New-York tribune., 1918-12-17
Kluck and the Marne
By Frank H. Sinonds =

eager curiosity since the sign;nn =.
~ the armistice than in that of r.''
tary information. What are the ''' -
man explanations not pronao..s
statements, but actual explanation.
various battles, some successful
disastrous for their arms? And .b.
all else, for it remains the supreme r
terry OF the war, what is the Germ.
explanation of the Marne?
We know that in the first year. :.
the war German generals and prss.
agents industriously circulating the IT,
end that no such battle occurred. IT,.
German army, 'in accordance u;.s
plan," the familiar formula, retired h.
hind the Aisne; only advanced guard.
crossed the Marne. Bernhard ~
literary fame explicitly denied the h..
tie in statement to an American co,
respondent in 1916.
Meantime, on the Allied side vrs..
dispute arose over the struggles II.
pute which seems likely to rival Wate,.
loo debates. Was the battle won bv
Maunoury's army coming out of Paris
to the Ourcq? Was the decisive thrus,
that Of Foch at Fere Champenoise? Wa,
it the result of supreme strategy that
the Germans were turned back, or was
it-as the mass of French peasants have
decided-a veritable miracle?
And now, at last, we begin to have
light from German sources. First ~
all, the ex-Crown Prince, in public
statement, asserts that he recognized AZ
once that the war had been lost at the
Marne, lost because of the failure of the
nerves of certain German generals
Here, at last, is admission of the fact
of the Marine, impressive testimony, even
if open to suspicion in detail.
But far more interestiry evidence
has followed This time it is Kluck
who speaks. 1t was Kliick who com.
manded the German army which ad-
vanced from Brussels to the environs of
Paris, sweeping all before it. It was
Kluck who crossed the Marne and
turned his back to Paris, inviting the
thrust of Maunoury, which changed the
whole face of the situation.
Now, Klick does not explain bis de-
feat-he admits that it was a defeat-n
military terms He does not talk about
flank or rear, maneuvre or counter Of
fensive. What he says-and it is sig
nificant-is that he was surprised; as
others after him. he grimly adds not
by French generals, but by French SOL
diers.
That an army could retire for ten
days, losing prisoners. guns. becoming
exhausted, and then, of a sudden, re-
turn to the offensive irresistibly-ths
was thing the German military books
never regarded possible, never dis
cussed, never warned German generals
TO expect. The material elements are
all duly accounted for, but failure to
estimate the moral factor lost the bat
tie-lost the war. Kluck hints.
'We made a mistake" Kliick says,
with engaging frankness The mistake
was not strategic-it was rot that the
attack, coming out of Paris. was in it.
self surprise-the thing was eeper
Kllick, Moitke, the whole Ger iigh
Command had calculated ne
French soidier as beaten; ther ons
we're based uro this assumption
1t was because of this assumption
hat kliick went south of the Marne and
opened his flank to Maunoury. Nearly
four years later Ludendorff did the
same thing, with precisely the same con-
sequences. There is picture of the Ger
man mind set forth in both these opera
tions. Both times the Germans counted
the French exhausted, because by every
calculation based upon the books they
ought to have been exhausted.
Yet those French writers who have best
described the Marine have paid most at
tention to the same phenomenon which
kluck discusses. By all the ordinary
standards of measurement, the French
military force was on the edge of ruin
on September 5, but on September 6 it
was attacking from Paris to Verdun
and on September IS it was back at the
Aisne, victorious and conscious of the
magnitude of it's victory.
Frenchmen tell you that in the Marne
time all France was conscious that the
fate of the nation was at stake. The
army felt it, the civilians felt it, Paris
felt it with an emotion unforgettable for
all who lived through these days in the
French capital.
But out of the perception grew the
resolution; million men, moved by the
same spirit, put aside their wearness,
their sufferings, and-attacked. Kldck
does not understand it now His briel
comment betrays continuing mystifca'
ton. He was surprised on Septembe'
s 1914 and ho roraa;rar c,1rnrised u