The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-10-17
GERMAN BEATEN
Hun Generals Talked Openly OF
Defeat Coming.
Great Inroads on Power Made
49,.
by Allies.

With the French Army in the Laon
Area, Oct. 1.-THE first news that
reached the inhabitants of Laon OF
| the radical change in the military sit
uation came from German officers
who had, after the victories of the al
! lies, already ceased to agree with the
Berlin military critics whose articles
proclaiming Germany unbeaten are
now being circulated by wireless.
With an utter lack of caution which
the hearer took as a betrayal of de-
spair. these officers opened their
minds and barred their hearts in the
presence of people who had felt their
oppression for four years.
| Before a man in whose house they
were billeted and who understood the
German language German officers de-
| clared:
| The central empires are no longer
able to stand out against the whole
| world. Hard times are in store for the
fatherland unless peace is obtained
promptly
| Without a word of regret for OPP
preston of the people whose roofs
had sheltered them they talked with
unconcealed anguish of the possibility
that their own people might also feel
1.-THE hardships of invasion. These direct
confessionus of defeat, contradicttng
the reports of the Berlin writer's that
the German retreat was partly tao
|
Iterial facts not open to controVerSlon,
such as $500 cannon captured during
the three months of the allied often
sive or about one-fourth of the entire
armament of the German artillery and
a quarter million of prisoners taken
during the same time on the western
front alone. The Germans had about
1850 divisions on this front on March
1, to which were added about 23 di-
visions relieved from the Russian
front The German force was main
tanned in the neighborhood of EOS divi-
sions from April to September thru
drafts on the reserve depots. The
wastage began to tell after the battles
of July and August.
On September Is the Germans had
| on this front 200 divisions. including
Austrian reinforcements Shortening
| to constitute a reserve of divisions.
| The battles of September and the first
days of October reduced those reserves
to about thirty divisions. about halt
of which had been recently retired
from the front to be reconstructed.
Twenty divisions had disappeared
entirely by October o thru progressive
dissolutions that have been confirmed
from trustworthy sources. ION that
date the enemy had scarcely a dozen
divisions in reserve that might be
called fresh.
The wastage in armament is MOI
only in cannon captured by the allies
but in diminished production by reas-
son of drafts made upon war industries
to reinforce the field forces an6
strikes.
Strategically the Germans have lost
with the vast extent of territory they
had occupied the immense advantage
of their position in the interior arc OF
a circle that enable them to transfer
troops rapidly from one sector to an
other while the allied were obliged tC
take the longer route around the cir.
conference.
German troops detraining in the re
gion of Valenciennes, Bohain or L.
Cateau, could in a few hours be trans
ported to Flanders to the Aisne or tt
the Disc. The region of Bohain ant
LIE Cateau, where this switching o:
forces was accomplished, is now il
the hands of the allies while the Ger.
! mans not only have lost the advantage
of their interior position and the turn
table that facilitated the use of it. bu
also important lines of communication
with them.