New-York tribune., 1918-08-20
Fiue Months of the Campaign
OF 1918
By Frank H. Simonds

Copyright, 1918, The Tribune Ass
rIVE months ago tomorrow, on
III March 21, the Germans launched
their great offensive in Picardy;
we have, then, even under the most ia
vorable weather conditions, lived through
twot thirds of the campaign of 1918. 1t
Is possible now to review with certain
measure of exactness the facts and fig
ures of the past operations and to meas
ure the slow but sure turn of the tide
which has brought us at the present mo-
ment to a situation where all the valu-
able ground lost in the first four months
of the campaign has been retaken in the
fifth and the invaluable advantage Of the
initiative has passed to the Allied COM
mander in chief
Thanks to the Russian collapse, the
Germans possessed on the West front at
the outset of the present campaign a
superiority over the French and British
of some forty divisions, having available
220 against 1870. They had, in addition,
devised a new method Of attack and were
thus able to score one of the great VIC
tories of the war in their March often
sive. Again, in April in Flanders, and
in May, in the Ile-de-France along the
Aisne, they won victories hitherto un-
precedented in the war of positions
In all Of these battles there was the mo-
notonous record Of successes achieved by
the massing of superior numbers at the
decisive point. At the Second Battle of
the Somme, in March, the Germans used
ITO divisions against 81 of the Allies, and
in the first thrust 40 against is. At the
Lys, in the Flanders fighting of April, 10
German divisions were used against SO,
but the Allies brought up only an ap-
proximately equal number after a long
delay and an initial disaster. At the
Aisne, in May, twenty German divisions
overwhelmed seven French and British
At the start of the campaign the Ger
mans had 200 divisions of their 220 avail
able for active work. Of these 10 were
used at the Somme and 40 at the Lys. A
dozen more were reported among the
forces at the Asne and three in the Bat
tie of Conpiegne, in June, when the Ger
mans were promptly checked. Thus when
he began his fifth offensive in Cham
pagne, in July, the German had already
used 165 of his 200 divisions of available
troops at least once He had, in fact.
used at least half of them twice and 25
of them three times.
And in the defeats Of the Second
Marne and of the Third Somme the Ger
man has used 70 divisions ana IS re-
spectively, and in this number have been
included not less than 20 of his remain
ing fresh divisions. He had last week
not more than Is fresh divisions in re-
serve, and he has unquestionably drawn
on these already to stabilize the Somme
front. In word, looking at the mathe-
matical side Of the problem, the German.
who had 100000 of fresh troops, or
ganized into 200 divisions, on March 21.
has now not more than Is divisions of
unused troops, numbering not more than
$4,000. Of the 1856 divisions which have
been used, most, if not all, have now been
used at least twice. Of the 100000
troops approximately million have been
at least temporarily removed by casual
ties, and half of this number permanent
ly by death or disability or capture. To
replace this wastage the German has
been obliged to draw upon depots and
call up the young and the DID, inferior
manifestly to the units of last March.
Now, by contrast, what is the Allied
story? France and Britain had 1870 divi-
sions against 220 last March, and thew
had also five Belgian and two Portuguese
divisions. To this might be added the
single American division available in
March. To-day, after five months. the
recall of French and British divisions
from Palestine, Salonica and Italv and
the transportation of metropolitan earri
sons from Britain to France have o;ven
the French and British alone at least 100
divisions, while the five Belgian divisions
remain. AS for the Americans. wa had
the value of fifteen German divisions
10000 men, actually engaged in the
Second Battle Of the Marne, and st that
moment the equivalent of ten more m
the line. Since that time we have begun
TO constitute new army and several
more divisions have taken their nl,co o+
the front. In sum, where 100 French
British, Belgian, Portuguese and Ameri.