Evening star., 1918-04-14
HUNS STRATEGY, FOILED IN CHIEF
PURPOSE, FACES GREATER TASK
AS TIME STRENGTHENS ALLIES

and British. but enes the ee1tase -
Amiens. there was real hope sneA y
might be maintained west OF Amae0A
even II this town should fall. ~
this because % tne fsal ,,9t 9s Aisn An h1 nos
ed as having the impQrtance that y
might have had two weeks or more aSa.
The fall of Verdun In August would
have hay been & sad blow S to allie siiisd M n%eT0s.
dence Of impediate disaster - ft would
have been Il February or even fn the
first days Of March, 1916. And the Same
is now true Of Amiens.
After the first week OF effort there
was a natural and inevitable lull lDthe
Amiens sector: the German did not
actually stop. but his operations. save
at Arras. were inoonsidsrable for nearly
week. Then he began again on ex-
actly the old verdun lines. that u By
attacks on either side of the wedge he
had driven in toward his immediate
local objective. In Lorraine he began
Dead Mans Hill and Fort du vaux, On
the tanks Of his wedge. He did this to
abolish the evil effect Of the ardlIery
fire concentrated upon his wedge from
both sides. Before AmienS he sought
to widen his wedge.
Hindenburgs problem was . magnd-
ned reproduction of the Verdun prob
lem. Any further advance At the point
smothered by concentrated allied ar
ttllery fire. He must. therefore, widen
the wedge. and he sought to do this by
attacking the French on the plateau
of Amiens. and the British west Of tie
Ancre and Sonme. Could he advance
on both hanks he would begin to throw
loop around Amfens. fsolatfnG the
town both from the north and from the
south. But although he gained ground,
his gain was Uncomfortable and the
price paid exorbitant. This price was
increased by the fact that German
heavy heavy, artillery ntl % was not yet up and
were in position. BY the third Sunday
OF the battle the German effort on both
tanks had slowed down with no real
gain on the north and no decisive galA
on the south. although the Amisne-
Calais railroad was no longer usabie
and barely two miles distant from tie
German front -,
Far From Major End.
In sum. then, toward the end Of tAs
third week the German was sttll fAR
from his major end, the separation q
the British and French armies. He had
won a great battle and administered to
heaviest defeat in British military his
tory. He had advanced beyond any
expectation of the allies: he was ap-
preaching Amiens, although At . veIy
casualties for local success and there
was not the smallest promise that he
could bring homo new Sedan or Wa
terloo. discoverable on the face Of The
ing likelihood of a second Verdun
And the German must have not q L.
cal victory. but a decisive victory. q
military solution Of the problem Of fh6
have it at once. by the terms undet
which he challenged his foes and en-
listed his own people. II he 10 before
Amiens month from now he win have
lost the campaign. provided he contin-
ues the battle in this field or does noe
win a major triumph in some other. e
| he gets beyond Amtens without sspae
rating his two foes he will have failed:
II they are still able to stand firmly
united before him. He needs another
local success as great as his recent trss
umph to win what he sought to win.
and nothing else will greatly help him
now.
Allied Prospects Improve.
Allied prospects have greatly in.
proved since there was an eleveufAp
hour agreem ent upon q single con-
mand; It ought to have been agreed
upon last winter. but 1t was blocked b.
British military influence. despite the
urgings Of Lloyd George. Apericn,
France and even Italy favored Il but
| British influences postponed 1t until
| the defeat there could be no more sTs
gument by British military authors
ties, since it was the failure Of the
British which brought 4 defeat which
eminently the man for the place: M
other French general and no British or
Italian general, and least Of all an
american general. could challenge the
achievement of the man who saved
Nancy. won the Marne and blocked th1
German drive to the channel, with the
aid OF the British and Belgians
1t Is possible to regret the lateneae Of
the decision. since the task of the new
| generaltssimo has been greatly in.
creased thereby, but all this in the pase.
ana In his own public utterances he
mas given rs the best assurance that hn
did not come too late
One word as to American particfna.
tion. Accepting NJ. Tardieu's feures OF
some time ago. we must now have as
least $4,000 men in France. OF these
we are told 100000 have started .or the
Somme front and other divisions are RS
lteving French troops in four sectors.
at the smallest reckoning. Presumably,
tnen' we are putting around 20o,0 ,00o
men at the service Of the allies. This ~
a small number, as this war goes, but le
Is equal to a class of French recruita
1t is Lalf as large as the annual incre.
ment Of the German army, and, since
the men are picked, 1t Is unquestiou.
ably better In its human material thaR
either French or German class
Again. If the allies have lost 100000
In the opening phase of the second bat.
tie of the Somme, the gap has been
promptly filed by American troops. The
German. on the other hand, having lo0oQ
between $50, 1000 and 100000 in the Sand
operation, must find the troops to ro.
place wastage out of his own reserves.
He can do It: he probably had upward
of 1.000. 900 reserves to replace wastago,
when the campaign began. but the rate
Of exhaustion for him Is thus far
faster than for his chief opponents. and
henceforth under the wise plan to put
our troops In more promptly, brigado6
with French and British troops. We
shall aid regularly to replace allied
wastage, while the German must stiil
rely exclusively upon his own man
power.
We are only beginning. but our start
is by no means negligible. On the con.
French to reconstitute an army Of ma
part of the original force was drawn
in to hll the gaps created by the de-
feat of the 5th British army. As to the
moral effect. no one can mistake the
admirable impression made by Amert-
German has failed, first to separate the
armies Of his principal enemies. and
secondly to separate the peoples OF his
other enemies. The alliance against
Germany is stronger today than at any
moment since Russia fell and We are
in some small way beginning to replace