The Sun TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1918. LUDENDORFF MAKES A FRESH START.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1338, 28 May 1918, Page 4

The Sun TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1918. LUDENDORFF MAKES A FRESH START.

Ludendorff is moving again. Ifaig and London (unofficially) report that the Germans are attacking on a wide front and on two sectors—-be-tween Soissons and Rheiras, and to the north-east of Locre, in Flanders. At the time of writing we have no details to guide us in discussing the new offensive. If the movement announced is the big drive which the Allies have anticipated and prepared against, it suggests that the German General Staff' has changed its mind to some extent by thrusting directly for the French capital instead of towards Amiens, where the British and French lines junction. It is not unlikely, of course, that the flame of battle will eventually blaze along the south-west front until the whole of the defence from Rheims to Amiens is involved. Ludendorff, given the opportunity, will assuredly attempt to reopen the struggle on a tremendous scale, trusting to the strength of his strategic reserve to hack a way through somewhere, when he will proceed to envelopment tactics. Foch, the Allied generalissimo, himself one of the finest strategists and tacticians in Europe, has powerful reserves, but his major responsibility will be to have them at the danger points at the psychological moment. Fighting along exterior lines, he is at a grave disadvantage as compared with Ludendorff. That disadvantage will operate against the Allies so long as the initiative is in .the hands of Germany. The enemy is in possession of a network of railways which facilitates the swift transfer of concentrations of men and guns from place to place. Foch is not so well served, and Ludendorff is shrewdly adding to his rival's difficulties by attacking on widely-separated sectors. Locre is near the extremity of the right flank: Rheims round the southern end of the western curve facing Paris. As we have suggested, however, it is possible that these operations are only a preliminary to the wouldbe decisive drive in the centre. If the official forecasts can be relied on, we must be prepared for an offensive of unparalleled proportions, the purpose of the enemy being to force a reversion to a war of manoeuvre. It is Colonel Repington's studied, opinion that the Germans will sooner or later essay an attack along the entire front. If Ludendorff is in earnest this time, he may resort to that expedient of desperation by waging containing battles on either flank and hurling his spearhead at the centre from around Amiens northward. Such tactics would bring the armies from the Champagne to the Yser .simultaneously into action, and,provide a test of strength between millions of the choicest fighters in the world. On the other hand, the time may not be ripe for the launching of a front-wide offensive, or the enemy may not be capable of putting it into operation. That he was never so powerful nor so confident as now, we know, but to attempt to compel a decision by a general advance over a front hundreds of miles in length involves consequences, in the event of failure, which even a Ludendorff would shrink from facing. Therefore the German command may, after all, confine its attentions to the less ambitious and more promising programme of piecemeal offensives. Its object in the Locre region is the capture of the high ground behind Bailleul and the strategic centre of Poperinghe, which would be followed logically by the evacuation of Ypres and an Allied retirement from the Yser towards Dunkirk. Should the enemy succeed in reaching Mont Rouge and Mont Noir, which overlook Locre, he would dominate the HazelbrouekPoperinghe line, render untenable our bold from Ypres to the coast, and straighten out the north flank of what is at present an unhealthy salient. Once this embarrassment was removed, the Germans would be in a belter position to exploit the further possibilities of turning the Yimy ridge from Bethune, which town they have so far failed to enter. Similarly, success between Soissons and Hheims would give them more elbow-room in the congested AmiensMontdidier angle,' besides taking them nearer to Paris. Further, an advance of importance west of Soissons might turn that bloodstained barrier, the Cheniin' des Dames, now in French hands. However, in the almost total absence of essential particulars, il is impossible to do more than outline flic position in broad sweeps and hint at the possibilities. Whatever is behind the present movements, we may rest assured of one thing—that the Allies are lo be sorely tried in the days to come. Still, Lloyd Georgehas expressed official confidence in Foch's generalship, and in the ability of the Franco-British troops to maintain their alignment, and we can do no less than fall in behind the British Prime Minister.