Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-05-11
THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE AISNE..

certainly no one can compare the re-
sistance the Germans are now making
with the resistance they made in the
Battle OF ArtOiS, in 1915, for
1t is we'll to recall also that now for the
first time the Germans are coming
under sustained fire by superior artll-
lery in the hands of trained artillery
men. Last year the British had more
heavy guns than the Germans, bat the
gunners were not yet able to enforce
their advantage. The portion that they
served to the French at Verdun is now
being served to the Germans north of
the Aisne and along the Scarpe. We
are to have a test of German nerves
comparable with the test we had OF
French nerves during the great Nerdun
attack.
laon the French Objective.
AS it now stands. the German position
remains. so far as one a see, intact
along the French front. After a brief
delay We may Expect to SEGA new
French attack. presumably along the
same front, although it is entirely pos
sible that the center of operations may
be shifted eastward to the old battle
fleld of Champagne of 1915. But it is
enough to remember that q break in the
German lines anywhere from before
SCISSORS to Nerdun will compel a gen.
eral retirement. We may take a as
the objective of the French armies OPP
Grating north of the Aisne. Here an adj
vance of less than seven miles would be
decisive. In the same way an advance
from Souain and -Auberive northward
for a few miles would compel a retire
ment of the Germans from before
Reims, probably as far back as the
Aisne at Rethel. And this would neces-
sarily be only a preliminary step to a
i rnfibnrron1t 10 fH@ Af0,~~ - MoDSnrac
But today one a only say that the
French have made a beginning n that
the capacity for continuing must be
determined by the cos of the recent
operations.
Turning now for the moment to The
British operations, as / write on Mon
day. April %, the British after a week
of pause are again striking between
Lens and the Scarpe river. They have
before them a supplementary trench
line running s~outheasterly from Lens,
a portion of which they crossed in their
recent attack. and they have in adj
ditiOn the so-called switch line which
runs eastward of Lens through the
town of Drocourt and rejoins the old
Hindenburg lines southeast of Arras
at Queant. This latter line must be the
objective of the new offensive-it has
been apparent that the Germans have
for more than A week been preparing
to leave Lens. Roughly speaking, the
new objective of the British is the city
of Douai. some eight miles east of their
present front. Toward this they are adj
vancing along both banks of the Scarpe
river, which runs between Arras and
Donai. They are advancing downhill
over relatively level country, and they
AVE before them presumably no such
obstacles a they successfully sur
mounted at Vimy ridge.
Not until they approach the town OF
Douai closely, if they do, will they
again be hampered by any natural OBJ
stacle. At this point they will en-
counter the marshes which almost sur
round the town. and extend we'll to
the northward. There is a general be-
lief that before Douai there is still an
other German line coming south from
Lille and meeting the Hindenburg line
in front of Cambria. On the other
hand there are many who believe that
no such line exists. and that when the
British succeeded in gaining the Dre-
court-Queant line they will be clear
from the German system of defense.
German Retirements To Frontier.
AT the moment Douai has for the
British precisely the same value as
Laon for the French. If the British take
Douai then the Germans must retire
to the frontier. If the French take
Laon a similar German retirement will
be necessary.
Inc test OF German resistance would
seem to be coming before the British
and not before the French. We shall
know probably before these lines reach
the reader whether the Germans have
succeeded in restoring the morale Of
their troops on the Arras front, or
whether they will yield again as they
did before Arras. A second German de-
feat like that of Arras would have a
meaning that would be almost un-
mistakable. 1t might presage an end
of trench warfare. and it might give
promise of a speedy collapse Of German
resistance.
This is the maximum of possibility.
1t is not a thing to be forecast or to be
expected. No one can more clearly rec
ognize than the German general staff
how necessary it is Immediately to re-
store the confidence of their army and
their nation by checking the British
before Douai. The very best effort
they are now capable of will be made,
and this new battle of Douai may turn
out to be decisive in more than one
way.