The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1918. GERMANY’S THIRD TRY.

Taihape Daily Times, 1 May 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1918. GERMANY’S THIRD TRY.

(With, which i» Incorporated The } aihape Poet and WaimauJ-ua News).

The German attack which commenced in Flanders, around Yprcs, nearly a fortnight ago, has developed to such a magnitude and intensity that there, can now bo no occasion for assuming l that it is merely to draw Franco-Bn-tish troops from the Somme area and so render the road through Amiens, more vulnerable. The thrust westward between Armentieres and Ypres is the most desperate, and is being pressed with a greater profligacy of life than even that at the opening of the offensive, early in March. Some ground has been gained but there is a very marked difference in the time taken. In tho first battle of the offensive thirty miles on a large front was covered in less time than it has taken to cover an average three miles or less on a much narrower front in the present battle. The original plan evolved by Hindenburg and company provided for breaking through Amiens and separating the British and the French armies, about this there is no doubt whatever. That plan was found to be impracticable and it was abandoned and a less ambitious plan took its place. The latter included the isolation and destruction of British troops in Belgium, and of the gallant little Belgian army; it was also intended to break through to Dunkirk and Calais, but the resistance was dangerously under-estimated, and the progress is so slow that if it it is not speeded up the -whole German force wxmld be used up in tho time it would take to reach, the objective, still twenty-five or thirty miles distant. Ludendorff undertook to crush the British and reach the Channel at a cost not exceeding a million and a half of casualties. A large proportion of that number is ready spent, and although German lad| of seventeen are being mustered Ludendorff is regardless of the rapidly narrowing in of the limit of his forces. There is, the utmost evidence at pre> sent that the price allowed and very much more, will be exhausted long before the channel can be reached but he yet presses on, or tries to, regardless of the huge slaughter that he is incurring. He is not stopping to ascertain whether the million and a half have fallen; he is depending upon the number at his disposal pulling him through, if not with the loss of a million and a half, then two, or two millions and a half. The Allies are confident that his objective will not be reached, but if Ludendorff is allowed a loss of the number stipulated what can be the strength of the whole force that the Franco-Brit'ish defence has to hold back? The Ger-i man military book lays it down that any military task can be accomplished at a price. The price Hindenburg and Ludendorff have fixed for rolling lip the French and British armies and taking possession of the Channel ports is a million and a half. It is quite reasonable to take German estimates of casualties and add a little thereto. If this is accepted then there must have been casualties in the first two battles totalling at least seven hundred thousands, perhaps three quarters of a million. The slaughter during the last ten days has been no less severe, therefore the million mark is drawing disastrously near for the successful completion of the HindenburgLudendorff contract. Germany’s colossal loss of life is causing new disquiet all over the country, and heated discussions are taking place in the German Parliament. Captain von Salzmann, writing in the “Yossiche Zeitung, ” says that rumours are current that the Gorman losses are so colossal that Germany will bo unable to continue the offensive, and these rumours are being spread by Members of tho Reichstag. We may rest assured, however, that such rumours have no effect on the Allies; there is no abatement of German profligacy; division after division is thrown into the hellish cauldron they have set up, heedless of what becomes of them so long as there is a hope of pressing back the Franco-British by sheer weight of numbers. If Hindenburg and Ludendorff call a halt when the stipulated maximum casualties has been reached, they will be still a long way from possession of Channel ports. German commanders seem to Have given no consideration to the fact that the whole of the flat country from where tho most westward fighting is taking place right to the sea, can be put from three to six feet under water. It was this fact that led the Franco-British command to the opinion that the main thrust would be through Amiens, deeming it next to impossible for the coast to be reached through many miles of flooded country. It may be that Ludendorff thought the

dash, with the huge forces at his command, could be performed so rapidly that his objective would be reached before the water was set flowing; hopes of that nature-arc very like hugging disaster. To save the coast in earlier days of the war much country had to be flooded, and it is certain that should the German millions succeed in pushing tho Allies off the high ground around Yprcs and westward of Kemmel, B’ritain’s acqucoils ally will be thrown in the way of the German flood. The Allies still hold that portion of the high country around I’Ocre, which the Germans after several most ghastly attempts to capture were repulsed, finally got a footing upon, but a French counter recovered possession and entire mastery. So long as this is held the flat country is safe without flooding. General Plumer’s army has by slight readjustment of the line been rendered safe, and if the worst should happen he can retire his men safely behind the flooded country. It is said there is great confidence in tho Allied camp, the exact cause is not decipherable; it may be that Gorman failure to reach thcTsea *n Flanders is tolerably certain, at least reasonably sure, and consequently more hundreds of thousands of German casualties will have gone towards the million-and-a-half allotted without anything further being achieved towards the attainment of Germany’s objective. The very best barometer indicating the rise and fall of German military hopes is military boastfulness. If Germany is not boasting repulsively her cause is not prospering according to plan and timetable, and this laak of boastfulness is clearly reflected in the silence of German newspapers and more so in the disquiet evident in tho German Parliament. Since writing the above cables to hand indicate that the Flanders battle is ending in the complete defeat of the Germans.