FRIGHTFUL GAPS IN GERMAN LINE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14607, 17 May 1918, Page 4

FRIGHTFUL GAPS IN GERMAN LINE.

LONDON, May 6. Under the: heading "Enemy's Hope Deferred," the Times publishes a striking estimate of the situation. . It says : — After the bloody check at Mont Ronge the Germans have had to re-constitute their decimated unit/}, and await the arrival of reinforcements to fill the frightful gaps. This regrouping has caused a marked lull m the fighting, but it does not mean that Ludendorff has abandoned the_ sledge-hammer blows, the results of which Germany is still tensely and enthusiastically expectant.. Our soldiers well know that future ordealsare awaiting them, maybe fiercer than thosei from which they have just emerged. The full effects of the Russian withdrawal are now manifest. This meaning of it is that we must fight tenaciously at a disadvantage until tha Americans enter the field m strength. On the," other hand,, enemy peoples are unquestionably re-suffering "the bitterness of disappointment. Germany is beginning to doubt whether the splendid, exhilarating vision of a. crushed British army will not prove • illusory, like the submarine successes and the capture of Paris.

Mr. Pirrie Robinson states that the Germans since March 21 have used over a hundred divisions on the Somme, and 36- in the north, apart from many which have been refitted, and thrown m a second time. He notes the appearance of many new drafts of youngsters of the 1918 class and younger, and also of garrison trops.