The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-12-20

peril of the German army on the west
the German army, and the peril Of the
Prussianlzed German empire il in
wolves? If We take the defeat of the
German army as now f0reg0ne, these
proceedings are harmonious and con-
siStCnt with each other. on any other
suDposition they are inconsistent and
iHeXplicable. There is a theOrcIn which
fits them all. That theorem is the
truth"
As Germans View II.
TO turn from this authoritative Eng
Gsh view OF the Flanders campaign.
ore Of the most vivid pictures OF what
the British attacks in Flanders mean
to the unfortunate German soldiers
crnuching ia the mud under an I'M
prGcedentcd volume of fire has been
written by a German correspondent,
Professor Wegener of the Cologne Go-
Zct;c. Despite his effort to put the
best face possible on the situation, it
is not necessary 20 read between the
lines TO appreciate the hopeleSsucrS
@lth which the enemy must look for
ward to new and greater attacks in
She spring, in which the American
army will play its part.
1T was plain, above oil, wrote Pro
fessOr Wegener in describing the lat
est attack, ''tha; the enemy would con
tinue 10 put his hope not in the moral
superiority Of his troops, but in ma
terial superiority. The Incompatible
lighting strength Of the German SOL
der was to be broken, and must be
broken, by tremendous devclOpmen,
Of mechanical weapons and the IN.
heard Of accumulation of guns, ammu
nitiCn, mines, gases, armOrCd 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 10
brilliant preparation and equipment.
or course all depends upon whether
there are behind the material and the
e. - 60 hA. De-
We all know that this IL the case with
| the English. and We are far from want
ing 10 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.
! hut since the end Of August il has be
come quite plain that the English in
| tended 20 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 10 time his new camps, batteries,
strategic railways, and so On, one secs
how all of Belgium that remains un.
occupied, and especially the area Of
| ipres and PoperinghS, has become
I really one enormous war camp, cross.
ed in every direction by close net
| work Of strategic railways thai have
/ sprung out Of the ground.
| Sees French Activity.
There was q further considerable
| expansion Of all this recently. Fever
/ ish activity could he seen among The
English. Bridge after bridge appeared
across The Ypres canal, new road,
| crossed the country, branch lines ad-
! vanced further, the enemy artillery
/ was brought closer to the front, and
| new battery positions We're prepared
/ New muniuOn dumps were laid down.
( new aerodromes, and new encamp-
| ments, thickly sowu though the en-
/ campments already We're As regards
troops as well as material, the Eng
| lishmen hopes TO get his results by the
! employment OF masses.
During the period Of preparation
'IIN bI our IIbilt Was III
| cessant. From the methods Of the
/ new artillery, il was realized that the
! enemy had thought out q new tactical
| scheme to meet the Hindenburg-Lu-
| dendorf defensive tactics. This is not
the place 10 so into details about that.
But a 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 bOmbardment, which
| often developed into drum fire, and
was directed against our lines of ap-
preach 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 its more
terrible mass effect, but also because
Of its peculiar employment In the rear.
II was not, as formerly. an almost IN
broken thunder, but q series of fire
storms of tremendous violence but of
limited duration, alternating with Pc
do. ,Nf