs at the Jedar, together
with a lost battle at Tannenberg' would
lave presented a problem that would nave
taxed Napoleon.
II was the victory Of Tannenberg that
enabled the Germans to continue their
campaign in the West, to make their sec
ond great bid for a decision at Ipres and
the User and, defeated in this, to dig IN
and hold the lines that they have held
ever since. Had Hindenburg failed the
German retreat from the MaJne would
rot have stopped at me Aisiie or the
Meuse and it would have been necessary
at once to send many corps to the East
10 save the Prussian frontier.
But. despite his second success at the
Masurian Lakes, Hindenburg never real
lied the promise that his first successes
hold ont His attempts to take Warsaw
were dismal failures, costing enormous
losses and ending in complete deadlock
on the Bzura-Rawa lines Nor was his
effort to penetrate the Bobr-Narew-Nie-
men line north Of Warsaw more success
fpl At LODI. his third great victory, ne
came within an ace of terrible disaster
and was saved by the supreme courage
devotion and discipline Of German troops
ratber than bv any skill Of a commander
in chief.
The real military reputation OF the
Eastern front is that Of Mackensen. HIS
was the first and successful thrust IN the
opening phase Of LODI. He won the
Battle of Dunajec, and it was his opera
ton that finally turned the Russians out
Of Warsaw more than ten months after
Hindenburg had begun his campaigns for
- the Polish capital But there is no Macken-
III sen legend. and Hindenburg, the savior
Y Of East Prussia, as he actually was, be-
came in the eyes of the German people
a soldier not less successful than Ma
poleon the Great and not less gifted as a
staff director than the elder Moltke.
The retirement Of the younger ana
lesser Moltke. who was chief Of the Great
General staff when the war opened was
inevitable when the decision Of the Marine
had been made absolute by the battles OF
Flanders and the whole original German
convention of quick, terrible, decisive
thrust at France had been parried. lie
bad failed. he had failed in the greatest
crisis Of the whole war, and his failu'e
had resulted in the collapse Of the nam
strategy by which Germany had for forty
wears expected to win her next war against
France.
We shall probably find hereafter that
Falkenhayn's retirement vas the direct
result Of the failure at Verdun. This was
the second and only 'Hss ambitious ehofI
20 abolish the decision Of the Marine ana
rr+ Franco out of the war. b. it seems
certain that history viii do full redit 10
the very great achievements Of the man
who now gives way to he victor OF Tan
nenberg. When he took the reins the
German situation, without eing desperate
was certainly unpromising. N less than
six months he had organized Iorces and
Lrepared plans that led TO the a"'azing
cycle of victories which carried Ger. an
lines from the East Prussian frontier and
the Austrian provinces Of the East to the
Dwina, the Beresina, the Styr and TO Con
stantinople.
II is true that all these victories failed
70 win the war. The decision escaped the
victors Of score of fields. But it IS
hardly too much to say that there was
no longer real chance for decision
when Falkenhayn took hold. Germany had