Middletown transcript., 1916-08-19
BELIEVES ALLIES
OFFENSIVE SPENT.
Correspondent With Germans
Says Line is ImpregnabIe.
A SACRIFICE OF THOUSANDS
Germans Now Holding a Crescent On
the Somme From Which Their
Machine Guns HurI Back
French and British.

General Headquarters West Front
(via Berlin and Sayville) History will
describe the site of the wedge which
the English and French are attempting
to drive into the German crescent on
the Somme as the ossuary of Europe.
Here the future chroniclers of this
greatest war of the human race will
gather to survey the graves Of the vic
TINS; all the plowmen of the future
will teach their little Peterkinsons
about "the famous victory"
The critical state of this gigantic
operation has now definitely passed.
The climax was reached Monday and
Tuesday, August and 8. The third
of trio of colossal mass attacks by
the English and French was launched
against the German stone wall. Their
objective was a position less than 30
miles long. This may seem an exten-
sive battle line, but, in fact, is the
shortest fighting front in modern his
tory considering the number of men
and the power of the engines of death
engaged.
Never before have such colossal in
struments Of homicide and such in
Vulnerable prospective victims been
assembled. The observations of the
correspondent more than fully verify
the common impression that this six
weeks fighting has been the most san
guine and most fatal of the whole war.
The correspondent is unable to es-
cape the conclusion that this much
advertised offensive has now spent It's
uttermost fury. If it is able to dis
play further energy it will find the
German lines more firmly articulated
with the topography, the German ar
tilery positions even more essentially
implanted.
Any further attempt by the English
and French along the lines now three
times in vain essayed would be little
short of wanton sacrifice of human
lives.
1t is true that up to the present
the Entente forces have outnumbered
the Germans holding the defense
tines in the absolutely unprecedented
proportion Of ten to one.
It must be remembered that the Ger
mans are holding a semi-circle, while
the Entente attack is an attempt to
drive a wedge into the position which
commands the attacking forces front
from both sides. Military historians
who will write this bloodiest Of all
chapters of the war will have ample
opportunity to discourse upon the ef-
fectiveness Of the. mathematical Ger
man artillery and their merciless ma
chine guns.
These two terrifying dealers of death
have been the biggest factors in the
results achieved on the Somme.
Fully cognizant of the folly of launch
ing a counter-offensive at the sacrifice
of their own human resources meeting
with coldly calculating precision and
the certainty of the machine guns the
desperate attacks in which Generals
Haig and Joffre have hurled scores of
English and French army divisions,
the Germans today repulsed and hurled
back smashed and scattered divisions,
but strengthened and extended the
ranges of their artillery, making the
results of each fresh attack more fatal
and more bloody.
No new phase of the offensive is
conceivable on this side of the fatal
line can hope to make any possible i'm
preston upon the German front
: Possibly here and there, between
the North Sea and the east frontier
of France, a few hundred yards may
be lost or gained, but as for the gen
eral situation no vital change is con-
ceivable.
Such, at least, is the overpowering
net result of six weeks of battering
by the English and French of the Ger
man lines at point chosen after long
deliberation and assaulted with all the
resources, human and mechanical, of
the combined English and French.