New-York tribune., 1918-08-14

THE first phase or the OomNe Oh
fensive is over. The Germans
"A have rallied on the line of the
old Somme trenches and have brought
the allied advance to dead halt, save
at the extreme southern end Of the
operative front on the Lassigny Apla-
teau between the Disc and the Matz
Even here the French advance has
nowhere passed and barely reached
the old 1916 front. Exactly the thing
which happened at the Ourcq and the
Crise three weeks ago has taken place
in Picardy. The element Of surprise
has been exhausted, the German has
rallied after his first shock, and any
further progress by the Allies between
the Disc and the Somme will be made
only after bitter fighting.
It remains possible, even probable,
that the German will ultimately retire
to permanent defences behind the upper
Somme and the Noyon Canal, just as it
is still probable that the line behind the
Vesle will ultimately be withdrawn to
the Aisne, but both Withdrawals will be
made deliberately and in good order, un-
less there be some new surprise, hardly
conceivable now In any event the
period of great captures in men and
material and of rapid advance is at an
end in Picardy as we'll as between Sois-
sons and Rheims. A new phase has
opened on both backgrounds.
This approximate stabilization of the
line on the cid Somme front of 1915
raises the interesting question as to
whether Foch will now be content to
halt his Somme drive as he did his
Marine counter offensive when he had
driven his foe out of the positions vital
to his own system of defence and COM
muncations and into positions on which
the German could easily defend himself
and could not, even if he held on, hamper
Allied communications.
In the early phases of the war the
most terrible casualties we're suffered on
both sides by attempts to exploit often
sives after the element of surprise had
passed away. Verdun, on the German
side; the Somme, the Aisne and the Elan
ders operation of last fall, on the Allied
side, were all striking examples of the
deadly price that had to be paid for rel
atively insignificant territorial acquis-
tions after an initial success. The
Germans in Flanders this year suffered
one of the most bloody checks of the
war on April 30, when they attempted to
enlarge their gains south of Ypres in
the face of French and British troops
reinforced and ready.
In the Marne operation three weeks
ago Foch was bound to press his advan-
tage until the Germans were north of
the Nesle, in order to remove the threat
to Paris and free the Paris Chalons-
Nancy railroad from interruption by in
direct fire of German long range artil-
lery. In the present case the relieving
of Amiens and the liberation of the
Paris Amens Calais railway were
equally essential, while not less impor-
tant was the elimination of the wedge
between the British and the French
armies, a salient out of which it was
conceivable the Germans might again. as
IN June, seek to push south toward
Paris But all of these things were
accomplished in the first three davs of
the present offensive.
Possessing the offensive, Foch NAV
now choose to permit the stabilization be-
tween the Disc and the Somme to become
permanent and turn his attention to the
north and strike against the Flanders
salient, actually more vulnerable than
either the Marne or the Somme salient.
both of which have been brilliantly re-
duced in the last three weeks. 1t is es-
sential for all observers to recognize
that territory, in itself, is not important.
and that what is actually of value for
the soldier is the seizure of lines of com
munlcation of the enemy or the freeing
of lines of his own temporarily cut.
Between March and July the German