New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-18
French Smash 18-Mile
Front and Take $500
More Prisoners
Berlin Admits Guns
Wrecked Positions
Defence Impossible, Sell
ing Trenches at Highest
Price," Germany Says

east Of Rheims as far as the old Cham
pagnc battlefield. the French delivered
to-day another smashing stroke. In tho
face of violent gusts of rain and snow
Niyclle's troops stormed eighteen miles
Of German trenches. wiped out power
ful salient around the village of Aube-
rive. captured that place and swept in
$500 additional prisoners,
The total number OF prisoners taken
BY the French in the last two days
operations is 13.5OO as many as the
British swept in during five days. I'm
official reports place the German casu-
alties on the French front in the last
forty-eight hours at close to 100000.
One division. sent to the relief of an
other on the eve Of the battle, was Writ
ually wiped out. General Niyelle re-
ports.
Correspondents at the front report
that the French have now straddled the
Hindenburg line at its southern end as
the British did month ago below
Arras. Although they do not state at
what point Nivelle's troops have
smashed the famous German defensive
position, it is probably in the region
of Bemericourt.
Combined Offensive Begins
With the French attack on the Aisne
front there begins that great combined
Allied offensive for which the world has
been waiting with tense interest for
many months. The assertion OF the
German official st,tement that zone of
the greatest battles in history" is
now in progress does not seem an ex-
aggeration. Britain, at last ready. has
struck the first blow at Arras: the
French have followed on the Aisne. and
a campaign has begun as momentous as
Napoleon's last desperate gamble that
ended at Waterloo.
The measure of this conflict is not
the immediate result of the DAYS en-.
gagement. We shall not appraise il
accurately by men captured or ground
gained in the opening days, unless, as
seems wholly unlikely, there is a Ger
man collapse or an Allied reverse i'm
mediately comparable TO Leipsic or
Waterloo. In American history the
measure is that campaign of 1864
when Grant started al the Rapidan on
the march which, although temporarily
delayed at Petersburg. ended at Apo
mattoX ten months later.
We are seeing the first blow OF
Great Britain at last organized as was
Germany in August, 1914: we are see
ing the final effort of France, made
after nearly three years Of war and
sacrifice hardly paralleled in the his
tory of any nation. Not less impressive
is the German stand. For six months
every effort in three great nations has
been concentrated upon preparation Tor
the campaign that is now beginning. and
the fate Of the German Empire on the
one hand and of democracy on the
other may fairly be said to turn upon
the decision that will be reached on
the fields over which the first advances
are now taking place.
4 Great Military Crisis
One OF the natural yet regrettable
consequences Of war so long pro-
tracted is that all its events come TO
have an equal value for the world and
il becomes difficult 10 discriminate be-
tween the great and the small event.
Yet, since Napoleon left Paris for his
final campaign, IT is doubtful il any
military crisis in Europe can be COM
pared with the present. We are now
looking at campaign which those who
come after US for generations will
probably discuss and study as many
generations have studied and discussed
the Waterloo campaign.
II is necessary in observing this new
campaign TO keep in mind this larger
horizon, which is so easily obscured by
the lesser incidents, each so like TO a
score of others that have gone before.
Thus, in sense, the British victory at
Arras was only an extension OF the
results obtained by other attacks in
the history Of trench warfare, and the
later French attack is less successful
than the first German onrush at yer-
dun. Both are but the first steps in
the mighty drama now unfolding. but 4
is 20 the larger drama that attention
must steadily be directed.
100000 Men In Battle
Along the l00-mile front, where thu
guns on both sides are necessarily
booming, there are not less than 3,o00,.
600 men engaged in savage battle. Along
the French line OF attack alone Nivelle's
troops are opposed by nineteen divi-
sions Of reserve.-2s5.o00 men-and
are believed 70 number twice that force
themselves.
The British continued their advance
in the region OF Arras to-day, but their
operations were considerably slowed