VON HINDENBURG ALARMED

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 89, 14 April 1917, Page 5

YON HINDENBURG ALARMED

HIS NEW BATTLE PLANS

AN OFFENSIVE WITH NEW DIVISIONS

LONDON, 13th April. The Dairy Telegraph's Rotterdam correspondent states that Yon Hindenburg, alarmed at the threat on his much-vaunted line,'hastened to the Western front and stayed two days. He attributes the disaster to the divisional generals, and refuses to admit that he has underestimated the British prowess.

" LONDON, 12th April. , Professor Bidou, the famous French military critic' of the Journal dcs Debats, in an. article in Land and Water, discussing the 1917 campaign, says: "It is obvious that Yon Hindenburg is preparing an offensive, retreats being & favourite preliminary to yon Hindenburg's offensives. He hopes to resume the war by a movement to suspend the Western front for two and a-half years. The Germans are gaining troops in the rear in exercises wlere trench warfare plays quite a subsidiary part.- Hindenburg is also greatly developing his medium artillery, which is both powerful and mobile, at the expense of 'artillery in position.' The alarming pulverisation of the German positions on the Somme showed that no position was safe from the British artillery, while the troops in their shelters had no time to come out and meet the assault. .Whole units were thus captured. The Germans now realise that the men must be withdrawn from the dug-outs as the guns are withdrawn from the fortresses. The Germans intend to refuse battle and yield ground when,an offensive is disclosed. They will thus gain several weeks before a new attack is possible. The German medium artillery will reach perfection in June, if they can avoid defeat until then. Yon Hindenburg intends to launch an offensive with masses of manoeuvre troops, created by deducting every fourth regiment from the divisions: a reorganisation which has produced■ thirteen new divisions, armed with extremely powerful artillery.'l