The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-12-14

TTusSlunlZeu herman empire IL In
wolves? IL we take the defeat Of the
German army as now foregone. these
proceedings are harmonious and con-
sistent with each other. On any other
suppOsitlon they are inconsistent and
inexplicable. There is theorem which
fits them all. That theorem is the
truth"
As Germans View Il.
To turn from this authoritative Eng
llsh view Of the Flanders campaign,
one of the most vivid pictures of what
the British attacks in Flanders mean
to the unfortunate German soldiers
crouching In the mud under an I'M
precedented volume of fire has been
written by German correspondent,
Professor Wegener of the Cologne Ga
zette. Despite his effort to put the
best face possible on the situation, 1t
is not necessary to read between the
lines to appreciate the hopelessness
with which the enemy must look for
ward to new and greater attacks in
the spring, in which the American
army will play It's part.
1T was plain, above ALL" wrote Pro-
fessor Wegener in describing the lat
est attack, that the enemy would con-
tinue to put his hope not In the moral
superiority of his troops, but In ma
terial superiority. The Incompatible
fighting strength of the German SOL
der was to be broken, and must be
broken, by tremendous development
Of mechanical weapons and the un-
heard Of accumulation of guns, ammu-
milton, mines, gases. armored cars, and
the like. This Is all In accordance
with the English way of thinking, for
their battle is fundamentally battle
Of money.
Recognize Bravery Of British.
"The natural dislike, mingled with
contempt, which we Germans have for
this way Of thinking. must not pre-
vent us from understanding that the
conception is exceedingly serious. Any
body who formerly followed English
Colonial wars, English voyages of dis
covery and English sport, knows how
much of the successes of the English
in these spheres was always due to
brilliant preparation and equipment.
or course all depends upon whether
there are behind the material and the
machines real men to use them. But
we all know that this is the case with
the English, and we are far from want
ing to deny It; on the contrary, we
should be diminishing the achieve
ments of our own men if we did so.
"Even earlier the fighting was well
described as supernatural battle,
but since the end of August it has be-
come quite plain that the English in
tended to increase their efforts still
further by still more gigantic guns
and still more enormous masses of mu-
nitions and all the engines OF war. On
our maps of the ground behind the en-
envy front. upon which we mark from
time to time his new camps, batteries,
strategic railways, and so on one sees
how all of Belgium that remains un-
occupied, and especially the area Of
Yprcs' and Poperinghs, has become
really one enormous war camp, cross
ed in every direction by close net
work Of strategic railways that have
sprung out of the ground.
Sees French Activity.
"There was further considerable
expansion Of all this recently. Fever
ish activity could be seen among the
English. Bridge after bridge appeared
across the Ypres canal. new roads
crossed the country, branch lines adj
vanced further, the enemy artillery
was brought closer to the front, and
new battery positions were prepared.
New muntion dumps were laid down,
new acrodromes, and new encamp-
mcnts, thickly sown though the en-
equipments already were. AS regards
troops as well as material, the Eng
lishmcn hopes to get his results by the
employment of masses.
During tho period Of preparation
tho bombardmeDt of our front was in
ccssant. From the methods Of the
new artillery, IL was realized that the
enemy had thought out new tactical
scheme to meet the Hindenburg-Lu-
dendorff defensive tactics. This Is not
Tie place 10 90 lutO uetdllS uDOut tiuts
But feature of the scheme was that
the enemy tried constantly to broaden
the zone of his artillery destruction
behind our front. The increasing fire.
quency of the hombardment, which
often developed into drum fire, and
was directed against our lines of APP
proach and command positions, grad
ually showed that the new attack was
near. The drum fire assaults on the
whole battle front increased so much
in strength that they were obviously
preparing for the new infantry storm.
Attacks Nerves Of Defense.
"The drum fire was different from
former drum fire, not only in it's more
terrible mass effect, but also because
Of its peculiar employment In the rear.
1t was not, as formerly, an almost I'M
broken thunder, but a series Of fire
storms of tremendous violence but of
limited duration, alternating with Pc
Il. ~ "a, ,,t txy.