New-York tribune., 1918-07-20
Wreck of the "Peace Storm

The fifth German offensive is defini-
tive failure. Rheims has been saved
and the problem now is not whether
the Germans can turn the French out
of Rheims but whether the Franco
Americans can compel the Germans to
repeat their retreat after the Battle of
the Marne and return to the lines north
of the Aisne, where Kluck halted on
September IS, 1914.
The counter thrust of Foch between
proceeding, and unless it is at once
checked we shall soon see the greatest
German retreat since the Hindenburg
retirement of March, 1917. At the
present moment Mangin's Franco Amer
lean force is still moving eastward
straight across the few lines Of highway
and toward the single remaining rail-
way which the Germans can employ to
munition and reinforce their troops in
the deep pocket along the Marne.
Already scissors is almost within the
grip of our soldiers and there are
signs which poin, to its evacuation.
At the same time, counter thrusts on
the other side of the German salient
about Rheims are developing, the Ger
man recoil is becoming general along
the whole front and we are evidently at
the crisis of the battle. The offensive
on the German side is over. The Allied
counter offensive is still in full swing.
Ludendorff can avoid confession of
complete defeat only by an immediate
and decisively successful use of his re-
serves.
We shall do we'll, still, not to expect
too much and lose sight thereby of what
we have already gained. The Germans
have already met with a defeat as COM
plete as that of the Austrians at the Piave
1t remains to be seen whether Foch, un-
like Dlaz, will pursue the offensive be-
yond the limits of his original front. In
word, we have still to discover whether
the Allied commander in chief is yet
ready to pass to the offensive or will
still wait few weeks longer before TAX
ing up the role always dearest to him
as to every soldier.
We have now to watch closely for the
developments about Scissors and between
scissors and Chateau Thierry. A little
further push westward by our own and
the French troops, and the Germans must
again leave the Marine. To leave the
Marne, too, means to relinquish the only
front from which they can conceivablv
strike toward Paris in the present cam
paign. A retirement now from the
Marne to the Vesle or to the Aisne will
mean the permanent shipwreck of the
larger phases of the German conception
Tor the present campaign.
Even If the German succeeds in saw
ing himself, in reestablishing the lines
from which he issued five DAYS ago to
deliver his decisive blow, already chris
tened the peace Storm his defeat will
be beyond question, and at best he can
only begin over again those prepara-
tlons which after forty days of indus
try have just proved futile.
1t is is mistake to say-as headlines
are now proclaiming-that the Germans
nave been routed, except on a local and
restricted front. 1t is a mistake to be-
leve that the probabilities now point
toward a decisive defeat which will omen
the road to Berlin. SO far a great and
dangerous blow has been parried and a
counter thrust delivered the conse-
quences of which may be wide and are
already considerable. But vast reserves
remain to the German and he has the
power to organize return blows promptly.
80 lar his greatest defeat is on the
moral side, considerable as has been his
military reverse. His people have
watched with apprehensive intentness
the entry of the Kaiser's army upon
those fields familiar four years ago as
the scene of the great disappointment.
For the German people a Second Battle
of the Marine has been fought and the
issue even now is unsatisfactory, AL
ready Paris must seem to them saved
again in the old way
And in Paris, London and Rome the
moral effect cannot be exaggerated.
After the Piave second Marine! What
was ominous in March and still threat
ening in June becomes infin tely less
>menacing in late July, when after great