The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1918. THE KAISER'S EAST CHANCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 July 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1918. THE KAISER'S EAST CHANCE.

(With which is Incorporated The fednape Post and Walraan-io News).

The military leaders of Germany commenced their death struggle against the Allies on the twenty-first of March last, when they succeeded in temporarily smashing the British lines, which resulted in their capture of a good deal of territory and war material at a comparatively cheap rate. In that opening of operations four million men became active fighters and the length of front extended over one hundred and fifty miles. Britain was caught in a weak spot, but Anglo-Saxon resourcefulness very quickly made it obvious to the German High Command that their sum total of effort must fall, and the battle ended with Germany in possession of country that was detrimental to them, unless sufficient force could be gather, ed to push the Allies back to the sea; the task was too great and. the Germans abandoned it, and for their next effort selected a front .of some thirty miles in length between Soissons and Rheims, driving southward, their objective being to capture all terrain through which run rivers, roads and railways from Verdun and the front \ south of that place, and so render Paris at their mercy. Here again the element of surprise was with them and in only a few days they raced over between thirty and forty miles of territory, but once more the military science and fighting qualities of the Allies stopped the rush without anything of major strategical importance being lost. At the close of this second great sanguinary battle for final victory Germany was no nearer its objective than when orders were given for the bloody onrush that was not to stop till Paris was under its ruthless paw. The two greatest, most desperate, and bloody battles in history have ended with no material advantage to the attacker, therefore with some degree of victory to the. attacked. This view is accentuated by the length of time that elapsed before the Germans could reorganise sufficient strength to make the third effort. Time was against Germany and with the Allies, and yet. week atfer week passed without any sign of the near approach of the long-boasted, much-heralded blow that was to crush the Allies into craving for peace. Then cables began to intimate that hordes of the enemy were gathering, and day by day the news became more definite and understandable, and on Sunday the storm broke along a fifty-mile front from the vicinity of Chateau Thierry to beyond Verdun. The surprise on this occasion does not appear to have been successful. From the brief, disjointed messages to hand, and published in yesterday's issue, it seems that the enemy's right flank was to overpower the Americans at Chateau Thierry, and their left flank was to seizeTVaux, near Verdun, while the Marne was to be bridged in a hundred places. The new plan was the old one over again; flanks were to widen the opening while the centre rushed forward, but the bravery and staunchness of the Americans had been under-estimated, and it at once became evident that Germany had disastrously miscalculated the American fighting qualities, for our allies not only held both flanks, but they counter-attacked and drove back the would-be invader a distance of seven hundred yards. Midway between the flanks, at Dormans, a bitter 'battle is raging, thus clearly establishing the fact that with all their bridging the passage of the Marne is being forcefully and sanguinarily contested. The opening of this offensive is not characterised either by "surprise cr by any sensational or substantial gain of territory; it opened with the Germans on th« north bank of the Marne, and, when latest cables came to hand yesterday, they had not secured a crossing that would permit further advance. A sanguinary, bitter battle was raging, however, into which

the Germans would undoubtedly throw all the force at hand. The failure to j establish a free crossing of the riverat liormans, the centre of the attack, means defeat of the attackers, unless overwhelming forces have crossed at other points that would compeT""the Allies to fall back. In comparison with the "sky-rocket" nature of the two preceding offensives the present is so tame and sensationless that, if it is faithfully reported, it may be nothing more than a feint. The multitudinous bridging of the Marne tends to discount any suggestion of it being a feint, and the extreme bitterness of the fighting to get a passage at Dormans for the enemy centre gives the attack all the appearances of being Ludendorff's third great effort to achieve a victory calculated to bring Germany a peace that would enable successful recourse to arms on a future occasion. Latest reports state that the Americans have~ driven the German right flank back seven hundred yards, and that everything is satisfactory on the left flank, at Vaux, therefore, if Ludendorff cannot clear a passage of the Marne for his centra his offensive is a failure from its inception. Whatever news future cables may bring it is gratifying to know that our defenders were not crushed in the initial stages of the onrush through any element of surprise; in bitterly contesting a passage of the river it is .evident that Foch knew precisely what the German plans were, and the fact that the enemy is being held at the outset, if only partially, indicates that Foch will have a considerable voice in controlling his future movements. The third effort to break the Allies has only just commenced, however, and much may yet happen to change the general aspect as conveyed in yesterday's cables, but we have the knowledge that the enemy has not broken through and gone racing over miles of territory as in the two previous efforts to achieve decisive victory; he is being bloodily held from the outset; it is only tie huge concentration of life-destroying machinery the Allies have accumulated that lias staggered the enemy from his first leap forward; this is ample evidence of the-massacre of his troops that must be taking place, for it is only sanguinary losses of a sickening supercharcter that could stay him in his desperate effort to rush onward.