Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-10-03

i%tiative. but force its pursuers to con-
form /" it's will for the balance of the
year.
The essential thing in all wsr is mt
the occupation of territory. saw as the
occupation OF that territory forces
your enemy to fight under unfayor-
able conditions. and. thus fighting. to
meet utter defeat. We all of us lool,
AT the map and e there, as it may
happen, causes for hope or for fear.
Yet 1t Is not on II map that l'och or
a~uaenaortt seek the answer to their
Questions. The whole object Of both
s~trategies. for both German and
French STATS are wholly permeated
with he Napoleonic view of war. is
TO destroy he armies before them.
AS q consequence we have now 10
face this situation. %Ludendorff has
made a long and desperate retreat. not
Win the idea of reaching the Linden
ourS m and, once behind il, of halt
Ing and checking his pursuers In that
line. Only the advent of had weather
would make any u c tactics possible.
What he has sought has been TO retire
to a new position and while retiring
to regroup his forces for the express
purpose OF attack when the right mo-
$50 0sAtS J0St dS JOllEe SOuRn 10
retreat from the frontier to the Marine.
solely to reorganize his force. and
strike back.
Now we are coming to the great
test OF the present year within a brief
time. kudcndorff is substantially bacl:
ON the last line. from which he can
strife back, IL he is to attempt TO STAY
in rance short of the Meuse and
scheldt line for the rest OF the He
NAV have honn on O1Ncol. =
heavily beaten upon that he will be
unable to undertake q counter blow at
the Hindenburg line. accepting this as
meaning the whole German front from
the sea to Switzerland. lf this be the
case h Foch will have accomplished
all mat ne sought to accomplish when
ne began the series Of attacks which
opened with R%awlinson's thrust along
the Somme on August S.
The whole lash of the rival strate-
gists for the last five weeks has been
over the condition in which Luden-
dorffs army would arrive at the Hin
denburg line. All the swift blows of
Foch have been directed at accom-
plishing w things, at breaking down
the resources of the Germans and at
shaking their morale. In 1917 Hinden-
burg retired to his new positions be-
hind the Somme battlefield with abso-
lutte freedom of movement. The pursuit
WSh iiOt OiSdIlILeu uIlIll tne SCaDe WAS
accomplished. He did not leave 5000
prisoners in drawing an army of nearly
100000 back owe a front of 100 miles
and to a depth of 25 miles in various
places. He h u retained freedom Of
action. and when Haig attacked at Ar
ras and Nivelle. northrof- scissors, the
Germans were able to beat both at
tacks down by counter attacks. And
the morale of his troops was not af-
fected. for they saw the retreat as a
piece OF successful strategy.
Different This Time.
In the present case. however. Luden-
dorff has been less lucky. We may as
sumo that after the second Marine he
knew that he must draw in his troops
in Picardy, whether to the line of the
Canal du Nord and the upper Somme
or to the Hindenburg line is immater-
ial. but his w purpose was to effect
the retirement in his own time and
way. We saw him begin this in the
first days of August by drawing his
troops back behind tho Ancre and the
Avre and starting a similar limited and
local retreat in the Lys salient. But
the moment he began these withdraw
ais Foch was upon him with Il tiger
spring.
What has happened since has been a
series OF swift. heavy blows delivered
all along the line. which have COM
PEELED the German to halt and fight, to
abandon his plan of an orderly retreat
to check an enemy whose further adj
vance would bring disaster. Foch has
overrun the retiring forces before they
could organize their withdrawal, and
the result has been battles in which
German infantry fought without the
aid of German artillery and under the
most ~unfavorable conditions. We MAY
gather how u~nfavorable these condi-
ttons have been by the fact that be-
tween August 8 and September 8, that
is, in the period of a single month,
10000 German prisoners have been
taken. But this Is only q detail. Re
member the main purpose OF Luden-
dorff was to get back to the selected
back. a strategic reserve. a las OF
maneuvre. an unexpended balance of
fresh divisions, call the thing what YOU
will, which would enable him to do
what Jof6re did at the Marne, and
Foche on the same battlefield four
years later, namely. take the offensive
Question Of Receives.
Instead OF this he has had constantly
to put his reserves. strictly limited In
numbers, back into the furnace to save
the troops attacked by Fochin their re-
tirefnent from utter ruin. You may IL
lustrate The thing by a simple figure. A
man with q nxed income and q small
accumulation In the bank. laid away for
q rainy day. Is striving to live on his
income leaving his savings for the
future. But business becomes 80 bad
that his capital has to be fed into the
daily expense. and whom the evil day
comes he will find himself without any
reserve in the bank. Now. exactly this
Is what Foch has sought ana Luden.
dor6 has endeavored to avoid.
In 1914 the German general staR was
satisfied that they had beaten JoSre