The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1917-12-20

an ATTACK, ana, with good luck, Keep
the Germans guessing until it is actu-
ally launched as to the point of i'm
pact.
Counter-Attacks Costly.
If advantages are won by the attack
that the Germans cannot afford to lose,
they are compelled to counter-attack
TO regain the lost positions. Counter
attacks under these circumstances are
invariably extremely costly. They
have to be hurriedly improvised, out
of whatever troops are at hand, and
sent forward quickly without proper
planning or coordination, before the
assailants have had time to dig them
selves in or reorganize the wrecked
German positions. They Immediately
come under the massed fire of cannon
secretly concentrated over a long pc
Rod for the very purpose of supporting
the offensive and checking attempted
reactions. The counter-attacking troops
cannot be supported by anything like
similar weight of guns, if the orig
inal attack came as surprise, because
it takes time to mass guns, and coun-
ter-attacks must be launched at once
if they are to succeed.
. These considerations explain most of
the fighting of the past few months.
The British use their possession of
the initiative to launch an attack on
narrow front. They capture posi-
ton. The Germans are forced, by the
need for safeguarding their line and
preventing other positions from being
enfiladed, to counter-attack. They adj
vance in dense masses and are slaugh-
tered by the waiting guns. Sometimes
the counter-attackS succeed, and then
people at home are depressed. They
read in a bulletin, "Our troops at
tackled at dawn and occupied the east
ern slopes Of Black Hill. Four deter
mined counter-attacks by elements of
three German divisions were repulsed
by our fire, but towards evening fifth
attack compelled us to relinquish the
ground we had gained" They shake
their heads over their morning paper.
And it is quite possible that British
generals at the same time are chuck
ling over their reports, for the bulletin
may mean that at a cost of thousand
men the British have shot down five
thousand Germans. The aim of the
war at present is not to take hills or
towns, but kill Germans.
United States Killed Last Chance.
"The whole situation is as simple
as a problem in addition and subtrac-
tion," distinguished soldier said to
me. 1.-THE enemy knows his OWE
losses and his own reserves and his
own munition power exactly, and he
can make a reasonably good guess as
to ours. We know our own exactly,
and we can make fairly accurate es-
innate Of his. If we got together with
the Boche, and we both told the truth,
we should probably agree that there
was once a chance that the German
armies could tire us all out and get
draw. A small chance, perhaps, but
still chance. But we should agree
that that chance went overheard when
the United States passed conscrip-
ton bill and decided to send an army
over here. From military point of
view, the Boche is doomed, and he
most certainly knows 1t.
"The Boche is not fool. He is not
going on killing his men and running
his country for nothing. He knows he
has no chance on the battlefield, and
he would surrender at once if he did
not see somewhere else glimmer of
hope. Undoubtedly he believed in the
submarine at one time, but he must
now realize that so great is the pre-
ponderance Of force gradually mount
ing up against him here that no num-
her of ships he can sink will do more
than postpone the evil day of reckon
ing. His present reason for fighting
must be that he thinks we are all get
ting tired Of the war, so he may hope
to be-devil our labor parties or our
weaker politicians into a peace made
up of pretty phrases and pious aspira-
lions which will leave him in posi-
ton to recuperate and attack us again
in ten or twenty years. am not
politician but soldier, but / think If
the politicians and the public generally
had a clear notion of the military stu
alton, saw the thing as it is instead Of
regarding our front as deadlocked,
they could understand the German po-
litical lodges much better than they
do. The Boche is beaten, If we all
hang together and you send us men.
And he must be beaten, or he'll at
tack us again"