HINDENBURG'S BOOK.

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15346, 9 April 1920, Page 5

HINDENBURG'S BOOK.

ALLIED TROOPS COMPARED.

TRIBUTE TO BRITISH COLONIAL

FORCES

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association)

(Received April 8, 11.10 p.m.)

London, April 7. Hindenburg's book, "Out of My Life," is mainly concerned with operations on the East front, where he was Commander-in-Chief till 1916. He takes the Junker view that England was mainly blameable, owing to commercial jealousy, but says the war was also due to French chauvinism and Russian greed. He regards the German as lord of the battlefield, though he admits a great deterioration in later years. The French were, he says, better fighters than the English, and their artillery was responsible for the worst crises. The elite of the English Army were the colonial troops. The Americans were brave, but were unskilfully led. Hindenburg pays an indirect tribute to the Australians in necessitating Germany's assistance to Turkey, because they thus kept 100,000 of the finest enemy troops away from European fronts. He mentions the Villers Bretonneux reverse as finally destroying the hopes of a decisive victory. Finally he regards the attack on August Btli, as Ludendorff did, as Germany's da.y of doom. Hindenburs; says: "This was our first great disaster from which there was no great recovery." The book concludes with a stirring call to young Germany to preparel for the future.