The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-08-08

had become the master mind in the
German high command, employing the
method Of a brilliant lieutenant. Hutier.
had succeeded where all predecessors
had failed. He q pierced and broken
an enemy front on an extent Of 80
miles and to a depth Of 25. After three
years and a half Of a war Of positions.
OF stagnatiOn. of siege and trenches, he
had carried an offensive into opeS coun-
try beyond all defense zones
Checked in Picardy, Ludendorff car
ried his offensive to Flanders n again
tory. Breaking the allied line south
Of Ypres he pushed forward Is miles
toward the channel ports, won back all
the lost ground of the Passchendaele
campaign Of the previous year. took
KeMmel, which looks down upon the
rear of Ypres, and threatened to re-
duce this restored salient. which had
for the British empire the same sig
n~fficance Verdun carried for the French
nation. This greater success was not
attained, and q sharp repulse on April
20 closed the Flanders battle. but this
second episode had served to demon
strate anew the efficacy Of German
tactics and the advantage Of German
numbers and interior position. 1t re-
opened the question Of the arrival of
the kaiser at Calais and emphasized
again the greatness of allied peril.
The third German blew was in the
larger sense wen more terrifying than
the first. Although two months had
passed and the allies had been allowed
time to study the German method and
l-epare an answer, Ludendorff was
able in late May 10 duplicate his March
successes, and, sweeping across the
Aisne and the Vesle. the victorious
German troops reached the bank Of
the Marne once more. after nearly
three years of absence. Nor was this
all: the British positions In Picardy
strength, but the French positions at
the Aisne were among the finest on
the western front. And, rs at the
Somme, L~udendorff had in a week re-
gained all the ground lost In.
months of the British offensive OF 1915
of 1917. he now in three days retook
all the ground gained by Nivelle In
his i'll starred offensive of 1917, and
in addition drove south between
Rheims and retook scissors, French
since September IL. 1914.
The British defeat In Pieardy was
the greatest In British military history;
| the French reverse on the Aisne sur
passed the disaster of the first days
| Of the Verdun campaign. AS a result
Of the two successes the German was
once more within striking distance OF
Paris and had thrust wedges forward
toward the French capital down the
Disc and the Marine valleys. June was
only just come and Americas forces
were still too weak to exercise any
decisive influence. There remained the
relatively restricted tasks OF eliminat-
ing the Compiegne M Rheims salient,
the one a menace to the community
Of his operative front between the Disc
and the Marine, the other a threat to
49, sx. 80 tkt. frNnt and than ha
could undertake h final venture, a
| drive straight south upon Paris, which,,
even IL it failed to take the city, might
bring his heavy artillery within bonn
| harding distance and enable him to
destroy the city IL 1t refused to sur
render, and with this destruction he
hoped French nerves and Freach spirit
would at last break and the army. after
| the civil population, abandon a str uggle
which had cost France SO much and
| still held out the threat OF even worse
suffering without any promise OF ulti-
mate victory.
The Tide Turns.
1t may be that this German success.
which took the kaiser to the Marine,
will prove the last high water mark
Of the war. Before June was over the
tide had changed. Seeking to sweep
the French out Of the Compiegne re-
gion, open up the lower valley of the
Aisne, insure the continuity of the
right wing of his operative front be-
tween Scissors and Montdidier by
clearing the French out of strong
ground and carrying their line into
the open ground south Of Senlis, Lu-
dendorff launched a fourth blow be-
tween Montdidier and Noyon. between
the Avre and the Disc. This time there
was no surprise, nc collapse; he Ger
- .I tie Nrn f0rxtfn I'd
for a short distance. cleare the Las
signv heights and some valuable ground
along the Disc. But by the third day
it was checked. and Mangfn, the de-
liverer Of Verdun. was striking a
counter blow Of he German flank,
which paralyzed the offensive. Com
piegne was not taken. at. a staggering
ground. but his fourth venture had
been a failure.
While Ludendorff prepared for the
fifth stroke his Austrian colleague, Bor-
evic, struck IN the Piave and sought
| by a supreme strope, with the largest
and finest Austrian army which had
yet appeared in Italy under his COM
mand, to crush the troops who had been
beaten so terribly at the IsonZo six
months before. But the Austrian OF
fensive failed dismally, a brief advance
a short desperate period OF days when
Italian counter attacks held Up the ad-
vance, then floods and new Italian at
lacks, and the Austrians were driver
In disorder across the Piave, losing $50.
900 men, innumerable guns. and having
suffered in a few brief daya a defeat as
destructive to their plans for this year
as Verdun had proven for the Germans
in 1916.
And now, last of all, checked on the
Disc and at the Compiegne salient, W
fhave seen Ludendorff in recent days
launch his fifth offensive, q colossal at
tack from the Marine to the Argonne
later restricted to a local operation tt
break in the Rheims salieut n clear
his flank and rear, against the day wher
he should resume his drive for Paris
The results of this venture are being
written on the map at the present hour
Its failure was immediate and, save II
one sector, complete. Its failure in al
sectors IA complete when Focf
launched his over memorable counter
sattack. in which for the first tim'
American troops in large numbers
played a leading part.
America has at last arrived, the de
spairing call Of March had been an
swered in July. when more than 1000
American troops participated in the de
! cisive thrust. and American troops II
France Numbered above loo, 900.
1t seems now as ] write these line
today, just four months after Luden
dorff's first blow in Picardy, that tn
h