ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1918. THE "FRIEDENSTURM."

Marlborough Express, Volume LII, Issue 169, 20 July 1918, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1918. THE "FRIEDENSTURM."

Details of the lighting in the early stages of this week's German offensive on the West front show that the •enemy has paid a very heavy price for such- advance as he has been able to make—ran -advance which, at some points has already become a retreat. His casualties up to two days ago1 are ■■estimated' at over 100,000. Wo read of his soldiers regarding the

fourth phase ..of the great offensive as a Friodenstiii-m or "Peace Attack," and no doubt the German public has been carefully educated into the fond hope, if nob t3i<3 actual belief, that tho onslaught now in progress spells

tlie much-desired "beginning of the *Hjd." It may prove to bo such, but it will bo very far from the end of which the German military party dream. As tho news leaks out in Hunlaud of the new and ghastly toll levied by the war gods popular discontent is bound to follow upon popular disillusionment. Already there are signs of such discontent producing embarrassing effects even in the army; When German soldiers take to burning down Gorman aerodromes, in one of which twenty-two aeroplanes arc destroyed; it is clear that Fritz the fighting man is beginning to weary of being constantly driven on to slaughter". Prussian military discipline, as ruthless (u<j Prussian disregard of all tho canons of deccntlyeonducted warfare, may temporarily stamp ont disaffection. But tffo leaven of revolution is clearly at work, and as the weeks go by and the truth becomes patent to the German people and tho German soldiers that they have been grossly misled by military nnd political officialdom at Berlin, wo may expect to read of some &ensatioual happemiiga.