New-York tribune., 1918-01-10
4 Week of the War
The British Official Commentary the Resumption of
German Offensive in the West
By General F. B. Maurice
British Director of Military Operations

the capture Of enemy prisoners, the capture
OF enemy guns and on, with the lack OF
information when the enemy takes them from
US, and they are not very satisfied with the
result
Well. now the plain fact Of the matter is
that when you the defensive and the
enemy attacks you and gains a certain
amount Of success you do not know what you
have lost When we attack prepare our
attack deliberately and make all arrange
ments, and among other things we make ar
rangements for the disposal of such pris
oners as we may take. You all know of the
cages behind the line. There are officers in
charge Of them, to which the prisoners are
taken, and these officers have nothing else
to do but to receive them and report the
number Of prisoners as they come in, and,
therefore. that news very rapidly reaches
headquarters, and by headquarters it is is
sued to the press and the public. If you
capture guns during an advance there is no
difficulty in getting officer who has moth
ing else to do to go round and see what
they are, and how many they are: and make
a report upon them.
In an Unsuccessful Fight
Now, consider the situation when the
enemy has attacked US. The people who lose
prisoners are the battalions in the front line,
who are engaged ir the stiffest fighting. The
whole Of the energies Of the commanders on
the spot are taken up with dealing with the
critical situation; they have no time to call
rolls and find out who is missing. and, r
matter of fact, even when they do call the
rolls it is extremely difficult to find out for
several days to whether men are really
missing not, because in the confusion of
an unsuccessful fight men get separated from
their units and join other formations, and do
not turn up for days afterward. Finally,
when you have called your roll you have no
means of knowing how many of these men
alive and prisoners in the hands of the
enemy, and how many are lying dead on the
ground in the enemy's occupation; and, there
fore, you cannot say the number of prisoners
the Germans have taken until you get the
reports from Germany, from the prisoners OF
war camps, and that is a matter of months
afterward.
These arc simply plain facts which are so
obvious that they must appeal to you at once
1t in no case means that there is want of
frankness on the part of the military authori
ties; it simply means that they not in a
position to publish what they do not know.
The same thing applies as regards guns to
what have just said about prisoners. Gun.
captured from batteries which are still
in action, and you can only find out what you
have lost by getting reports from the bat
teries themselves, and these are probably
lighting hard, you will not get your informa-
ton from them until things have auieted
down. and you can 60 around and get definite
returns.
You all know the comic picture of the c. O
up in the firing line getting a telephone mes.
sage through asking when his indent for Jam
may be expected. 1t is just as ridiculous n
expect man to make out a catalogue of his
losses in the middle of hard fight; it can
not he done 80 - >>1'