The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-21
The Great CRISIS
Past Six Months Saw the Great
Battle of Battles.
German Drives Threatened Fu-
ture of ChristendOm.
THEN ALLIES STRUCK BACK
Crushed the German "OffenSfve
of Peace" in July.
Have Sent Grey Hosts Keeling
Back Everywhere.

man offensive began. For weeks VIC
tory seemed about to perch on the
German banners. Today the allies
star is in the ascendancy.
Anxiety and encouragement, depres-
sion and joy have succeeded each 9TH
er since at dawn on March 81. the
greatest battle of history began. 1t
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.
Germany's Mightiest Effort.
The allies knew they faced Ger
manys mightiest effort last March,
but they stood unafraid. Released by
the absolute collapse of Russia as
beiligerent power, vast numbers OIL
German veterans had been rushed to
the western front and been given
training for the offensive by which
the Teutons war lords dreamed that
they might force upon the world a
German peace. Germany made no
secret of her intention. 1t was known
that great bodies of men and trenen-
dous stores of Munitions had been
concentrated at strategic points be-
hind the German lines,
1t was even known where the Ger
mans would launch their first attack
and for weeks before March 81, the
eyes of the allies had been fixed on
the long curving line from La Fere to
Arras as the stage where the first act
of the great drama would be enacted.
Moving with a swiftness that carried
concern to every entente nation, the
German forces swept over the British
lines in Picardy and rolled west like
a tidal wave during the closing days
of March, until at last the British
reached positions where they could
stand at bay and the French had come
to form a living wall before the gray
clad host of the German emperor.
Then the offensive stopped.
And Then in Flanders.
Hardly had it's rush been checked
than the line between Lens and Ypres
was attacked by the Germans and
again the British lines swayed back
ward This advance of the enemy
went on until it reached the high
ground to the southwest of Ypres and
then 1t too, was stopped by the stuD-
born fighting of the allied armies.
The Smash to the Marine.
A pause followed for nearly a month
and then, on May 27. the Germans
suddenly broke thru the French lines
north of the Aisne river and smashed
their way southwark until they had
reached the Marine over wide front
east,-ef Chateau Thierry. No sooner
had the momentum of this drive been
takan,up by the yielding defense of the
French troops, than a new assault was
made by the Germans who this time
tried to break the French lines be-
tween Montdidier and Noyon and link
up the Picardy and Marine sectors.
Next Attack Was Held.
1t was here that the world had the
first intimation that the allied armies
which since late in March had been
under the supreme command of Mar
shall Foch had been pursuing defin-
lie policy and had conserved their
strength against the time when 1t
might be used with good effect. The
German attack east of Montdidier
came TO a pause after six days of ter
rible fighting
American at Chateau Thierry.
American forces had taken in the
final phases of the battle along the
Marine and had been instrumental in
STOPPING the Germans at Chateau
Thierry. In this battle came the first
notable contribution of America to the
military fortunes of the allies. Since
March however there had been
flood tide of khaki-clad men crossing
the Atlantic and during May June
and the first part of July they rapid
ly moved up to the battle zone.
Foch Forced Last Stroke.
The esanguinary check of the Ger
man offensive east of Montdidier gave
the allies hope that the German tide
would be safely stemmed, and this
feeling was heightened during the
succeeding three or four weeks by a
series of local actions along the front
from Scissors to Chateau Thierry by
which the Germans were driven back
steadily from points of tactical value.
What was not known by the lay world
was the fact that by these very &C
tions Marshal Foch virtually forced
the Germans to attack somewhere in
the Marine region, where preparations
were made for a new phase of the
struggle.
THE Offensive of Peace"
On July Is, the Germans made
new drive, called by them the Often
sive of Peace" from Chateau Thierry
eastward far into the Champagne sec
tor. No sooner had the news of the
attack reached the world than the It'd
ings came that the French. Italian and
American lines subject to assault were
standing firmly in every vital part of
the front and that it was only by the
greatest effort that the Germans
pounded their way ahead in the re-
gion southwest of Rheims and astride
the Marine west of Epernay. 1t was
then known that the allies had solved
the German system of offensive and
were able to hold their ground.
The Great Counter Blow.
On July Is, Marshal Foch launched
an attack winch mas changed Ine
whole complexion of the situation.
From Fontenoy. on the Aisne west of
Scissors. to Chateau Thierry, on the
Marine, the German lines were torn to
pieces and the Marine salient threaten
ed to collapse. 1t was only by the
most savage fighting that the Ger
mans succeeded in saving their army
from disaster and finally succeeded In
retreating across the Vesle river.
Then the Drive in Picardy.
On August 8 the French and British
stormed the German lines in Picardy
from the Ancre river to Moreuil north
of Montdidier and sent the enemy
reeling back toward the Somme. The
next day the French crushed in the
German front south of Montdidier
and then linking their lines with those
of the British further north, forced
the invaders back to the eastward
Less than two weeks later the Ger
man lines southwest of Arras were