Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-21
Special Cable to Evening Public Ledger
Copyright. 1919. ov the ". Y. Times Co.


Copyright, 1919, bv the ". Y. Times Co.
Cologne. Jan. 16.-(Delayed)--We
lington used to say he had spent his
military life in trying to guess what was
going on on the other side OF the hill.
History has to estimate these strategic
guesses, and already the time has come
when the pioneers of history are be-
ginning to reduce the chaos of the war
TO order
have before me evidence which
shows more clearly than anything yet
published what was happening on the
German side of the hill during those
anxious months in the spring OF 1918,
Captain Won Schwink began the war
az gunner; then he went into the air
service and worked with artillery fight
ing and bombing squadrons. He re-
ceived staff appointment In 1917.
When General Won Below was on the
Italian front in 1917 Schwink served
with him. When the scene of German
activity and German hopes shifted 10
France Won Below was put in command
of the Seventeenth Army, and Schwink
went with him.
The main idea of the great German
offensive in 1918, he says. was to break
through to the sea, cutting the British
army into two parts, one of which was
to be driven back on the channel ports
while the other was to be thrown SOUTH
ward in disorder upon the French. All
that happened afterward was in the ma
ture of attempts TO repair the plan
which had gone awry, or to substitute
some other which had not been origi-
nally contemplated.
For the plan. according TO Won
Schwink. did go awry from the hrsi
/ day. Even while the Kaiser was send
| ing about kilograms. while the brltish
public was reading anXiously Oh that
! hurried retreat upon Am'ens, the Ger
man staff knew that they had falled. 80
different are facts from imperial de-
sires. 80 differently things look on inc
other side of the hill.
For in that great offensive OF Marcn
81 the main weight of the attack was
to have fallen north of the Somme. Tho
Germans had no intention of massing
divisions south of a line drawn from
st. Quentin to Amiens, and 30 the actual
results of the severe check to the
! northern section of the offensive and
their great advance in the south were
considered by the German staff--l Dor
row the very guarded phrase as
somewhat in the nature Of failure
The attack, N fine, did not succeed as
had been expected, except south OF ST.
Quentin. The swift advance there was
iudget, to be OF merely minor impor-
tance. The Germans had hoped to gam
an equal success all along the line.
1t remained to try again. The next
attempt may be called another version
| OF the original idea. on March 2S an
attack between Oppy and Neuville-St
Vast was launched In order TO extend
the southern success. The German stan
were confident that they would recover
Vimy Ridge and capture Arras by the
weight Of the first blow. AS is known
they failed completely.
The reasons for the failure which APP
peared on the German side of the hill
were First the artillery preparation
was not sufficient. because they could
not bring up ammunition fast enough
and second, the resistance of the British
infantry went beyond all German cal
culation.
Agam 1t became necessary 10 recon
slider the situation. and this time more
profoundly, the resistance had been Sc
strong, the check SO discouraging ant
the losses so heavy that the German
staff decided to give up altogether tn,
original plan to break through to thu
sea north of Amiens. They looked fol
a new scene of action in which they
could work with smaller forces and will
some chance of success, but still the se3
was the lure,
Reading this German history of th'
campaign of 1918 one finds oncsel
thinking Of some Gagged beast tcarnl
and biting at the bars that shut him in