Evening star., 1918-04-09

He attacked at verdun on February
21, 1916. He attacked before st. Quen-
tin March 21 Of this year. On Marcn
9 of 1915 he was SO anxious about MS
own home public that he advertised .
capture of Fort De vaux on the
strength of the fact that he expected
to take it that day. He did not take
it until June Z, and on March IL he
had to invent q victorious French
counter offensive to explain why the
French were still in the fort. He must
be having something Of the same dif-
ficulties with his public today. for they
were even more expectant of quick sue
cess than before the other offensive.
somme Is Greater Affair.
Now, the Somme offensive is far
greater affair than the verdun attack
but it strongly resembles 1t IN many
respects At Verdun Falkenhayn
sought to drive wedge between the
French armies IN Champagne and those
in Lorraine, roll the Champagne armies
back on Paris and the Lorraine armies
away from the border fortresses. This
is exactly what Hindenburg was after
with respect of the British and Frencn
On February 26, six days after the
beginning of the Verdun adventure, the
German had to give UP the larger pur-
poses of his Lorraine attack On Marcn
26 of this year he had to stop In the
same fashion. Before Verdun he gave
Petain a chance to get up the army
that saved the fortress. In Picardy he
has allowed the French and British time
to get up all their available reserves
and dig in on new lines.
made tremendous gains in the first
rush; after the first rush operations
were suspended in the center until the
German could get rid Of the f1anking
fire from Dead Mans Hill and Fort
De Vaux. He spent all March, April and
May in eliminating these flank difficult
ties. BY the time he was ready to go on
in the center the Russians had attacked
in Ga1icia and the British were about
ready to attack in Picardy. The Ger
man had to continue at verdun be-
cause he had spent a year in concens
trating material and guns at this point.
of crushing the French before the Brit
ish were ready, and he could not pre-
pare to attack anywhere but at Yer
dun in less than six months. When a
high command has directed all its re-
sources to a single sector for a grand
offensive 1t must continue on that front
or abandon the offensive everywhere
for that period Of weeks and even of
months.
Must Attack Again. ..,.g=
Today the German is bound to attack
because II he does not attack, the
American numbers will presently give
the allies decisive advantage on the
west front. He would seem to be com
PEELED to attack In Picardy because
over MANY months he has prena rcd bys
attack on this front. but in Picardy
his difficulties are tremendous. He has
a desert behind him: he has a swamp
about him and in front Of him he has
enemies strongly intrenched on the
high ground and in positions which
they have held for two weeks.
II you look at the map you will see
that the French are substantially hold
ing a line behind the Avre river, and
the British another line behind the
Ancre, and these lines form an acute
angle with the vortex in front of
Amiens. II the German keeps on going
toward Amiens he will be slaughtered
by the conyerging fire from both sides
Of the angle, just as his troops were
slaughtered on the Douaumont plateau
Dead Mans hill and Fort de vaux.
The solution Of the problem must be
found In breaking through the sides Of
the angle. This is what the German
has been up to for q week. He has
been hurling masses Of picked troops
against the French lines along the
Avre and the British lines along the
Ancre. suffering tremendous losses and
making only tnconsiderable gains,
where he has gained any gains at all.
He has not yet got his heavy artillery
up, and until he does his troops will
to bo terribly pun1hhed Wttks