The Washington herald., 1917-10-10
HUNS EFFORT FAILED
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

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during the same period. from Nav to
September. the Germans engaged
twenty-five fresh divisions at Verdun,
and that they have been obliged to
engage forty-five on the Aisne.
Furthermore, during an equal period
the French took 5.S63 prisoners at Yer
dun and s.553 on the Aisne.
This comparison included only a
small sector of the French front. But
it showed a very interesting result
due to the increase of the material
forces of-the allies and the improved
French fighting methods since adopted
by the other armies, and also, as
testified by the German stafr itself,
apropos of the battle Of the Somme,
in explaining their defeat: ito the
perfect use of technical methods"
II the above comparison is extended
today to the entire Franco-Englisb
front, IL you consider that from April
10 to June Is the enemy engaged 1OS
divisions against the Anglo-French
forces, and, finally, IL one bears in
mind that the successes of the British
offensive at Ypres obliged the enemy
to engage fifteen divisions during the
last ten days you can understand why
ShS NOA man lOsoCS Ol "tSIeTLl
front grow heavier and heavier. CThey
the month OF May, 10000 men are
estimated by the allied stan during
the month of June, etc.)
Fighting Never Ceases.
This Is because the fighting on the
western front. as a matter of fact,
practically never ceases. Whether in
the French sectors of verdun or the
Aisne, or in the English sectors Of
Arras and Ypres, the fighting is only
discontinued at one point to be taken
up at another. In addition to the big
attacks, a quantity OF carefully pre-
pared small actions which have been
crowned with success and of which
the bulletins are not able to give q
clear idea. increase the attrition of
the Germans.
This constant activity, coinciding
with the weakness and inaction of
the Russians, also explains why the
Germans are obliged to maintain, and
succeed in effectually maintaining,
three times larger forces on the
French front than on the Russian
front Qn the beginning Of the sum-
mer there were 156 German divisions
to 100 kilometers on the French front,
as against 100 Austro- German and
Bulgarian divisions, seventy-seven of
which were German, on the eastern
'front.'. 1t is known that the Russian
winter practically puts a stop to all
active operations, and that the reac-
tion of the internal events in Russia
on the eastern front has allowed Ger
many to consider 1t during four
months as a veritable reserve for the
western front
1t clearly appears at present that
the German staff, remembering the
critical situation in which they found
themselves following the Anglo
French success in the Somme in 1916,
fars to see their Western front broken
by the allied offenses In 1917.
Draw Picked Men.
All the measures they have taken
have been defensive in character in
tended to strengthen their resistance
in the face of Anglo-French forces.
Not content with declining to give
battle and Withdrawing a portion of
their front on the Hindenburg posi-
ton. they have transported to the
Western front between January and
April a certain number of divisions
drawn from the Eastern front. As
this did not suffice they have drawn
the picked men from each of their
companies on the Eastern front, and
with the assistance of the class of
1913 have formed twenty-seven new
divisions, twenty-six Of which have
appeared in France.
They have then exchanged their
picked troops of the Eastern front
for the inferior ones of the Western
front Uandwehr), Finally. once the
battle began, in order to hold out
they have successfully replaced, num-
Der for number, sixteen exhausted
divisions from the French front by
fresh divisions from the Eastern
front.
However, In spite Of using all these
methods of which the latter have
only been possible this year. due to
the trouble made by the Russian rev.
oiution, Germany has made her su-
preme military effort.