Evening star., 1918-08-11
GERMANY HAS LOST CAMPAIGN.
BUT NOT THE WAR; PEACE DRIVE
IS DANGER NOW TO BE FEARED

tary decision because he no longer
has the numbers to enforce any local
decision. He no longer haS any ad-
vantage in gross numbers. With the
American troops actually in France
the allies outnumber him greatly, but
| unfortunately only portion OF the
Americans are now available. But
4 there are enough of these, as I showed
| several weeks ago in a Sunday article,
| to give Foch something more than
| an equality of numbers and leave the
German only such advantages as
; come from the greater homogeneity
/ of his force, since IL is all of one
nationality, and the superiority OF
training. with respect only, however,
I to our own troops.
Since ! made my statement the
proof has been supplied by the Foch
/ offensive. Employing the larger part
| OF the American divisions which have
been long in France and his own
French colonial troops. Foch created
an army of maneuver and struck the
German flank between the Marne and
the Aisne. bringing off one of the
great strategic triumphs of the war.
Had Foch been able to dispose of SUI
ficient reserves the stroke might have
been far more effective. just as Joffre's
! victory at the Marine would have led
to far more decisive results had Joffre
possessed any large unexhausted re-
| serve.
But neither Foch nor Ludendorff
has such a reserve now. Ludendorn
had it in the beginning of the cam
paign and lost ii in the terrible strug-
! giles which have since ensued. Foch
/ Is acquiring IL as our American troops
become available in larger and larger
! numbers. but will probably not have
! 1T in sufficient strength to enable him
| to go beyond the limits Of counter Of
/ fensiyes like his recent stroke this
year This is not to say that Luden-
dorff may not deal a happier blow.
viewed from the German angle, than
his last two. one OF which was check
| ed, the other turned into a heavy de-
feat The point is that he will be un-
able after such stroke to enforce q
decision.
| Napoleon was in the same situation
| in the most brilliant of all his cam
pafgns, also fought in the Marne val
| ley. Bernhard comments significant
| ly upon this fact in one of his mill
tary works. The German has very
| nearly exhausted his shock troops: he
, is facing an enemy who is his equal
1 in numbers has at least as good COM
tors of the front and is now in a po-
| sition to meet any offensive with a
swift and powerful counter offensive,
employing therein fresh American
| troops
Praise for o. S. Troops.
The value Of our troops in the situa-
tion is peculiar. They are not. on the
whole. the match for any other troops
sive. because they lack the four years
of training of French. German and
British troops. But on the offensive
and under the guidance of the French
staff, they possess exactly the quail
ties which make them the most dam
gerous shock troops in Europe. They
are young. physically fit and morally
| at the highest point soldiers can at
| tain Their spirits have not been
| weakened by four years of suffering:
| they have not slowed down under the
strain which has taken the edge of
the best of all the other nations
| forces.
As a striking force Foch, then, has
found at his hand in Pershing's Army
the best conceiva BILE weapon. He has
moreover, the certainty of a rapidly
increasing number of these troops.
! Three hundred thousand arrive in
Europe each month. and it will not be
| long before his monthly increase in
trained troops will reach this figure.
In less than two months the Ameri-
can contribution is more than the
annual increment Germany gets from
one of her classes. and it is made up
OF infinitely better material
We shall have next year practically
the only army in Europe capa bic of
making an offensive in the spirit and
with the force which German armies
revealed at the Marne and Verdun
which the French armies displayed
in many otfensives before the fatal
| failure of the Aisne last year. which
the British armies preserved through
the Somme and the Flanders campaign
of last year. It Will be an Incompatible
weapon in Foch's hands, this American
| Army. with all its determine ton.
spirit and energy. And some frac-
tion of it. an ever increasing fraction.
| will play part this year. Indeed. If
, there is a tendency in certain quar-
tiers to exaggerate the technical milf-
| tary value of our contribution at tie
, recent battle test. the value of the
moral contribution cannot be exas-
| gerated