Baxter Springs news., 1918-10-18
TRAGEDY
DEFEATING HUNS.
Marshal FOch Has His Enemy
Bewildered With Versa
tile Tactics
BY Floyd MacGrif,
International News Service Staff

Correspondent
London, Oct. 8 (by maiD Superior
Allied strategy is beating the Ger
mans.
Hindenburg's forces are reeline
backward, not because they are much
inferior in strength to the Allied arm.
les, hut because Field Marshal Foch
and his lieutenants have developed
now tactics and the German makers
Of war have not worked out q way ia
counter them. For, placed as the Al
lies now are, with increasing numbers
of Americans becoming available daily
for the fight, the problem is one al
most incapable of solution by the Ger
mans.
Seemingly, the Germans, if Berlin's
war communications may be taken Us
indicating their conclusions, have not
even grasped the significance Of
Foch's strategy, or If they have, the
war lords are keeping it very dark.
The official German communiques
speak of repeated failures Of the Al
lies to effect "break through" just
rs the Germans failed to club their
way through the French and British
lines in March, April, May, June and
July. That's where the Germans
make their first mistake. The Allies
are not trying to effect a "break
through" Foch has not yet reached
that point in his offensive plan.
Foch's strategy is based upon n
"liquid" or shifting offensive, one
which is started on a comparatively
narrow front, designed to gain lin
tied detectives. If these are obtained
then the attack may be widened, and
when the Germans bring up reserves
the plan is TO hit somewhere else.
Thus the whole German line is kept in
constant state of dread and anticipa-
tion, while unable to retrieve the Of
fensive so skillfully welded by Foch.
Ludendorff's plan of attack was
simply to break through the Allied
line by sheer weight. He struck only
after weeks of careful preparation,
deroting all his force TO the one sa-
!ient attacked. As his blows lost mo-
mcntum and "peter out" he was then
compelled to start all over again on
some other sector. Each offensive
was a separate enterprise, and when
he drained dry the possibilities Of each
his strategic successes We're unimpOrt-
ant. He failed to accomplish what he
set out to do. Ludendorff's blows
were along the same lines Of every
other big German movement, such as
brought successes against a weaker
force, as in Rumania, Serbia and at
Caporetto. Ludendorff evidently paid
no attention to what Foch had in mind
for Ludendorff hoped for a crushing
success, and with the plans Of the en-
envy matter little.
During all of the anxious months Of
the German drives, Foch was guided
by maxim laid down by himself
when instructor at the French staff
College, which held:
Economic forces while keeping
the combat nourished, right up to the
moment when we shall pass from
such a preparation to the main at
tack"
That principle has been Fochs
guiding star. Foch economical forces
when the enemy wasted his in abor-
tive attempts to break through. Foch
yielded ground, when he could with
out endangering his strategic posi-
ton, rather than waste men. He was
saving his resources for the time
when the Germans had welded their
club so vigorously that exhaustion Of
German reserves took away the ter
ror of the club.
That principle is at the base Of all
the Allies have done since July IL,
when the Franco-Americans started
their counter-OfFensive which drove
the Germans back to the Vesle. The
second battle of the Marne had no
more than ended when the third bat
tie of the Somme began, with Haig's
attack on the Amiens front. While
German reserve divisions were
thrown in to halt this drive, Mangin
struck on the Aisne front and this
battle had no more than thrown
greater concentration and confusion
in the German command than Byngs
blow was delivered on the Ancre.
Foch was working out his principle
of a Liquid offensive" keeping the
''battle nourished" and working
toward the moment when the Allies
shall "pass from preparation to the
main attack"
Before the main attack is delivered
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