Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1918-10-26
Metz
BY FRANK II. sIMoNDs.
Copyright, 1918, New York Tribune
Inc.)

Inc.)
Very naturally as result of Gen
eral Pershing's victory in the st. Mi
hiel salient the eyes of all his country
men are fixed upon Metz. Its forts are
now within range of our heavy artil
lery as they have been within range Of
French heavy guns on the hills above
Pont-a-M usson, on the east bank Of
the Moselle, since the autumn of 1914
From some of the latter hills Metz it.
self is visible on clear day. From
our present front north of Thiaucourt
we are distant little more than five
miles from the battlefield of MARSHA
Tour, where Bazaine threw away one
of the great chances of military his.
tory and lost not merely Metz and his
army, but also Alsace-Lorraine, to
France.
And as result of st. Mihiel it is
not too much to say that the determi-
nation has been aroused in all Ameri
cans, soldiers and civilians alike, to
make one part of Americas work in
this war the return Of Metz and with
it Alsace-Lorraine to France. The
work is not to be undertaken lightly
We are bound now as we look at a
campaign just beginning to recognize
how great are the obstacles in our
pathway, but the very greatness OF
these obstacles adds to the splendor OF
the achievement toward which we
have taken the first step.
A direct attack upon Metz is un-
thinkable not merely because of the
forts, which are far more modern and
infinitely stronger than those of Yer
dun, but because of the lines of de-
tense which the Germans have newly
constructed upon the circle of hills
surrounding the old French city since
the war began. We must recognize
that Metz is the foundation of the
German defense not merely of the old
frontier, but of all the country be-
tween the Rhine and the Belgian and
French frontiers. If Metz should fall
a permanent stay of the German ar
mics west of the Belgian frontier
would be impossible, defense of AL
sace-Lorraine could not long be main
tanned and the Germans would have at
no distant date to retire to the line of
the Rhine, the Lauter and the Saar at
the very least.
More than this, Metz defends all
that great iron district from Longwy,
in France, on the Luxembourg from
tier, southwark to the point where the
present front crosses the Moselle near
Norroy. To lose this iron district
would be to lose the main source of in
dispensable war material it would be
tantamount to the loss of the war it.
self. When Bismarck took Metz he
obeyed the urgings Of the elder Moltke
and the military men; he took it be-
cause they advised MIN tfiant ID Ger
man hands Metz was the key to
France. No claim of German popula-
ton, of German tradition, could be ad-
vanced for Metz; it was as French in
it's population as Tours or Orleans
But with the development of the iron
industry in Lorraine Metz became not
only the key to France, but the bull
wark to Germany.
AS a military problem it is well to
dismiss the idea that the taking of
Metz can be by direct assault. There
have been too many operations like
the Somme and Flanders last year to
make such an operation tempting now.
Metz will have to be taken by the now
familiar method of the pincers I'm
questionably we shall see next year
we may see the beginning this year-a
double thrust from Verdun straight
out toward the Moselle east of Briey
and below Metz and another thrust
northeastward from the front beyond
Nancy into the gap between Metz and
which was the scene of
the French offensive of August, 1914,
which ended so disastrously at Mer-
hange. These two thrusts will together
envelop Metz, as the ST. Mihiel salient
was enveloped the other day, and COM
pei the Germans to choose between
evacuating the whole Metz position
and risking an army in besieged for
tress, as Bazaine risked his army and
the French cause in 1870
1t is proper calculation henceforth
to count on the ultimate capture of
Metz by Pershing, probably materially
aided by French troops, but it is an in
correct calculation to measure the
task by the smallness of the distance
which now separates us from the forts
of Metz The Germans got within
four miles of the citadel of Verdun,
but it took them more than FIVE
months to make the advance, which
did not amount to seven miles at the
extreme point of penetration. Their
failure was an admirable Illustration
of the folly of trying to hack ones
way into an enemy stronghold, and
Foch has shown in his operations this
year his contempt for such tactics
We are then likely to see long and
slow campaign for Metz. We are
bound to see the main thrusts deliv-
cred not at the forts and the imme-
diate circle of defenses which now