Evening star., 1918-08-13
HUNS HAVE LOST ALL GROUND
OF VALUE GAINED THIS YEAR
Allies, Now Approaching Third Phase of
Offensive, Have Inflicted Greatest
Defeat In Germans History.

the Hindenburg line.
we are not going to see now or in
any immediate future-probably not
az all-anything like what happened
IN tne Marne campaign Of 1914. 1t Is
and the relatively restricted front. to
preak the whole enemy line. Partial
oreaks. like those the Germans made
IN March. April and May. quickly led
TO the re-establishment Of the defeat
ed allies on new positions behind the
broken front. The same thing hap
pened following the German defeat at
tne Marne three weeks ago. and Is
obviously foreshadowed in the pres
The only war of movement possible
Is between the position out Of which
the enemy has been forced and the
new position. So far this has not
las!eo more than week in any case.
present operation the force Of the
pursuit Is slowing down and the al
hes nave come up against q new, II
only temporary. position.
Limits to Allies Success Explained
Again. as in the Marne case three
weeks ago. 1t Is essential to perceive
clearly the inevitable limits to allied
success that we may rightly appre-
ciate the success itself. After the de-
feat OF the Germans in the second
battle Of the Marne it was clear to
an military observers that the Ger
man army would be able to retire to
the Vesle or the Aisne and that the
lines would again stabilize behind
one Of these rivers.
the reasons are simple. A break
through can be only on a restricted
'front.' because Of the material and men
required. It can come only as a re-
suit OF surprise, and as soon as the
nrse surprise is over the enemy will
pour reserves and artillery into the
gap. The victor will advance over
ruined roads away from his bases,
the vanquished will retire. upon his
bases, and the advantage of superior
communications will presently give
the latter superiority in numbers and.
what Is more important, in artillery.
When this moment has arrived fur
ther EFFORTS to advance will be cost
ly and futile. The history of every
onensive has proved this. Accord
ingly the old condition Of trench war
rare returns 1t is only between po-
sitions. then. that a war of move
ment is possible. The movement is
really a pursuit Of the enemy from
one line to another. and the capture
OF men and guns takes place in the
f1rst two or three days. while the 1ef-
feet Of the surprise remains.
Element of Surprise Exhausted.
In the present case the element of
surprise has been exhausted. The
enemy is getting up reserves of men
and guns, his advantage in communi-
cations Is beginning to tell and the
period of rapid advance is over I'm
less the British and French can
break the German TANKS and thus
widen the kap we are likely to SEE a
general pause within the next few
days. and either on the old Somme
line or the line of the upper Somme
This Will not mean failure or even
relative cneck for Foch's offensive. It
has achieved practically its maximum
strategic result already. What Foch
undertook to do he has done. The mo-
ment may be approaching when he
Will desist, or he may strike to the
the German front elsewhere, but in q
Zonc adjoining the zone already af-
fected and thus bound to have an
effect upon it
We must now learn the three phases
of the cotemporary offensive-pene-
tration. pursuit. pause. They invari-
ably occur in all operations. We have
hot vet reached e stage where a gen.
eral break through and dislocation OF
the whole line Is possible. nor is such
stage fixely TO come. We are driv-
tfon and QUE British and French al
lies have just turned him out of the
second of his important positions with
a loss to him OF men and guns which
makes tina defeat the greatest in his
history, while the moral disaster far
surpases the military in Germany and
out.