New-York tribune., 1918-06-02

The Marne-1914 and 1918

Ihe arrival OF the Germans at the
Marine after forty-fve months necessa-
rily makes profound impression upon
the world. Alike, it will arouse hopes
based on the memories of 1914 after the
Battle of the Marine, and fears which op-
pressed the whole civilized world before
that great struggle. But it is essential
to recognize at once that neither the
fears nor the hopes based upon the past
have any real foundation. The situa-
ticn which exists to-day bears not the
years ago.
In September, 1914, all the mass Of
German armies were thrusting forward
in wild rush to crush the French armies,
which took their station far south of the
Marne on line between Paris and Ver-
dun. The action that was then fought
between the Ourcq and the Meuse was
supreme struggle between French and
German military force and SCIENCE al
though the British played minor part
in the battle and useful and considera-
BILE role in the subsequent pursuit. No
CoDOltlOi WiliSi SA4oCSI LII 1cAf 40 P01
alleled by anything in the situation to-
day.
AS it now stands, one considerable Ger
man army, having broken the Anglo
French front over a distance of some
thirty miles between Scissors and
until it's advance guards have touched
the Marne on narrow front. This is
the ultimate consequence Of local sue
cess north of the Aisne and the swift
and skilful exploitation of that success.
But there is no present indication that
there will be any considerable battle
along the Marine, and the great battle of
1914 was fought far south of the river,
and not along it's banks.
German strategy, as it reveals itself
now in the local field between the Disc
and the Marne, would seem to consist in
an effort to take and hold the northern
bank of the Marne River from the old
line east Of Rheims down to Chateau
Therry, and having thus secured the
southern flank against any thrust COM
ing from the east and the south begin
drive toward Paris.
The purpose and effort of French
strategy have been and seem to be still
to hold the high ground south of Rheims,
marked on the maps the Mountain Of
Rheims, thus threatening the eastern
flank of the German salient projected to
the Marine, and at the same time to hold
the high ground west and south of Sois-
sons on either bank Of the Disc, leaving
the way open for thrust on the western
flank of the German salient.
Were it possible for Foch now to
launch new and powerful army from
Paris against the western side of the
German salient between Scissors and the
Marne there would be a real parallel
with the achievement Of Maunoury's
army when it made its attack along the
Ourcq, which contributed the first phase
of the Battle of the Marne and was the
initial step in producing the German de-
feat But whereas the Maunouly thrust
had general effect upon the whole bat
tie line, a similar thrust by Foch now
would affect only the narrow salient
which the Germans have created.
1t is, then, great mistake to use the
Marine as parallel, just as it is a mis-
take to assign fixed objectives to each of
the German attacks. The German is
consistently assailing those points in the
Allied lines which he finds weakest and
exploiting his local advantage to the ut
termost. But he changes his attack the
moment he feels himself held on one
front, and what we have most to appre-
hend now is not the present blow, which
istslowing down Enthusiastically, but Sec
ond blow elsewhere.
Up to the present moment the German
has used only forty-fve divisions in the
attack on the Aisne. In similar period
in the drive toward Amiens in March he
used eighty-two divisions, to which he
presently added eighteen more before
April 8, and on that day he began an at
tack in the north in which he used ap-
proximately forty divisions more. In
word, his striking force in March and
April was one hundred and forty divi-
sions, and he is undoubtedly able to en-
Puy d1 icasI d hunoIeu--PeTnapS q num-
dred and twenty-in the present attack,
some sixty of which had not yet been
used in his earlier attacks when he
struck last Monday.
The crucial points in the present at
tack remain the ground about scissors
and the ground behind Rheims. If the
Germans do not take these positions they
Will presently have to stop their drive
in tho centre, just as they were compelled
*