The Washington herald., 1919-04-27
Why Enemy Failed
On West Front

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.sss.a
ing in the midst of their dead and
wounded. and. again, victory might
nave gone to the enemy had he
KNOWN our extreme weakness and
made use safshis own strengthzto
the uttermost. ABut he hesitated 10
deliver the last attack because of
his own fearful losses, and the Brit
ism held Ypres. and never let go.
Thin Brown Living Line OF British.
The Germans now made a col6s-
sal and enduring error in their war
plan, and by that stupidity lost
their supreme chance of victory.
They established themselves in
trench positions on the Western
front and were content to hold the
lines in defensive and stationary
warfare for more than a year while
they devoted their main energies of
attack on the Eastern front That
gave England the time to build up
a new army on 4 vast scale, to make
guns by thousands, to manufacture
high explosives by millions of tons,
to rally up the young manhood of
all her empire. and to blockade
Germany by a worldwide net of
sea-power.
In the battle of the Somme, during
the second half of 1916, after many
small and desperate battles before
the British armies in France and
Flanders with French troops on their
right took the offensive, smashed their
way through a fortress system of
trenches 30 miles deep and 10 miles
broad. and in spite Of their own enor-
nous losses, destroyed immense num-
bers OF the enemy and broke the
spirit Of the German troops engaged
against them by the fury Of their
gun fire and the unending intensity of
their infantry attacks. The Germans
called this slaughter of their man.
hood the blood-bath OF the Somme,"
and at last they could stand 1t no
longer and made their first big retreat
in Flanders and Picardy, across a
wide sweep of territory which they
laid waste behind them, to the shell
ter OF their great Hindenburg line
which they had been building for a
year. The British troops did not cease
their attacks during the whole of tn,
following year Q910, and in the bat
ties OF Arras, Messines. Lens, Flanders
and Cambrai inflicted prodigious
losses on the enemy-at a fearful price
to themselves. draining Germany OF
her blood,
Take Gamblers Chance.
BY this time the war lords of Ger.
many began to take leave of their
senses under the desperate strain OF
their position. They no longer acted
on the laws OF military science, but
on the gamblers instinct. With a
most incredible folly they took the
risk OF adding the greatest power in
the world--in numbers of men and in
potential energetic their list of ene-
miles. With almost deliberate care
lessncss the houted the United
States and forced her to declare war.
Their temptation was great. The
British naval blockade was causing
severe suffering by food shortage TO
the German people and denying them
access to raw material which they
needed for the machinery OF war.
The submarine campaign. ruthlessly
Carried out. would. and did, infiict i'm
mense damage to British and allied
shipping. and was a deadly menace
to England. But German calculations
were utterly wrong In estimating the
amount OF time needed to break her
bonds by submarine warfare before
American could send over great armies
to Europe. and the German warlords
were wrong again in Understanding
the defensive and offensive success of
the British navy and mercantile ma
rlne against submarine activities.
BY those miscalculations they lost
the war in the long run. and by other
errors they made their loss more GER
tain.
One immense mistake they made
was in regard to the psychology and
temper of their soldiers and civilian
population. They put a greater strain
upon them than human nature could
bear. and by driving their fighting
men into one shambles after another
and by trying to dope their people by
false promises which We're never full.
filled. they sowed the seeds Of revolt
and despair which finally launched
them into CULTS of ruin.
The "Great swindIe.-
gan to see signs of revolt among Ger
ihhh SoiuitiS against lne slaughter 10
which they had to sacrifice themselves
Many had abandoned hope of victory
even then and cursed their leaders. In
letters which / grabbed from German
dugouts, and in thousands of letters
which fell into the hands of our in
telliSence officers, there were cries OF
agony and despair from the civilian
people written to their men in the
field. Again and again people writ
ing from any different towns used the
same phrase to describe the war
They called it THE Great Swindle. -
Revolution was beginning its murmur
and soldiers were talking of desertion
and beginning to desert. Then in the
spring of 1918 the German Headquar-
ters Staff prepared TO play their last
card on a gamblers venture.
They believed that at last they
held tho trump card to redeem all
their losses. Russia was out of the
war definitely and absolutely, and
after the infamous treaty of Brest-
Litovsk the German war lords hur-
ried over to the Western front near
ly all their divisions who had been
in the East. They did not know
that many of these troops had been
converted to the Bolshevistic phil
osophy of pacifism. They failed
once again to give credit to the un-
breakable faith and courage of the
French and British. They did not