Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-04-10
GERMANY CANNOT QUIT

GERMANY CANNOT QUIT
Whatever else Germany may do. she cannot quit.
She has chosen her hour to strike. She has llaunched
her blow. She must follow it with others and sAill others,
and with each she must make substantial gains. To fail
in this is to be defeated. She cannot wait. She cannot
shift her base. When her offensive began she had the
advantage which the attacking party always has. OF
knowing where her attack would be launched. The at
lacking forces could be massed at.wil. The defense
could not be concentrated, for a concentration OF the
Allies at one point would have caused the-transfer Of at
tack to some other point where. the Allied lines had been
and to which reserves could not readily be
transported. That advantage is gone. The Germans oc-
cupy new positions. but they can maintain Themselves in
those positions only by weight Of numbers. They cannot
withdraw a part Of their force from Picardy for another
main offensive in some other district, because to do SO
would merely be to extend their frontal lines and to rem
der more precarious their hold in the terrain which they
have just occupied. Meanwhile, the Allies have undoubt-
eddy been improving the time by arranging their reserves
for sitter resistance, and, when the. time comes, for
counter attack. Germany can collect no more men on
the west front. She has stripped her eastern lines below
the danger point. Her. peace" with Russia is a flimsy
and fictitious one, likely at any time to be shattered. The
conditions in Russia are those out Of which Guerilla war
grows naturally. Austria has been drawn upon to the
limit The force that Germany has on the west front
today is the greatest that she can place there. With that
force she must keep up the attack which she has started
until she forces her way through to the sea or she must
confess herself beaten. i 81
1t is true that Germany may, failing the ability to
continue her progress, dig herself in where she is. and
hold her new lines for weeks or months. That will mot
help her. In this offensive she has gained nothing she
can use, and the square miles of new ground that she
has occupied has cost her a quarter of a million men.
Her gains are worth that price, or any price, only if they
aid her in making still further and greater gains. If she
is forced now to sit down where she is and wait it would
have been far better for her to have omitted her often
sive, to have saved her men, and to have strengthened
her defenses where she was. Unless she can press on/now
without serious interruption to a decisive victory, her po-
sition is immensely worse today than it was when she
launched her offensive on the o1st Of March.
If Germany is now forced to the defensive in her
new positions, the initiative will have passed to the Al
lies. They will be able to make the most effective dispo-
sition Of their forces. while those of Germany are prac-
| tically locked fast. Their man power on the front will
be constantly increasing by the arrival OF fresh American
troops and additional men from England, while the
strength of Germany will be constantly diminishing by
the losses which she will sustain in local engagements all
along the line. The Allies can from this time on lose
man for man with Germany and have great armies left
after every German soldier has been killed.
From the above facts which are the opinions OF
competent military critics, and which come quite within
the scope of ordinary civilian understanding, we reach
tho obvious conclusion that the offensive will continpe
just as long as Germany can continue it. If she waits il
will be because she is compelled to wait, and not that she
pauses to better her position. Every day that her tri.
umph is postponed makes that triumph more difficult Of
attainment, They must attack, and keep on attacking
until they have broken through the wall before them
The logic Of events has forced this course upon them
and they have entered upon this campaign prepared to
stake everything on it's success. That means much fight
ing, and hard fighting. 1t may mean more German
gains. But unless each gain is an integral part of ulti.
mate successful is worthless. 1t is worse than worthless
because it will have diminished Germany's strength and
fastened her final collapse. h