The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-17
Other Mems Views
he Manitoba Free Press.


Discount it how they may the American vic
tory is n serious blow to the Germans. The
operation itself was not Of great size. But it wa6
carried out with the utmost rapidity and preci-
sion and demonstrated the vast superiority of the
United States troops, comparatively nexperi-
enced as they are over the war-worn and
dispiTited Germans
The advance of the Allied line at this point
possesses potentialities that the German high
command cannot afford to ignore. Within meas
urable distance Of the new line pass some Of
their vital railway communications; the great
fortress of Metz and the iron fields of Brey lie
Immediately behind; and from the vantage
ground which the Strengthening of the Allies line
places in their possession offensive against
Metz and the Meuse valley is brought within the
sphere of probability. In these circumstances the
high command must strengthen its defenses
These are reported to have been thinIv held nv
inferior troops; but the threat or a further
American attack imposes on the Germans the
necessity to reinforce them powerfully Coming
as this urgent demand for does at the crisis
Of the attempt to stop.the advance of the western
armies of the Allies along the Rheims Cambrai
front it must inevitably Complicate the CaIcula-
lions Of the enemy.
The indications provided by the last few weeks
operations point to a genuine shortage Of German
manpoWer. Every new demand therefore lessons
their chances of holding firm along the French
front; and the presence of General Pershing's
army in the Wocvre constitutes such a demand
since 1t is an entirely element in the Allied
dispositions. Similarly, the slow temperance of
a front in Russia must be oCcasioning the enemy
considerable anxiety. He is confronted with the
triple problems of holding back the British and
French in the west: Of detaching sufficient forces
10 meet the new American menace in the
Woevre; and of sending to the east enough men
and material to maintain the German grip on the
Baltic provinces and the Ukraine
The shortening Of the German front has become
an unavoidable necessity of their case. But if the
retirement thus neCessitated is to be effectual in
providing the additional strength which the Ger
mans require it must be carried out a leisure not
under such pressure from the Allies as will com
pei them to fight expensive rearguard delaying
actions. That condition Of voluntary retreat they
have not yet established. They have held bacil
the British in front of Cambria along the line Of
the Canal Du Nord, but they continue to do so
only by perssting in costly counter attacks SINH
lar to those launched against the British yester-
day at Havrincourt; and the same conditions pre-
vail around st. Quentin and La Fere, and north of
Rheims.
The circumstantia1 reports Of the evacuation
of Lille by the Germans argue the recognition by
the high command that the present situation is
becoming impossible. BY delaying too long in
their present lines they will subject themselves to
the risk of a serious catastrophe. To be Of any
service the retreat must begin Immediately; and
it will probably entail the abandonment of west
ern Belgium, since any retirement in the center
Of the line will merely lengthen instead Of short
the German front