The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-18
HINDENBURG HAS
LOST HIS PUNCH
ON WEST FRONT
Three Different Defensive
Schemes Proven Failures.
Events Fast eliminating for
Great German Retreat.
NOW MAKING LAST STAND
TeutOnS Haven't Made Often
sive Move Since Verdun.
Trench System Passe-GrOping
for Way To Hold Out.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP sIMMs.

With the British Armies in Elan
ders, Oct. 18.-The war on the west
ern front today has entered a new
phase-and probably its last.
The fighting there is as different
now from what it was in 1914 and
1915 as it could possibly be.
First there was open warfare
when the Germans swept over Bel
GUM and France.
Second there came trench fighting
which slowly developed until the TAX
ing of a single trench was an opera
ton as big as Waterloo. Now one
sees practically open country battles
with the enemy engaging in a sort of
rear guard action which, when fully
expanded, will mean a Prussian rout
Only the sudden collapse of hostili-
ties can prevent this curtain on the
kaisers three-act drama
Verdun, Germans Last Drive.
Not since the crown prince broke
his eaglet feathers against Verdun
more than a year ago have the Ger
man armies dared real offensive on
the western front. Since the Somme,
Hlndenburg has been openly on the
defensive and the present methods of
fighting are the direct outcome of that
generals groupings to find a means to
hold out.
The Somme battles were a series of
storming operations-the taking of
| trench systems that stretched for
miles in veritable mazes of support
ing cuts and channels. So long as
Hindenburg believed he might still
break thru the allies lines he con-
tinued his trench warfare. He kept
his front lines full of men, Tens of
thousands of his troops were killed
before he awoke to the realization
that he was losing his punch. Hin
denburg dug the trenches and dug
outs deeper-often thirty or even
| fifty feet below ground. But his men
still died like L. IS in traps when
British TOmmies wv bombs down
| the dugout openil rolled charges
| of high explosive -1Wn the almost
| perpendicular stairs.
In the fire trenches where linden
/ burg kept troops standing shoulder
| to shoulder to repel attacks. allied
/ While the great German ia cllcian
| Numbered on, British and French
! guns Numbered and the super-Ger-
man labyrinth of trenches became an
! appalling shambles.
SOmme Drive Crushed Hope.
! At last Hindenburg saw a light
1 The offensive was no longer his. He
| must fight henceforth a defensive
! war. The famous duel on the Somme
last winter was step number one. He
| abandoned his once precious trenches,
! now become hell hole Uttered with
purifying corpses of German youths.
Hindenburgs next step was observ-
| ed during the battle of Arras in
April His trenches were still there,
| but now thinly manned. The bulk of
troops were kept in support trenches
| hundreds of yards behind.
But his plan was still faulty and
later, at Messines, in June German
troops were more widely scattered
/ oh
from trenches, but from special iso-
| lated posts. Also trench mOrtars.
And specially trained counter-attack-
! ing troops were held in readiness to
| charge the uEed British as soon as OBJ
! JectiveS had been won.
But the British got on just the same
and Hindehharg began to lose faith in
trenches July 81, beginning the bat
tie of Flanders, found the Germans
| still differently disposed.
Now ''PiH Boxes Fail.
There were occupying not trenches
so much as concrete shell holes two
or three linked together with short
tunnels. Pill boxes''-steeI and con-
crete turrets whose Undiscovered tops
| were just above the ground, made
Sits machine guns spat death over the
/ Flemish quagmires. These shell hole
positions and pill boxes with scraps of
trenches few yards long, plus pat
cheS OF barbed wire entanglementS
I here and there, covered an area mile
| or so in depth and such a thing as
J fire trench had ceased to exist.
The idea, of course, as British Of
ficers explained it today, was to make
it necessary for the British to fire q
million rounds of shells to kill
dozen men. The shell holes and pill
box tops were well nigh invisible
from the air and only q direct hit suf-
feed to put them entirely out of com
mission. Then when Tommies ad-
vanced they would come across an
unsupported bit of barbed wire en-
filaded by machine gun fire. Finally
after crossing such a zone as this, they
would meet fresh troops in a terrific
counter-attack
Hindenburg's Move Now.
The plan worked only partially.
Then came the battle of Menin road
when the unheard of creeping barra ge
used by the British took the fight out
of even the pill boxes. The rain of
shells flattened everything. Likewise
the same terrible curtain of fire often
wiped out German counter-attacking
. troops before they got started.
Such is the fighting today. It is now
. ] Hindenburg's move.