Evening star., 1918-06-16
French Expected to Defend
Capital City With Their
Full Strength.
ALLIED ARMY, HOWEVER,
HUNS MAIN OBJECTIVE
Historical Neglect Of Northern De.
fenses Of Paris and Its Bearing
on 0tfensive-Race Against
America.
BY FRANK H. sIMoNDs.

h1 tHANh HI SlMoNDS.
Copyright, 1915, the Tribune Association. New
York Tribune.)
Last Sunday the Germans opened on
the front west of the Oise and between
that river and Montdidier, their third
operation directed toward Paris Of the
present campaign.
1t Is the view Of French military writ
ers. now generally accepted In the. allied
world generally. that the ultimate OBJ
jective of the German offensive for 1918
ir Paris. Some time before the end of
the present campaign it is assumed to
be the expectation and the plan of the
German high command to reach the
final threat to enforce their peace terms.
give the French the choice between the
destruction of their capital and q sur
render on such conditions as Germany
may then choose to offer.
Such an objective presupposes the de-
cisive defeat of the French military es-
present front, the permanent immobili-
sation Of the British on their line be-
tween the Somme and the sea and the
failure Of the Americans to arrive In
numbers and In condition to change the
situation.
cuss the campaign for Paris as 1t Is now
viewed by the various military commen-
tators of the allied nations. and devote
some space to a consideration Of the
geographical and other circumstances of
what promises to be the greatest and
human history.
Only East Side Fortified.
military commanders had. in the period
following the Franco Prussian war.
carefully fortified the eastern frontier
of France against German attack.
On the north, on the contrary. the
situation has been quite the reverse.
theoretically, the northern and easiest
road to France was to be guarded by a
series of forts and intrenched camps,
wholly comparable to the eastern sys-
tenn. Lille, Maubeuge and Mezieres were
to be the centers, as Verdun, Toul and
Epinal are on the east. and between
them detached forts were to cover other
roads and railways passing between the
main centres Of population and Of re-
sistance. And on any military map you
may still see these forts and camps
marked as existing. but in reality they
existed only on the map, save in the
years ago.
In the time of Louis XIV Vauban, his
great engineer. had erected a series Of
Notifications covering the French from
tier from the North sea to Switzerland.
and In all the period of his wars Paris
had been defended at the frontier. This
continued to be the case in the early
wars of the French revolution, and these
fortihcations corresponded to the Maui
beuge- Lille Mezieres line. which was in
I. H. .1,~,,r - -I IL
fense in the north in later times. But
actually the enormous cost of modern
fortifications and reliance upon trea-
ties which declared Belgian soil neutral
led French parliaments into the capital
blunder of leaving the northern from
tier unguarded.
North Side Left Open to Huns.
Thus, in August, 1914. when Germany
chose to advance through Belgium, she
was able to reach and pass the frontier
defenses with practically no difficulty.
once she had won the opening battles Of
Neufchateau. Charleroi and Mons. In
point of fact. the French made no stand
on the frontier. and Maubeuge. after a
gallant but hopeless resistance. fell
while the battle Of the Marne was in
progress. Thus the barrier which had
saved Paris at the time Of the revolu-
tlOH pldycu duSoiulcIy III pail III pIo-
tecting the capital in 1914.
Accordingly, when the Germans came
south in August, 1914, they passed the
second line Of defenses Of Paris almost
without resistance.
In this invasion the army of Kluck
came south by the historic northern
route. passing west Of the high ground
and crossing the Oise about Compiegne,
while the army Of Bulow pushed south
between Scissors and Rheims. But hav-
ing reached Senlis the Kluck army In
clined to the east, made Its turn away
from Paris and drove down through
Meaux across the Marine. offering its
flank to Paris and inviting the blow
which began the battle Of the Marine.
After the Marne the first concern of
the French was to pursue the Germans
across the Aisne and drive them from
the high ground between the Aisne and
the Disc and the forts Of Laon and
Rheims which formed the basis Of the
second line Of French defense of the
Paris itself, now proved to be worthless
against German siege artillery. This
was the main significance of the first
battle Of the Aisne and of the desperate
fighting about Rheims In September and
early October, 1914.
Germans Kept High Ground.
In this effort the allies failed. They
nassed the Aisne about Soissons; they
occupied some of the high ground in the
angle between the Aisne and the Disc.
but the Germans held the northern forts
I.aon and north of the Aisne on the