Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-05-31
now comes vcrdun.

And now comes Vcrdun.
Mr.. Simonds says General DelacroiX, ir
a conversation with him. likened Verdur
to Gettysburg. saying the parallel between
the two battles is unmistakable and strik-
ing. At Gettysburg Lee made his final eff
fort to destroy the army he frequently
had defeated but never eliminated. Vic
tory meant the fall of Washington. the
coming OF despair to the north. an end OF
the c.vil war, which would bring indepen-
dence and the prize for which they had
contended to the confederates. And Lee
failed at Gettysburg, not as Napoleon
failed at Waterloo or as MacMahon failed
at Sedan, but he failed. and his failure
was the beginning of the end. The vic
tory OF Gettysburg put new heart, new
assurance into the north; it broke the
long illusion of an invincible confederacy;
it gave to Europe, to London, to Paris,
even more promptly than to Washington.
the unmistakable message that the north
was bound to win the civil war. Nh. ST.
monds says:
1T was Germany and not France that
raised the issue OF Nerdun. The Germans
believed, and all their published state
ments show this, that France was weary,
disheartened ready to quit on fair terms.
They believed that there was needed only
a SHINING victory, a great moral demon
stration of German strength to accomplish
the end-to bring victorious peace. In this
] think, and all with whom l talked in
Franc felt. that the Germans were
wrong. that France would have endured
Germans knew, must have known, tina to
try and to fail was to rouse the whole
heart O. France, to destroy any pes
sirnism. and this is precisely the
failure has done.
When the Germans began their
gigantic attack upon Nerdun the French
high commanders decided not to defend the
city. Jotfre and those who, with him.
direct the French armies We're agreed that
the city of Nerdun was without military
value comparable witt the cost of de-
Tending II. and that the wisest and best
thing TO 60 was to draw back the lines
to the hills above the city and west Of
the Meuse. Had their will prevailed there
would have been no real battle at Verdun
and the Germans would long ago have
occupied the ashes of the town.
After the battle Of the Marine. when
the trench war began. the French took all
the!r guns out of the forts of Verdun.
pushvd out before the forts, and Verdun
became just a sector in the long trench
line from the sea to Switzerland. 1t was
defended by trenches. not forts. . . e
From the strongest point in French de-
Tense ii became the weakest
Accordingly. when the German drive
at Nerdan was at last disclosed in it's
real magnitude Joffre prepared to evacu-
ate the town and the east bank of the
river. to straighten his line and abolish
the salient and give to the Germans the
wreck at Verdun. The position behind the
river was next to impregnable: the lines
would then be parallel; there would be no
salient, .
But at this point the French politician
interfered. He recognized the wisdom of
the merely military view Of Joffre, but
he saw also the moral value. . He
saw that the French and German publics
would think of Verdun as it had been
thought of before the present war