Evening star., 1918-07-19
NEXT FEW HOURS MAY COST
GERMANS LAST MAYS GAINS
Decisive Thrust Of Americans and French
Has Serious Possibilities for Foe Troops
Between Aisne and Marine.

SoinS must DC maQes II they are 70 DC
made, has worn itself out without
piercing the French line. without
producing any collapse. and withou.
those inciuded In wEcL on "wednesday
wss sr,s.,,,. rsAI menace e :, tlss Rhetms
ON Wednes4ay osfnaans sSefs; I'd
vancing on aithsr banx III the Garne
toward EperaAy. with the hope OF
compehing the French to. evacuate all
sne high ground OF the mountain OF
thrs. nns,Ms 1s, and = The vant.fe points which
IN any later lrive tSW4rj Paris. Now.
IN exactly the sums way. Frcnch and
americans are advancing between .hc
Warne and the Atsne. seeking to en-
velop all the German forces fighting
and, Rheims.
Were 1t conceivable that the Fran
co-American attack could have the
same success that attended the Ger
man attack upon the Afsne two
months ago, or In Flanders in April.
d1sss. 5nen we should see real German
the capture Of large numbers OF
troops caught In the salient between
SotsSons and Rheims. But the mere
threat of such q disaster would un-
Questionably produce a German re-
treat out Of the salient, and we may
- /
real disaster.
| But II one hesitates 1t This interest
ing moment to expect too much Or to
claim, too much. sti1 It is proper and
essential to point out that ON the
fourth day Of an operation upon
grandiose name Of . peace. STERN It
70 the Germans and not the allies who
find themselves In q critical position
and Threatened with serious disaster.
IT. femains efttrely possible that
this Franeo-Amertcans o6eusive will
be pinned down by the Germans In
the~next few hours and before It
reaches any Of the roads and railways
vital to the German mainten1nce of
their position on either bank of the
Marine. But even in checking this
threat the Germans are likely to
Rheims. land this was unquestionably
the precise purpose, for which Foch
launched his counter thrust
Not Yet "out Of Woods.o
We are not ont Of the woods. The
fate of Rheims is still in doubt all
though the threat is by no means as
serious as It was .twenty-fonr hours
ago. Butsif. AZ seems .not improba-
ble. the new counter offensive as
sunes considerable proportions, va
may be on the eve Of the turning
tideAof tho whole operations on tho
Wesssrn front Sor the the present pres 1t year.
peated that lightning blow which at
the marshes of st. Gond. September
o, 1914, decided the issue Of the bat
tie of the Marne.
It Is clear that at all times 1t was
necessary, for tho Germans to pre-
CO ~ q NJ <1aa vvrn
tum Of their thrust which aimed at
destroying the military establishment
OF at least one OF the greater enemies
on the western front Four thrusts
OF the Germans were pinned down
hsfore this larger purpose had been
of them, that aimed at Compiegne,
was halted under conditions which
suggested that the Germans were
losing their initial advantage In
method and in material Now the
fifth thrust seems not merely to have
halted. hut to be ON the. point Of de-
generating .into. 6 recen and perhaps,
Into . wide-swinsiny sretraat s
Deciaaon II Fsv Hsuzz
me NEXT .fsw, hours should be sde-
ictsiye- A gain Of eight Or tsn miles
on :ths frpnt between Seisscns ana.
Chateau Thierry-thAti is, between the
Aisne and the Marne-Would not only
depriye the Germans, OF all prcxit
Il their present Offensive abEt COM
pel them to surrender the larger part
of their gains in the Aisne attack Of
MTS TSe decisive thrust Of 1ths present
battle Is being made jointly by French
cess has been very great Its spossi-s
bilities are not -yete.to. ba limited.
And In any event, It seems hardly tod
earlysto assert that the NTH German
offensive y ending In: 9. failure. at
Austrian failure at the spf&ye. ;And
ftsfs something 70 feel that sAzhex1eRn
soldiers 81, large numbers saxe eco-s
operating efke6ftxely !, 11ds spaytie1Elaf-
ings actigeiy IN the elsarge INST my