The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-11-20
CROWN PRINCE VAS
SORELY DISAPPOINTED
His Defeat at Verdun Prevented an Of
fensive at Auberive Which He
Had Planned

1 French front, Nov co. Correspond
ence of the Associated Press One OF
the disappoint ments which the German
crown prince has suffered since the utter
defeat of his great efforts to capture
Verdun has just been brought to light
| in documents found on German prisoners,
From these it appears that while the
! French were infiicting their smashing
| blow on the German troops still menae-
| ing Verdun on Aug. 20, last-~hen the
crown prince not only lost some valua
| Bile ground, but about 5000 of his select
ed men were taken prisoners--the Ger
mans were carefully preparing an attack
on grand scale from point about a
mile to the east of Auberive to the
Souain height. French activity in front
of the fortress of Ferdun upset these
plans completely and caused the crown
prince to put off for an indefinite period
any attempt to carry out an offensive
movement In this region.
Details of the projected attack, as a
result of which the German commander
had hoped to gain possession of an i'm
portant part of territory on the Cham
payne front, show that the chief part in
the operation was TO be played by the
first Bavaran division, which was
brought up to full strength for the pur-
pose and had enjoyed period of re-
pose and special training for the task
1t was to be supported by two other di-
visions on its right and left TANKS respec.
lively.
The Bavarian division had received or.
ders to prepare to furnish twelve sections
of chosen shock troops, each section com
81 49, n0fn Il gar ~
Behind these shock troops were to fol- |
low twelve booty squads" and twelve
destruction squads" each composed of a |
temporary acting officer and thirty-two
men
The confidence of the crown prince in
the success of the intended blow at the
French was so great that he had ordered
twelve teams OF six horses each To be
ready to gallop off with the captured
French cannon while an officer and fifty
men of the engineer corps were to stand
prepared to destroy gun positions and
guns that could not be carried off
Ii had been arranged that an extremely
tense cloud of gas should be emitted over
he French infantry and artillery positions
Turing fifteen minutes before the shock
inits advanced to the attack. Batteries
# field guns were to be stationed in i'm
Mediate support of the shock troops. Air
,Ianes were to fly low and participate in
he infantry work The whole operation
vas, according to arrangement, to result
n what was called in the German or
ers, "a summer harvest" II was fixed
or Aug. l6.l7.
On Aug. l6 the French troops further
asst in the vicinity of Nerdun started
movement on their own account for
n that date they opened their military
for their intended attack on
Jug. 20. The menace TO the Germans
gliding the lines before Verdun became
. great that the crown prince was
bliged to send the two divisions which
ad been ordered to support the Bavari
MS in the attack at Champagne to the
clip of the troops at Verdun and to fill
heir places by two other divisions which h
nd just suffered terrific losses in Elan +
ers engagement and which were in con
.quence not in the best condition for Sc 4
ere fighting. At the same time even Il
re elements were contrary to the Ger
ans. hi
Later orders show that the German v
was obliged first to put the
tack off till Sept. /, Before that date =
rived he had evidence in the shape of
rench artillery activity and infantry (
ids in the Champagne sector that sur :
Use was out of the question Finally 2
e French fire became so severe that on :
,pt 10 the crown prince decided to give .
the idea Of an offensive in this sec z
On and began to withdraw to the rear <
his guns, troops and other material 2
hich had been intended to help in the Z
aping of an abundant harvest of pris- :
ers and the gain of considerable strip Z
territory. <
Once more the French had been able to !
pose their will on the enemy and to 2
Ike him fight just where and when they 3
anted him to do so. =