GERMAN WAR CRITICS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14748, 30 October 1918, Page 6

GERMAN WAR CRITICS

SHOW HOW BATTLES ARE WON

ON PAPER- „ AMSTERDAM, Aug , 27. Germum war experts are hopelessly at odds m trying to explain the present situation oh. the Western front. Twice each day General Ludendorff's ccrrnmunications announce "victorious repulses," but a glance at the map shows each successive location mentioned as the scene of fighting lies a few miles eastward., Tins, says the Hamburg Nachrichen's military expert, "is a bad sign of the enemy, because; it . shews that his attempts to -pierce' the, German front have failed, and that "he seeks to substitute width for depth;"' He further argues that "tho earlier Oetrman thrust toward Anxiens forestalled the enemy, and now even if the' Germans are losing ground, it is no absolute! gain for the enemy, but merely the recovery of earliet losses."

These sophistries are not wholly sharedAby the Kruez Zeitung's critic, ,who frankl/ admits that it is the German schema that has gone wrong,', inasmuch as "the onemy hud succesgfully evaded battle on both sides of Rheims, and therefore the German plan t6 tie up and split the enemy reeseiives has failed." He says incidentally that "American aid has happened to flow somewhat . freer than -anticipated "and Marshal Foch is thereby able to deliver his blow." It is 110 longer a fight for lines, but for deeip zones,, this mtic; say**, and tho German army's task is to destroy the enemy's forces within these zones. . He insists that 1 strategic success will be denied Marshal Foch, because the. preliminary conditions for success are lacking, but "the battle, ho thinks, will continue for a long time. • The.German Tages Zeituiig follows another -line of thought ; and believes that "tho next, few days must show that Marshal -Foch needs breathing space, as strategically he has already- lost the battle and the, j enemy's losses are enormous." The i?ord Deutsche Allgemeine Zeituiig, cryptically vexplainft why the Franco-British gain of territory is really a- loss, and shakes its head overt* "the poar deluded .Americans, who m their pride came . over , to dictate peacb m a f'ew.Aveeks and now,, instead of a. brief ndventure, find themselves involved m battles which will will be hard and long." ■'•"'. . The . Rheiiische Westphalia Gazette correspondent, Baron von der Osten, fills a column with "justifiable ' hope" that the German army will be unbeatable although he is not very coriifortable, about it, for he says "the battle is very; havd and the enemy's superiority. m men and material is very great." ■■ ■ •