GERMANY'S LOST CHANCE OF SPLITTING ALLIES

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 206, 29 August 1918, Page 5

GERMANY'S LOST CHANCE OF SPLITTING ALLIES

FORCE FRITTERED AWAY IN SIDE ISSUES.

AMIENS WOULD HAVE TAXLEN TO DETERMINED PUSH. (Received S..i() a.m.) LONDON, August 28. • Brigadier-General Sir F. B. Maurice, in a review of the military situation aitor a visit to the f.ont, states that Amiens must have fallen after the enemy's attack on Viliers Tiretonneux, ten miles south-east, on April 24, if the Germans had pushed on. Fortunately, General Rawlinson, who realised that the enemy must not be given time to dig in. oountpr-attacked with a small force mainly Australians, and the Germans were driven caet of Viliers Bretonneux. Equally fortunately the enemy made, a mistake in emharking on the Flanders offensive, which diverted forces which, if used on the Amiens front, would almost certainly have resulted ,in separation of the Allied forces. Hindenburg "and Ludendorff made exactly the mistake yon Moltke made in 1914, their force being frittered away on side issues. We now are witnessing the consequences. It took too long to shape the Rheims offensive, and the American forces grew and we were allowed time to recover.

The turn of the tide datee from General (Jouraud's repulse of the Crown Prince's Champagne attack, where fifteen of the best divisions, carefully nursed and trained, were smashed. Marshal Foch took the chance by one of the great maste.rpieces of generalship. The German policy of selecting storm troops enfeebled the German defence, and the corps d'elite was formed at the expense of the whole army. We captured numerous orders signed by Lude.ndorfT adverting in strong language the weakening discipline of the troops and to their slackness. The rigid Prussian discipline is not standing the strain. Prisoners are taken more easily than ever, and parts of the German army are fighting slaekly. This is shown by the state of their trench defences. They have been content with ». single front trench without support lines and communication trenches, indicating great slackness or scarcity of labour. The command is moving the reserves about in a manner betraying nervousness.

General Maurice does not wish to convey the impression that the German armies are yet withing measurable distance of collapse. They are still well fed, equipped, and formidable, and we have not yet the superiority in force necessary to crush him .but if yh>. play our cards properly the German decline will become a collapse.- —(A. and N.Z. Cable.)