LUDENDORFF'S BROKEN SCHEME

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 17, 19 July 1918, Page 8

LUDENDORFF'S BROKEN SCHEME

ATTEMPT BEYOND HIS STRENGTH. (AUSIRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received July 19, 1 p.m.) LONDON, 18th July. . Documents captured on German prisoners show that the main plan was to seize tho Mountain of Reims as far as Montmiral. Yon Ludendorff realised that Reims would be a formidable object to attack frontally, but he saw that if the French line on either side was broken Reims ■would fall of itself. The first lateral thrust was directed at Chalons and the line thenco to Revigny, the second upon Epernay, thence to Montmiral. Yon Ludendorff hoped to secure room for the deployment of forces capable of attacking Paris. . Already the Crown.'Princo has abandoned the attempt to drive forward on tho whole front, and has substituted a series of local attacks. The result on the whole battle thus far shows that Yon Ludendorff attempted a great deal more than his strength permitted. General Jouvand was aware of the actual date fixed for the attack a fortnight before it happened. On the night of the attack he withdrew all his troops from the front lines, and an hour before the German attack opened the French artillery poured a devastating firo upon the Germans assembled in the front line, '■while the German guns were playing upon the empty French trenches.