Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-01
.JOFFRE WORE OUT ALLIES MORE
THAN GERMANS, SAYS CHURCHILL
Foch and Haig Included in
British ChanceIIor's Criti-
cism of Tactics.
American Aid Held Decisive
"MoraI" Factor in Win
ming Final Victory.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
NEW YORK, March 1.-The battle
of attrition' tactics of the allies on
the western front under the general
ship of Joffre and Foch wore out the
allies more than they wore out the
Germans. charges Winston Churchill
chancellor of the exchequer in the
Baldwin cabinet. whose THE World
Crisis, 1916-191S," was released by
Charles Scribner's Sons today.
Backing his criticism by figures
which do not appear to have at all
been appreciated even In the most ex.
pert circles" he says that ION sthe
terms of 1915, 1915 and 1917 the Ger
man man power was sufficient to last
indefinitely. In fact. in the three
western front the Germans actually
gained to the extent of 1888 900 men
more than their losses.
Weaker After Offensive.
1.-THE result of every allied offensive
was to leave us relatively weaker
and in some cases terribly weaker
than the enemy. The aggregate result
of all of them from 1918 to 1917 latter
deducting the losses on both sides in
the German attack on Verdun) was a
French and British casualty list of
4,123, 900, compared to a German total
of 2,166,000. The process of attrition
was at work, but 1t was on our own
side that its ravages fell and not on
the German"
Gen. Joffre. in 1915, 1.-THE worst
year of the Joffre regime" eclipsed
all the errors of the first shock year"
by an "insensate obstinacy and lack
Of comprehension" says the writer.
when without any large numerical
superiority, without adequate artillery
or munitions, without any novel me-
chanical method, without any pretense
Of surprise or maneuver, without any
reasonable hope of victory, he contin-
ued to hurl the heroic but limited man.
hood of France at the strongest en-
trenchments, at uncut wire and in
Vulnerable machine-guns served with
cold skill"
"It was their own offensive, not
ours, that contaminated the ruin of
the Germans" he continues. "They
were worn down not by Joffre. Nivelle.
and Haig, but by Ludendorff
II our whole strategy and tactics had
been directed to compel the enemy to
have been sooner won?"
Scores Neglect OF East.
Churchill scores the neglect of the
eastern theaters" of war. and says
the plan OF British and allied war
which would best have served our
interests in the year 1916. would have
been a surprise attack upon the Oar
The Germans, likewise. he says,
missed an opportunity in the East to
decisively dispose of Russia and to
take over Rumania's grain and oil
when Verdun was chosen as the OBJ
jective.
The order in which the events of
1917 broke the deadlock OF mutual
"butchering" is important. says the
author.
IF the allies had been left to face
the collapse Of Russia without being
sustained by the Intervention of the
United States, 1t seems certain that
France could not have survived the
year, and the war would have ended
in a peace by negotiation. or, in other
words, Alderman victory
t'The total defeat of Germany" he
says, was due to three cardinal mis-