Central Powers.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IX, Issue 83, 22 March 1919, Page 5

Central Powers.

THE GREAT DEFEAT. GERMANY’S FATAL MISTAKES. Paris, Alarch 15. A German officer writing in a letter throws light upon the collapse of the German Army. He states that the collapse was due to the revolution. Discipline had considerably deteriorated during the last year of the war, especially among the troops on the Eastern Front. These went unwillingly to the AVestern Front. Headquarters no longer had influence at the War Office, so Ludendorff, after much disputing, took matters into his own hands from top to bottom. There was also- a lack of fresh battalion. leaders and warweariness was constantly met with. The first great mistake Germanymade was underrating Englishmen as land fighters, and the seeonci the underrating of America s capacity to build shins and raise an armv The writer savs: AVe got false in formation from our naw. which ua thoroughly spoilt bv the great fu s made over it Irom the Kaiser down wards, and by the injudicious ais tribution of distinctions made to thi submarine commanders, who rej < 11 »-d laruer sinkings than were th case. Thus the armv ami staff vf>ik ed on the wrung basis. ’ Our naw was unable to disturb the American transports and when this truth was realised we had to take the intensive earlier than w planned and before the armv was sufficiently trained. As a result we lost 180.900 in tne first offensive at d (<m in lid it tf idln t t oops <n everv theatre oi war instead of having everv man at a decisive point Our offensives at feoissons. Remmel, anil Reims were miserable attempts.

After the failure at Reims Ludendorff lost Ins nerve and risked al! upon a throw. Then followed a fight of despair. The moment to try for peace had now slinned bv.

. The letter concludes stating that the Entente never lost their stubbornness. The revolution was not the cause, but the result of the defeat. American leaflets undermined our confidence, and the use of the tanks completely broke it down. Order is entirely lacking in the German finances, and there is no money to spare for efficient preparation for a worlfl-war. Organisation for the revolution began a year prior to N ovember last without the help ol

Russian Bolshevik capital, but later when the Kiel mutiny occurred, a large portion of troops at the front, and at home was already infected.” —(A. and N.Z.) GOVERNMENT MUNITION FAILS TO EXPLODE. London, March 20. The “Sunday Express’ ” correspondent in Berlin says that two curious incidents marked the fighting in the streets. The grenades used by the Government troops did not explode and the cartridges were found to be full of sand. Both were manufactured by Spartacist- workmen at Spandau. When a number of Government horses were shot down, and while the bullets were whizzing overhead, people emerged from the houses and hacked the horses for food. In some instances they did not wait till the animals were dead.