The Washington herald., 1916-05-07

| IN time TO any point which the French
may threaten, no matter how lightly IL is
held at present.
! The rest of this article deals with the
Britsh front of ninety miles. but the dis
parity in force between the German
forces in the north and along the rest
of the front. excepting near Verdun,
should not be lost sight of. for It is a
most important factor in the general
strategical situation.
| During the earlier stages of the YER
ldun fghting, q British army took over
from Gen. dUrbars Tenth French army
the line from Grenay, due west of Lens.
to a point south of Arras where d'Jrpsl
linked up with another British army.
This ended an anomalous situation pop
iular neither with the French nor British
STATS. and made the British line con.
| tinuous. The position relinquished by
d Urbal included the heights of Vimy.
Souchez, the Labyrinth, famous battle
fields of last spring and autumn which
tens of thousands of French soldiers
have bathed with their blood.
Four British Armies Here.
Along the ninety miles from the User
] canal TO the Somme region stand four
British armies. They are commanded by
General Sir Charles Monro, General Sir
| Herbert Plumer, General Sir Henry
Rawlinson and General Allenby.
There has been much talk about the
| age and Incompetence of British gener-
ais. Upon the shoulders of Sir Douglas
| Haig, commander-in-chief, and of his
four chiefs will rest the main burdens in
the coming struggle. Each of the five
has won his spurs in this war. Halg is
fifty-five years old Monro fifty-six,
Plumer fifty-nine, RawIinson fifty-two
and Allenby fifty-five, an average age
of about fifty-five and one-haIf years.
| The average age of the leading German
generals in the field is sixty-three and
one-half years.
Sir Douglas Haig commanded the First
| army corps at Mons, when the British
| had only two corps In the field, and,
later, when the two corps became two
! armies. he won promotion and command
ed the First army. He was in command
of the striking force at Loos, and sue
| ceeded Sir John French shortly after that
battle. Appropriately enough, General
! Monro, who now commands Haig's First
army. began the war under his present
chief, as general OF the second division
in Halg's First Corps
Brilliant Feat to Credit.
1t was Monro who. temporarily relieved
of command in France. went to the
lhASNAhNli dLtdH anu performed the most
brilliant feat to the credit of any British
general in this war. the withdrawal with.
out loss from the Dardanelles Gen
lPlumer commanded the Fifth corps with
distinction earlier in the war. Gen. Raw.
linson led the immortal Seventh division
In Ypres campaign. when this division
won perhaps the highest glory of any
troops in the history of England, fighting
for weeks without relief against odds OF
fn k1Il
although reduced from 1900 men and %
officers to 2,S36 men and forty-fou
officers, figures not permitted to ot
published for more than a year after.
ward. Gen. Rawlinson commanded, al
Loos, the Fourth corps, comprising the
Fifteenth Scottish division and the
Forty-seventh Territorial division. which
Icaptured Loos and Hill 20, with a score
of guns, and alone accomplished any.
thing Of importance. Gen. Allebby com.
manded with distinction the Cavalry
corps at Ypres. make no apology fol
this depression. for asperslons cast or
the British leaders now in Flanders are
due to ignorance. or to false snalogies
drawn from what has happened on other
/ fronts.
| The German Commanders.
Against these four British commanders
are Duke Albrecht, of Wurtemberg,
whose forces are before Ypres and in
| French Flanders an dto the south. the
crown prince of Bavaria, who occupies
the same positions that he did year ago.
| less those the French have nibbled from
him, but who now finds before him only
| British troops. A year ago, when he was
resisting the onslaught OF Foch in Artois.
the prince sarcasticelly asked an Ameri'
can correspondent at his headquarters:
I'VE have heard so much of the new
| British armies. but where are they?
have not seen an Englishman on my
| front" He sees plenty today.
| Obviously, I am not permitted even to
| hint at the distribution of the British
| troops, but the same prohibition does not
apply to the German side, and my in
formation concerning the German con-
centrations is semi official. AS has been
said, there are thirty-four German di-
visions along the ninety miles of British
front, or in reserve in the rear, but these
are not equally distributed.
Germans ThickIy Packed.
German troops are thickly packed
along the forty miles between Ypres and
| Arras. About twenty-five divisions are
massed around Ypres. Armentieres, La
Bassee, Lens, and the country sur
| rounding these vital points, all of which
are avenues of approach to Lille and the
line of the Scheldt, which, II it should be
| turned, would force the retirement of all
| the German armies to the south as far
I as Soissons-the Second army of Won
| Buelow and the old First army of Won
| Kluck, now under Won Fabeck, and the
| army of Won Heeringen on the Aisne, as
well as the hosts of Duke Albrecht and
Prince Ruprecht. There are those who
whisper that the recent war scare in
Holland was due to the fear that the
| Germans would be turned out of North
ern France, and would. in their headlong
departure, for the Fatherland, overrun
| that narrow strip of Dutch L.imburg
| which projects itself between Belgium
and Germany. The present German dis
positions seem to indicate an intention
not to permit themselves to be turned
out in this fashion.
| l say seem to indicate, for IL. as many
| believe, the Germans. plan an offensive
| against the British, they naturally do
| not desire to advertise the fact. and they
| know perfectly well that the movements
| of their troops cannot be concealed.
| Nothing would be more natural, then,
than for the troops which are designed
| to be used extensively to be kept, as
| long as possible, in positions wh-h seem
to have been taken up with a view to
defense.