The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-04-11
GERMANS GLOOMY
AS DRIVE FAILS
OUTLOOK HOPEFUL FOR THE Al
LIES AS LINES HOLD IN
VITAL PLACES
OUTCOME OEPENOSONSE MOVE
Strategy Succeeds Against The Awful
Crush OF Overwhelming Number
OF Assailants

More than two weeks have now
passed since the German drive began
its fearful advance. There are many
here in America who can see nothing
but defeat because the Allies haye
not hurled the enemy back behind
their former trenches. In fact most
people can only understand a fiSht
when they see someone being well
licked. just as we all want to sec the
German hosts licked to a stand still.
But this is not always the way that
great struggles are won. General
Washington won very few battles with
the British during the war of our in
dependence. yet in the end the aim
for which our forefathers fought was
gained. Retirement of the French
troops cause no uneasiness in Paris
and the matter is carefully stated by
one of the French high officers in the
following words:
People should not allow themselves
to be ~hypnotized by the official bulle-
tins. In a battle like this, bulletins
showing more or less important ad-
vances and retreats are simply geo
graphical summaries which convey
little except to those who are direct
ing operations.
People ask viii the boches get
Amiens?'
My reply is: Perhaps they will if
Gen. Foch can smash more German
divisions by letting them in than by
keeping them out. Unbeaten armies
are more important than are towns,
and what has happened in this battle
does not show on the map.
"Germany's gains look like a fat,
juicy pear to the newspaper reader,
but the kaiser knows how hollow it is
at the core.
Gen. Ludendorff is being fenced
with and hustled, not by our main
forces, but by little more than our
covering troops, and if ii is no time
for Dragging and overconfidence, Meth
er is it the time for nervousness over
little fluctuations in the battle fronts
There is no desire to minimize the
seriousness of the situation, and the
premier of Great Britain has gone so
far as to declare that the outcome of
the wal depends on the German sec
ond drive, that the fate of the world
is in the balance. AS it stands now
with the driving rains on the front,
the Germans have beer unable to fol-
low up any advantage that they might
have had from the drives made here
tofore, and are compelled to forego
infantry actions and depend entirely
on the work of their artillery. The
battle ground all along the hundred
and twenty miles of the present fight
ing front is reported as being deep
with mud. AS this infantry quiet con
tinues the artillery assaults take on
greater energy. The Germans have
made a demonstration north of the
present battle line in a place where
the front has not been disturbed since
1916. 1t may mean that they will at.
tempt an assault there, as the as
saults farther south do not bring the
desired success.
There seems to be a gloomy condi-
ton of the public mind reported from
Germany, and it would seem as if the
official world was just waking up to
the meaning of what it meant to have
American soldiers in the trenches.
Every report that comes from the
fronts held by our boys tells of the
rapid way in which they receive the
enemy attacks. They are displaying
an initiative that simply astounds the
slower acting Germans. In more thar
one report is the news that one Amer.
lean soldier has done things in the
way of attack or defense that are
usually expected to have more mum
bers behind it. Our men have learned
the way they fight in France and are
now showing them some new frills
that have made in America" plainly
stamped on them. These things are
not great in themselves, but show
what the outcome is bound to be when
we have a greater chance to demon
strate our fighting ability.
The United States is sending troops
across all the time and since the great
drive it has beeL speeding up the num-