New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-07-16
French Part of the West Offensive Brill
liant and Moderately Successful
British Thrust Involves Big Stake,
Although Its Progress Has
Been Insignificant.
Convright l9l 6-The Tribune. Assn

!, ground on which Kluck stopped the Brit
ish after the Battle of the Marine in the
long Battle Of the Aisne. But as they
move east upon Peronne, and they have
/ nearly taken this town, the French are
more and more dangerously threatening
! the Germans in Roye, Chaulnes and Noy-
:. on, as we'll as in the angle between the
Aisne and the Disc rivers. II they can
keep on for few miles more the Germans
will have to quit this whole elbow" and
retire TO La Fere, nearly twenty miles
further from Paris.
Think Of the French armies at Peronne
and Scissors as the thumb and fore
finger of hand. Peronne is the thumb.
Now the French are pressing with their
thumb and holding with their forefnger;
the Germans are trying to hold back the
thumb and keep the thumb and the fore
: finger apart. The French are now actual
ly succeeding, but the progress OF the
thumb is relatively slow and the Ger
mans are, it would seem, certain to get
their troops away, even if they fail to
stop the thumb.
This particular battle is only an exact
! reproduction Of the fighting Of late Sep
TENDER and early October, 1914. Then
the French took Peronne and even got
into the outskirts of st. Quentin, nearly
twenty miles to the southeast. But the
, Germans recalled troops from Lorraine,
abandoned their attack upon Nancy and
pushed the French west out of st. Quen-
tin and out of Peronne and back to Al
bert. where the French in their turn held
and the battle marched north toward the
sea.
The Noyon Elbow" Squeeze.
Foch is trying to squeeze the Germans
out of the Noyon elbow or salient II
he gets Peronne he will threaten their
communications; if he gets much beyond
: they will have to retire. At Noyon the
Germans are less thar sixty miles from
: Paris. To push them back here will mean
much to the French. But it will not mean
any great thing from the military stand
point The German position as a whole
will not be materially impaired, and until
the French get close to st. Quentin no
vital railroad line will be endangered
We are justified, then. in regarding the
French part of the offensive as brilliant,
useful and moderately successful detail in
the Allied operations If they get on bit
more they will recover some French soil
and give Paris more air-but nothing
else
The British part, on the other hand, in
wolves the big stake. Two weeks ago |
pointed out that all the important rail-
road lines on which the Germans depend
for supplying their lines in Flanders and
Artois run parallel to the British front
and relatively near to IT, The British are
now aiming at Bapaume, but Bapaume is
merely a town on the road to Cambria.
If the British can get TO Cambria they
will cut one trunk lne-that from st.
Quentin to Lille-and if they can get to
lie Cateau they will cut the other-that
from St. Quentin to Brussels and to Ger
many by Liege.
If the British can do this in whole
summer it will be a sufficient achievement
and France will be in the main liberated.
/ If the British fail to do this they will fail
to accomplish what is expected Of them
and what they expect Of themselves. II is
doubtless true that the Germans have
massed their forces against the British,
/ for the British menace is deadly, the
French comparatively slight II is plain
that the British progress so far has been
| insignificant, but we are just at the be-
ginning, and for the first time the British
can afford great casualty lists and count
on great stocks Of ammunition.
Terrific British Losses
It will probably be several weeks be-
fore we can form any judgment as TO
the chance Of the British thrust. II may
be that we shall have some months OF
fighting on a large scale, but wholly
reminiscent Of Grants operations from
the Rapidan to Cold Harbor. His losses
were terrific and he did not get Rich
mond; but Lees losses, far smaller as they
were, were ultimately fatal TO the army
Of Northern Virginia. Germany is now
bending from French, Russian and Brit
ish attacks. These attacks are being
pressed with growing violence. Can she
stand the strain? Has she the reserves
TO make good the losses and hold her
present lines East and West? To shorten
them is TO confess the beginning Of the
end To hold them all is TO demonstrate
Ter claim to invincibility. This is the
point to which we have now come. These
are the questions the next four months
are to answer; meantime an incidental
success or failure at certain points is
relatively meaningless. So far the Rus
sian drive is the big thing; il must be
stopped very shortly or the whole East
IL