The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-08-01

dsflnitely abandoned her old pre-war
strategic scheme and started In on q
new plan developed since the war be-
gan. namely. an effort to upbuild
'Aditsi- Europa AZ a great block COM
posed Of four so-called Central Pow
'ers which would command the road to
the east. The autumn campaign of
1915, consisted. in essence, OF the
furtherance OF this scheme by con-
querins Serbia. bringing in Bulgaria
and batting our Dardanelles EFFORT bs
pushing munitions. supplies and SOL
dlsrs to the assistance Of the Turks.
by the winter OF 1915 Germany
had Cone = long way toward realiza-
tion Of her I'm ambition and this
point represents to my mind the
Grand climactcric Of Germany's offen-
|sivs power. All this time Great
Britain had been building up armies.
and with the besinning Of 1915, we for
me nrse time. hsd : real army in tho
nsld, ~ :u IS jgS
ts ss; :ssI
q RuastS waS tmpos,1 1bls. Rsaddss W.
toe massive to XIII or crush. 10 the
German star again turned on France
and the verdun attack was the result.
with the defeat of Germany at
Verdun came turning Of the tide of
which further manifestation was seen
in q successful British offensive. Pre-.
vious British military efforts had been.
comparatively speaking, minor opera
tions or operations undertaken in
support Of the French. At the Somu,c
we started our new work and really
great. important work 1t was. al
though a great deal of the contem-
porary effect of the verdun defeat
and of the Somme victory was neu.
tralised by Germany's push into Ru-
mania. The Rumanian push. howev-
or. viewed In true historical perspec-
tive was merely a flash. In the pan.
The German military power already
was on the decline and her offensive
strength was nothing like what it had
been the. year before.
THE end Of 1915 found the situa-
tion between the two great groups of
contestants about equally balanced
but with the scales leaning slightly in
favor of the Entente.
THE year 1917 has presented a still
rosier picture. During the who:e
third year of the war Germany and
her allies have attempted nothing on
land. They everywhere have been
on the defensive. The Turks lost Bag
dad and the Sinai peninsula. On
Germany's eastern frontier, although
the Russian revolution enormously
weakened Russia's military power.
Germany was incapable of taking ad-
Of the situation. On the
Austrian front. the Italians got into
powerful blows. In the west the
British and French struck repeatedly
and the Germans have been powerless
to answer back.
This Ia the pitiful state to which
we have reduced the great power
whose whole military gospel was sum-
med up in the phrase vigorous Of
fensive.' Germany's military help
iessness. owing to the long strain on
her manpOwer. material and resources,
Is such that today she barely is able
to hang on and her only hope Is that
she may find some way Of similarly
wearing us down and forcing us out
OF the war before we get up momen.
tum to drive her back.
AT present Germany is banking on
the u-boat. She hopes against hope
that the u-boat will reduce the peo-
pie OF the Entente powers to the same
state OF want, privation and suffering
which she has been enduring for
months and years past She hopes to
make the Entente peoples cry enough
and start peace parlcys while she still,
mas got the big pawns with which to