Republican farmer., 1918-09-27
Great German Offensive Be- gan Just Six Months
 Ago Today. ALLIES ARE BEFORE
 HINDENBURG LINE Enemy's Losses So Great Cannot Possibly Be
 Made Good.
(BY Associated Press )

stands the great lines con- structed by the Germans dur ing four years of warfare. ]! These are not simple trenches but vast field Notifications which stretch from the North Sea, with few interruptions to the Swiss frontier.
 This general line of defensive posi- tions has become known as the Hin denburg line, but to different sections of 1t have been given names from the | old German epic of the Niebelungen- lied. Thus the Wotan, Siegfred, Brunhild and Kriemhild lines have been mentioned in reports from the front. They are carefully constructed l with all the science at the command of the German general staff, and pre- sent a formidable barrier to further | allied attacks.
 Six months of the warfare of mo
 tion, however, has taught the Allies that a trench is no stronger than the l troops that man it. In this fact lies | the hope of the entente nations. New methods of attack, the employment | of tanks and a higher morale than ever before in the history of the war will be relied upon in the fighting to break the enemy's defensive lines and force new retreats.
 Germany has lost her chance to force peace upon the Allies before American armies enter the fight with all their strength. This was her hope in March. Loses of a serious nature were suffered by the Allies during the long battle but they have been made
 doubly effective by the inflowlng American legions. Germany's losses,
 on the other hand cannot be made
 good. Hopes blasted, crack divisions
 broken up and seeming victories turn
 ed into defeats have sapped the nor
 ale of the German armies which today are on the defensive everywhere.
 Six months ago today the great
 German offensive began. For weeks
 victory seemed about to perch on the
 German banners. Today the Allied
 star is in the ascendency.
 Anxiety and encouragement de-
 pression and joy, have succeeded each other since at dawn on March 21, the
 greatest battle of history began. It has been a period of almost incessant fighting and of bewildering changes in the situations that developed from day to day and from week to week. } The allies knew they faced Ger manys mightiest effort last March but
 stood unafraid. Released by the ab-
 solute collapse of Russia as a bellig
 erent power, vast numbers of Germans
 veterans, had been rushed to the west
 front and been given intensive train
 ing for the offensive by which the
 Teutonic war lords dreamed that they might force peace upon the world, a German peace. Germany made no se- 'cret of her intention. It was known great bodies of men and tremendous
 stores of munitions had been concen-
 trated at strategic points behind the German lines. It also was known
 where the Germans would launch 1 their first attack, and for weeks be
 fore March 21 the eyes of the Allies
 had been fixed on the long curving
 line from LaFere to Arras as the
 stage where the first act of the great f drama would be enacted.
 Moving with a. swiftness that car f ried concern to every entente nation, :, the German forces swept over the
 British lines in Picardy and rolled o westward like a tidal wave during 5 the closing days of March. until at
 last the British reached positions o where they could stand at bay and - the Fren"h had come to form a living ID wall before the gray-clad host of the . German Emperor. Then the offensive u stopped.
 e Hardly had it's rush been checked
 tj an the line between Lens and Ypres II was attacked by the Germans and ! again the British lines swayed back l, ward. This advance of the enemy IS went on until it reached the high = ground to the southwest of Ypres and there too encountered stubborn of fighting
 A pause followed for nearly month y ard then, on May 27, the Germans lg suddenly broke through the French le lines north of the Aisne river ant a smashed their way southward unti -y they reached the Marne over a wide in front east of Chateau Thierry.
 It was here that the world had tn. ,e first iniimation that the Allied armie  SC shal 17ocb, had been pursuing a def 1e nite policy and hal1 conserved thei Id strength against the time when i
 might te used with good effect. Tn
 German attack each of Montdidie
 came to a pause after six days of ter
 rible fighting in which the German C suffered frightful losses and tn O French for the first time since tn
 German offensive began struck bac, og at the invaders.
 g.. American forces had taken part i 70. the final phases of the battle along tn n, Marne and had been instrumental ,es stopping the Germans at Chatea in Thierry. In this battle came the fir. notable contribution of America to tn ad military fortunes Of the allies Sine eft March, however. there had been to flood tide of khaki clad passing owe ilv the Atlantic and during May, June an
 the first part of July they rapidly moN
 ed up to the battle zone. The sar
 guinary check of the German offensiy
 of Montdidier gave the Allies hor in that the German tide would be safe1 les stemmed, and this feeling was neigh ge- ened during the succeeding three ( or- four weeks by a series of local actioT ent along the front from Soissons to Oh; US, teau Thierry by which the German re- were driven back steadily from poin
 of tactical value- What was nt
 known by the lay world was the fa ted that by these very actions. Marsh; try Foch virtually forced the Germans en- an attack somewhere in the Marr
 region, where preparations were mad