WHY LUDENDORFF WAS BEATEN

Evening Star, Issue 17328, 16 April 1920, Page 6

WHY LUDENDORFF WAS BEATEN

ARMISTICE SAVED GERMANS FROM UTTER COLLAPSE. The 'Frankfurter Zeitung' gives prominence to an important Vrticle. "by a certain Major Paulus—-the first plain admission by a German military writer that the. German armies were beaten in the field in the autumn of 1918, and that there can be no question whatever of attributing the German collapse to any but military cause 3. It has not sufficiently been appreciated that thi3 is the real issue in German affairs, that it is the isstto which German politicians of almost every coior aro seeking to avoid, and that the course of German internal developments and Germai policy very largely depends upon the question whether the truth can be hammered into the German people. SITUATION IN SEPTEMBER, Major Paulus begins from the fact that when Ludendorff, at the end of September, called upon Prince Max, of Baden, to ask for an armistice, the German army was retreating to a line Antwerp-Brussels-Namur-Diedeahofen-Metz. He proceeds to demonstrate that from the moment when Ludendorir was forced to retire to an AntwerpMetz line he was beaten, " and finally beaten." The truth was that the line Os-tend-Rheims-Pont-a-Mousson, with its " shoulder" at Rheims, was a " compromise front," resulting from the failure of the original German attack in 1914- and the incomplete success of Joffre's counter-at-tack. Just like Cadorna's position on the Isonzo"; the line held for years, and did not show its weakness until the enemy had sufficient strength to seriously menace the flank. Paulus think? that the Ludendorff offensivo of 3tfarch-July, 1918, had a preventive character. In any case, its strategic effect was finished when Ludendorff had no more troops to throw in. When this situation arose it was not the fault of the people at home in Germany. When the Ludendorff offensive was lost the situation of 191* recurred, and now Ludendorff had no alternative to the appeal for an armistice. It is an entire mistake to suppose that the line from Antwerp to Uetz could have been held. Neither flank was secure. In. the north the Dutch frontier left no room for any retreat' which would net be a catastrophe*. In the centra Verdun provided a positive invitation to break through the German line. The line Diedenhofen to Metz was already outflanked when the St. Mihiel bend was lost. The whole southern front was a mountain front full of disadvantages, and also much too close to the Rhine to be held stubbornly without risk of a catastrophe. Abovo all the railway system did not terve for adequate movement) of reinforcements to any threatened point;

Major Paulus maintains, therefore, that a. strategic defensive on a Iront Antwerp-Metz-Mulhausen otfered no prospect of even temporary success, nor eveu guaranteed any serious delay. Moreover, it was the last position beforo the line of (he Ekine, and a German defenco on the Rhine is impossible. Thus Ludendorff was perfectly right m announcing at the end of September that he could not continue the war any longer. But he was forced to this, "not by tho consequences in Germany of the war of exhaustion, but solely by the course of operations from July to' September." Major Paulus then discusses the question whether the situation could have been altered if Germany, after the collapse or" Russia, had withdrawn to the west all tho available German troops and! also the Austrian and Bulgarian forces in Rumania and tho Ukraine. The 'Frankfurter Zeitung' interpolates for its part the remark that tho greater part of the troops in tho east wcro not fit for service in tre west, but Boris thatjhis decs not alter the fact that Ludendorff did not use the troops that were Available. Major Paulus puts the point thus:

Ludendorff, the politician, proved stronger than Ludendorff, the military commander His strategy staked everything hi favor of a Pan-German policy of conquest. That was the hour of Ludendorff s fate and end ho t "" mr °- hk R" iU al;d tl'e guilt of \Vlhara ir. Whether Ludendorff would have done best to employ those 1,500.000 soldiers against the Macedonian menace to Austria and Bulgaria or to employ them on the? western front is. a question'of secondary importance. In anv case, he failed at the decisive hour, because he missed the only opportunity which tho fortune of the moment threw into his lap of securing in all circumstances the mihtary cuecess which had been his hitherto. His strategic movement on Brest-Litovsk was wn« and «=uch mr--takes are. according to Clansev.-itz 'and -Uoitlco, in most cases irreparable. Paulus declares. th;rafore, that Luc'endorlf and the Kaiser, "owing to Insufficient military ability or wiil," are entirely sio.e tor t.lO German disaster. He adds ■ • i\ e need not question whether ju«t such a (.e.eat was not Indispensable which ni".<J precede the. moral regeneration of t>'e German people."

fho Port Chalmers water supplv-is al-'o experiencing the effect of the dr/freatner spell. At the Borough Council meeting last week a report from the Water Corn" mittee stated ttiat the reservoir was down bit, and the water quickly diminishing. Seen by a ' Star' reporter this morning, the Mayor (Mr J. M. Stevenson) said the boroughs' water supply was standing the strain very well. this he attributed to the tree-planting which had been carried out on the water reserves for the past 15 years. This afforestation had been helped by the grass being allowed to remain on the ground, no grazing or cutting of grass on the water reserves being permitted. !\ r o restrictions on the use of water had been enforced so far, but he wished to emphasise the fact that it was now necessary that householders and others should economise as much as possible in the use of water. Great care should bo taken that no water be wasted and that generally the supply should be conserved as much as possible until the rain came. " Delia," began Mr 3 Xewliwed, timidly, "I don't suppose—er—that—you would—er—object to my getting an alarm clock?" "Not at all ,ma'am," replied the .sleepy cook, "them things never disturb me at all" "I say Stalker," he said, "you remember you told me you had hunted tiger* in. West Africa? Well, Captain Smith tells me there are no tigers there." " Quite right, quite right," said Stalker blandly, "I killed them all." '