Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-12-13

artillery fire was on q front OF 50 miles.
from Quent almost to ST. Quentin. But
the real operative front was less than a
third OF this extent in the initial stage.
The actual boundaries We're the Scheldt
and its canal. which come down to
Cambria from st. Quentin. and the
Canal du Nord. which parallels these
some 10 miles to the west, coming up
from Havrincourt toward Marquion and
crossing the Bapaume-Cambrai road
near M%oeuvres.
German Retreat Impends.
As I close this article on Tuesday
November 81, the situation about Cam.
brai is this: The British nave taken and
are holding all the high ground. includ-
ing the Bourbon woods, and hold prac-
tically all of Bourbon village. This high
ground in the woods is the key to all
this section of the German lines. III the
British hold cannot be broken the Ger
mans will have to retire over Il consid-
cradle area of country between Cambrai
and Arras. This does not mean that
there will be any general retreat. but
only a local retirement of the sort that
followed the British success at .Arras in
the spring. On the other hand. if the
British are able to push forward toward
Cambria and take the town there may
be a very general withdrawal over the
whole front.
1t is now some IL months since the
British army took the offensive at the
omme. When they did this the Ger
mans lost the offensive in the west. and
they nave been steadily ON the defen-
sive ever since. Verdun saw their last
great effort between Switzerland and
the sea. Now. looking backward over
this period of IL months. it is interest,"
ing to measure what has happened to
the German defensive. In the battle of
the Somme, from July 20 the middl of
November las. year, Germany lost
5000 prisoners and was also compelled
to %evacuate 1.20O square miles of
France. AT the Aisne and before Arras,
in May and June OF this year, she lost
$1,000 prisoners. Before Nerdun in three
attacks-one in october and one in De-
oember OF last year. and one in August
of this y-ar-she lost 5000 prisoners
and practically every bit of ground that
she had captured in her great effort last
! year. Before Ypres II in the MeSsines
attack, which preceded Ypres, she lost
5000 prisoners. In the recent Cambria
struggles her losses We're 10000 i'm pris-
or erS.
In this period of II months Germany,
on the defensive, has lost 100000 pris-
oners in battle. in addition to some
$4,000 prisoners in the minor phases of
trench warfare before the French and
British lines. A quarter of a million
German prisoners in IL months is the
measure of the declining morale of the
Germans when it is recognized that in
that period they have never at any one
time captured 1000 French or British
prisoners. Measured by guns they have
lost not less than 1,500 heavy and field
pieces, while neither the British nor the
French have lost a single gun. They
have lost between 1900 and 100 II
miles of French territory. Slowly but
surely they have been pushed back, and
the recent blow at Cambria is a final
evidence of the fashion in which their
defensive is breaking down.
There is every reason for optimism in
the long series of allied successes be-
ginning with the battle of the Somme.
This war will not be won by Il Waterloo
or by a Sedan, out in the allied often
sives since July of last year the Ger
mans have lost more prisoners than
Napoleon the First lost at Waterloo,
and Napoleon the Third at Sedan. The
nation which set out to Paris
and france in six weeks in the closing
days of the first half of the fourth year
of the war finds itself still conducting,
a desperate and losing defensive nearly
100 miles from Paris. 1t is essential
that the allied public should see the
reality. that they M not be deceived
when Germany begins to launch a peace
campaign based on the imaginary in
%vincibility of defeated German armies
a campaign certain to come within the
next few weeks.