EXTRA EDITION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 25 August 1919, Page 7

EXTRA EDITION.

GERMANY'S DOWNFALL

LUDENDORFF'S INTERESTING STATEMENTS. Bjr CABLE— PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT W (Times.) (Received Aug. 25, 9.20 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 22. Ludenplorff's book is strikingly candid in tracing the chain of causes leading up to tne offensive in the spring iif 1918, which he describes as the last .great gamble of the war. Austria was obviously worn out, and verging *ri revolution; Bulgaria was unwilling to continue fighting; and the morale of^the German troops was going to pieces and Bolshevism threatening to spread westward. It was only a wild hope that the Germans would win somehow that kept the Quadruple Alliance together. Ludendorff refers impatiently and. contemptuously to the Bolshevist demands, and believed that the Allies regarded the attempts at negotiation at Brest Litov&k as farcical, only disclosing Germany's weakness. The Bol■shevists were not in the least interested in self-determination. They merely wanted more power. The indecisiyeness of the offensive onJßarch 21 is attributed by Ludendorflyto the 117 th Army's failure and heavy losses in the onslaught, which •otherwise was a brilliant feat. His second big disappointment was the failure to capture Amiens, leaving the ■enemy, astride the Somme. Decay in the morale of the Germans in the latter months of the fighting is repeatedly mentioned. Germany's l>laek day in the history of the, war was August 8, when the" British, Australians, Canadians and French attacked with terrific vigor. The Germans between the Somme and the Luce allowed themselves to become completely overwhelmed, the tanks surprising «yen divisional headquarters. "I was -deeply confounded, and summoned the commanders. I then heard, of the j deeds of brilliant gallantry, also of conduct which I had not believed possible in the German army, including instances of whole detachments surrendering to tanks or single troopers."