The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-09-13
Only RaIIying Of Fresh Reserves
Can Save Them.
ENEMY ARMY 0vERRATED
Imagined German War Machine
Could Be Crippled In
Six Weeks.


man armies fail to make successful
stand at the Hindenburg line they will
face disaster OF this there is not the
slightest doubt in the mind of any
competent military authority in Wash
ington who has had time to digest the
tremendously important news that is
coming from the battle field of France.
And even if such stand is made
and the Allied advance halted for &
time, it is by no means certain that
disaster will be escaped. Only such
rally of fresh reserves by Luden-
dorff and new concentrations of men
on this line, as has not been effected
up to this hour, will save the Ger
man armies from the most overwhelnl-
ing defeat since the war began.
Already the Hindenburg line has
been seized-10 miles of it-by the
British and Franco-Americans are
within sight of it 40 miles to the east
of the British position, and the British
and Americans are about to leap
across it 20 miles from the Queent-
Drocourt bulge. In other words, the
Allies have found this line vulnerable
at every point where they have hit it.
They have had no more difficulty in
penetrating it than in occupying other
positions believed to have been strong
~ held until the effort was made to
force them.
The truth is, and military authorities
in every Allied capital are not recog-
nizing it, that the German power of
resistance has been wildly overesti-
mated. Because the German has been
hard-hitting enemy; because her
drives, whether in the east or in the
west, have cen terrific in their con-
centrated force, and because of the
notion some people gained that the
German soldier was superman, the
impression has gone forth generally
that the enemy would be as effective
in the defense as in offense.
But less than seven weeks fighting
has shown how utterly wrong those
people were who looked upon Ger
man Army as an almost invincible
army. The experience of the British,
French and Americans in France since
July is shows the Germans can be
beaten down, can be driven to cover
and can be thrown into wholesale
retreat wherever the Allies desire to
strike. with enough man and gun
power.
And it was this false idea of Ger
many's remaining strength that caused
General March and his associates here
to declare that the war would be won
in 1919. Not one of them, apparently
imagined that the German war ma
chine could be crippled in six weeks
as it has been. What they actually
expected was that the counter-offen-
sive would continue until late fail:
that it would force the Germans back
little by little until the Rhine country
would come within the range of pow.
erful Allied artillery, and that the
great battle would, doubtless, halt at
that point for general reorganization
and reinforcement by the fresh corps
| from America.
In other words, the great successes
which General Foch has achieved with
in the past few days, for example, did
not enter into the calculation of the
Allied War Council or the other au
thorities who had planned ahead for a
crushing blow to Germany some time
next year. And because these sue
cesses were not anticipated, they mean
that the Allied armies are just that
much to the good on the seasons fight
ing. They are just that much ahead
of the schedule laid down for them by
the supreme command.
And this leads to the natural ques
ton whether or not the war can be
won before 1913. Of course, there is
nobody here or anywhere else who
knows the answer to that question
But there is no embargo against spec
Lulation. Every strategist, official OF