The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-10-04
GREAT HINDENBURG FAILS;
 MACKENSEN'S TASK IN VAIN
Falkenhayn, Who Advised Emperor William Withdraw to the Rhine and Shorten Eastern Line
 Vindicated by Events
By CHARLES JOHNSTON

Dantzig and Berlin, suddenly threat | ened-for 1t was a part of the Prussian creed that Russia would be long in get | ting ready-were as suddenly delivered Their enthusiastic gratitude to linden | burg was, perhaps, a measure of their apprehensions. He even received, among many hsAors the degree, we are told, | of doctor of divinity, for yielding so well perhaps "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon" The Russian raid succeeded,
 however, In drawing off considerable forces from the Marne front, stated at
 from two to four army corps, or from 5000 to 160000 men.
 The glamour of that first victory has
 clung about Hindenburg ever since;
 through those magnifying mists his ad-
 mirers see him. To that early triumph
 he owes his great name. But students of history may be inclined to say that, ip strictness, he has done very little since; very lttle at least, that shows real mili- tary genius. The old soldier, gnarled and gout-ridden, had one excellent trick; for tune gave him the chance, and he played excellently. But there, 1t would seem, his real claim ends.
 With Mackensen the case is very diff ferent. He gives every evidence of being a keen, creative soldier, man of real military genius His onslaught on the Russian line on the Dunayets river, in West Galicia, at the beginning of April, 1915, was really new in war, something that had never been done before
 To Mackensens conception was due the forcing back of the whole Russian line, for which, In it's northern sectors. Hin denburg seems to have reaped credit that really belongs to Mackensen. But there is something genuinely pathetic in the comparison between his position then, at the head of strong and victorious army, magnificently equipped with heavy guns and ammunition, and driving forward against a retreating foe who, 1t was only later known, was almost without cart ridges and shells, and his position now, as October opens, mired in the swamps
 of the Dobrudja, unable to go forward;
 probably equally unable to withdraw. The conception of the Dobrudja cam paign was able: to capture at once the
 great bridge at Chernavoda over the Danube only five or six hours by rail from Bucharest, the enemy capital, and
 the immense granaries in which Ruma-
 nia's riches in wheat and corn have been
 pillng up, as well as the output Of her
 oil wells, stored in enormous modern re-
 cevers at ConstanZa, her port of export
 on the Black sea.
 But brilliant as was the plan-which
 seems to have rested on the hope that
 Rumania, relying on promise of im-
 rnunity given by Bulgaria, would have no
 forces there-Mackensen seems quite to
 lack the forces to carry it out.
 An enormously long line of supplies,
 stretching from Essen across Germany
 Austria, Hungary. Servia, Bulgaria; de-
 pleted forces, which have shown no evil dence of exceeding two or three army
 corps, and may be even less, and with only a small minority of Teutons, Mack ensen has been set a hopeless, a heart breaking task. He may yet rally and drive some distance forward up the Do- brudja plateau; he may even struggle across the Danube, but the comparison
 between his present position and his former triumph is really what we have called it-pathetic. And so keen a soldier as he is must painfully realize it's hope lessness.
 Copyright. 1916, by Charles Johnston).