The Washington herald., 1918-05-05
BY JOHN L. BALDERsToN.
Copyright. 1918. by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)


April s-There was a bit OF q panic
in Paris when I left. last week. The
English had broken. men told each
other on the street corners. The
Germans were through. They were
coming down the oise; they had rup-
tured the connection between the
French and British; the beaten SOL
diers of King George were recoiling
towards Amiens and the sea, the vic-
torious legions Of Ludendorff wers
pressing along the historic route Of
invasion towards compiegne and
Paris.
1t was on Monday. March Is. that
squeezed into a railway train in
the French capital. feeling pretty
blue. anxious to 60 as far North
and see as much as / could. ! didn't
believe all that they said In Paris.
though no doubt the situation was
serious enough; but 1t seemed to me
the long range guns that had started
pounding the city a few days be-
fore. the frequent and determined
Gotha raids, had worked on the
nerves Of the Parisians and made
them a little jumpy. The NOR
ale of Paris, veteran newspapermen
assured me as they filed dispatches
telling Of the supreme confidence of
the French. was the worst of the
war.
In five hours was in the midst of
a miracle, the miracle of France
after four years OF torture and ex-
haustion rising in all her beauty and
glory and unimpaired strength 10 re-
pair the misfortunes of others and
snatch victory from defeat, as at the
Marne. l saw. and in a moment un-
derstood. / had doubted in Paris:
now ! felt like the Apostle Thomas.
France is the eternal paradox: from
recriminations. alarm, whispers of
I'VE are betrayed" spread by sinister.
skulking figures. railway stations
filled with thousands struggling to
escape to the South. had passed to
the zone Of the armies. where conf
dence, devotion. order. efficiency.
strength, leadership. genius even,
seemed electric in the air.
Could this battle be lostf laughed
at the mere thought of it. as I stood
and watched the Incompatible fan
tassies. singing and laughing. pour
ing northwards. in endless lines of
miraculous motor lorries that never
got out Of order. in hundreds OF rail-
way trucks that flowed on and on
and never stopped. northwards, into
the furnace.
The reader must bear with some
vagueness about places and figures.
for army censorships are touchy
about such things as I try to de-
scribe what saw during that Mon
day afternoon and the next few days
which was indeed the winning OF
the battle itself. for the fate of the
world last week depended on the
speed with which France could strip
her three hundred miles Of front
stretching eastwards and Southwark
of the place where the break had
come, and throw most OF her guns
and most OF her troops before the
advancing hundred divisions Of vic
tory-flushed Germans. How the
French army filed the. gap at Yer.
dun. pouring along the now immortal
road from Barbecue, is a deathlesi
story; but what words can. describe
the greater heights to which France
rose in this far moro terrible emer-
gency, to save civilization again Ir
1918 as she saved it in 1914 at the
Marine.
The storm had broken, against the
British line from South of Arras to
La Fere on the Disc, early on Tues
day morning. March q. The day die
not go badly; on the following morn.
ing Marshal Haig was able to tele.
phone General Petain that he wa!
standing everywhere on his second
lire. and expected to hold it. The
Gains the Germans had made haC
cost them enormous losses, the Brit
ish front was nowhere broken. The
Allied plans, on this day. remained
unchanged; the preparations made
by the French for action elsewhere
went on as before. Next day, Friday
the Germans again attacked with
fresh forces: in the north, the Brit
ish held firm, but sometime in the
afternoon, in circumstances which
are yet obscure. the British Fifth
army on the southern part OF the
line. composed Of Is divisions. broke
before the onslaught Of % division:
under Won Hutier.
Instead Of retreating down the val
ley OF the Disc, to maintain touch
with the French army on their right
the remnants Of the southern wins
Of the Fifth army withdrew 10 the
northwest. A wide gap opened be-
tween the British and the French. On
Friday afternoon. all touch had been
lost. The great decision. the final
rupture that would enable the Ger
mans TO destroy the British and
French armies at their leisure. sspa.
rately. and Ultimately incidentally
to drive the little American force
into headlong retreat to the south
or to captivity in Switzerland, seemed
within Ludendorff's grasp. There
was no French artillery on the spot;
there were no French reserves.
But somewhere, out Of the blue II
seemed-"they must have come ir
aeroplanes." a German officer after
wards complained-Gen. Fayelle, the
hero Of the break through south oi
the Somme on the first day of the
great 1913 battle, suddenly hurled him.
self up the Disc. The tubilant Ger
mans, pressing almost without opposi'
ton down the river valley toward.
Noyon, Compiegne and Paris. wer'
thrown back, their foremost column:
destroyed; the railway junction o.
Tergnier was recaptured. How die
Fayelle do it? He had no guns. H'
sent cavalry In first. because they
could get there first, Next came q
famous French Colonial division. par
Of the strategic reserve Of Gen. Foch
then two English divisions which
placed themselves under French com
mand without question and Tough
heroically. Time was gained. and tim,
was everything. Soon the Germans
reinforced by fresh troops and plent!
Of artillery, struck again, and pos
terity will read with a sob in its voic'
how these men of Fayelle. FrenoA ant
Britain confounded together, stood ou
to the death without. guns. in a strug