DROPPING THE CURTAIN ON HINDENBURG.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 27 July 1917, Page 2

DROPPING THE CURTAIN ON HINDENBURG.

HOW BRITISH TACTICS REVOLUTIONISED WAR. It is curious to note the dramatic suddenness with which the German newspaper press has dropped the curtain on that mganificent spectacle of Hindenburg's "strategic on which for several weeks they had lavished such a wealth .of gaudy colour and glittering tinsel.

We -hear no more of those "retreats which had all the character of victorious marches," or of that "ap-' parent yielding of a step in space which was, in reality, a thousand steps on the road to victory," nor of "Hindenburg's inexorable plans which, like a grim compelling Destiny, he forces the unseeing enemy to follow." Forty thousand German prisoners in a few weeks, 300,000 Germans killed or wounded, and our immense booty in guns have proved too much even for the spurious enthusiasm of a subsidised (and terrorised) press. Even. the Frankfurter Zeitung admits that the British have "taken the Germans by surprise": "The English and French have not succeeded in securing all their objectives, but we must admit that tbeTierman front has been shaken to a formidable extent, and that a resistance nothing short of superhuman will be necessary to 1 preveent that front from being smashed. Perhaps the most serious feature on the' western front is the English attacks which have taken the German General Staff entirely by surprise. Nay, more, their nature is such as to revolutionise the whole conception of modern tactics." Prince Frederick of Lowenstein and Herr Carl Riedt, who have collaborated in a ponderous article ffr the Deutsche Tageseitung, of Berlin, go even further than this: "As it is impossible for a man out of breath with running to run further, so is it impossible for a pumped-out State to conduct a new war before It has regained its strength. Nevertheless, the next war perhaps already stands at our. door. Who dares maintain that with the conclusion of peace a sudden state of tranquility will ensue? - We may hope that such will be the case, but we have no assurance of it. Therej fore, when we have" won we must not leave the question of compensation to our statesmen. We must stretch forth our bands and help ourselves to the good things which the enemy holds, so that, at all events, we may richly compensate ourselves for all we have lost. With the good things thus • gained, we can secure and "fortify ourselves against the'hext war, which assuredly will noT be long in coming, as the indirect result of our triumph, for the envy of the enemy is inexhaustible and his greed insatiable."