New Britain herald., 1918-09-21
(By the sSOCiated Press. }

Six months ago today the great Ger man offensive began. For weeks Vic- l tory seemed to perch on the German 1 banners. Today the Allied star is in 1 the asccndancy.
 Anxiety and encoura cement, depres- ! sion and joy, have succeeded each other since at dawn on March 21 the greatest battle of history began. It has been period of almost incessant fighting and of bewildering changes in the situations that developed from day to day and from week to week. The Allies knew they faced Ger many's mightiest effort last Harch, but stood unafraid. Released by the abso lute collapse of Russia as a beligerent power, vast numbers of German vet 1 erans had been rushed to the western ! front and been given intensive train l ing for the offensive by which the Teu- l tonic war lords dreamed that they might force upon the world German 1 peace. Germany made no secret of ! her intentiOn It was known great 1 bodies of men and tremendous stores l of munitions had been concentrated 1 at strategic points behind the German 1 lines It also was known where the Germans would launch their first at l tack, and for weeks before March Fl 1 the eyes of the Allies had been fixed ] on the long curving line from La Fere 1 to Arras as the stage where the first act of the great drama would be enact ed.
 Moving with swiftness that car ried concern to every Entente nation the German forces swept over the Brit ish lines in Picardy and rolled west ward 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 living wall before the gray-clad hosts of the German em- peror Then the offensive stopped.
 Hardly had it's rush been checked than the line between Lens and Ypres was atta cked 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 it. too was stopped by the stub born fighting of the Allied armies. Apause followed for nearly a month and then. On May 27, the Germans suddenly broke through the French lines north of the Aisne river and smashed their way southward until they had reached the Marne over a wide front east of Chateau Thierry
 No sooner had the momentum of this drive been taken 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 between Montdidier and Noyon and link up the Picardy and Marne sectors.
 It was here that the world had the first intimation that the Allied armies, I> L~ under the supreme command of Mar shal Foch, had been pursuing a def- 11ite policy and had conserved their strength against time when it might be used with good effect The German attack east of Montdidier came to pause after six days of terrible fight ing in which Germans suffered fright full losses, and the French, for the first time since the German offensive be- gan, struck back at the invaders.
 American forces had taken part in the final phases of the battle along the Marne 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 cross ing the Atlantic and during May, June and the first part of July they rapidly
 moved Up to the battle zone.
 The sanguinary 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 aong the front from Soissons 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 actions, Marshal Foch virtually fore ed the Germans to attack somewhere in the Marne region, where prepara- tions were made for a new phase of the struggle.
 On July 5 the Germans made a
 new drive, called by the the of fensive of peace. from Chateau Thierry eastward far into the Cham pagne sector No sooner had the news of the atta ok reached the world than the tidngs came that the French, Italian and American lines subjected to assault were standing firmly in every vital part of the front and that 1t was only by the greatest effort that the Germans pounded their way ahead in the region southwest of Rheims and astride the Marne west of Epernay. It then was known that the Allies had solved the German of fensive and were able to hold their ground.
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