The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1918. CRISIS OF BATTLE AT HAND.

Taihape Daily Times, 31 July 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 1918. CRISIS OF BATTLE AT HAND.

(With which is Incorporated The T fli* hape Post and Walm-arJ'io News).

During the last few days the Germans in the Marne salient have been struggling desperately to wriggle free of the net the Allies seem determined to envelop them with. Pressure was so insistent that the Crown Prince was denied time to get his armies out of the trap laid, and he was forced into calling upon Rupprecht’s men to assist in holding the Allies back while the congestion in the exit was relieved. But there was much more in the calling in of huge reinforceemnts than at first appeared; the Huns, althougn held up, did not feel disposed to take defeat and they risked a very great deal in trying to turn the tables on ftjach. 'T|ho Frenchman proved (too strong and too clever for them, and the effort to break through the French line, and either roll tip its flank or make a straight thrust for Paris became a disastrous failure. The Crown Prince was defeated and his men are once more getting away from the south-western corner of the salient as quickly as they can; both French and Americans are following them, and making them move so rapidly that they are already ten miles to the north-east of Chateau Thierry. Five days from Foch’s initial attack a German retreat had set in, been stoppee, and a counter offensive commenced along the Marne towards Epernay, persisted in with utmost desperation and at very heavy cost in life of the best troops Germany now has available. This last enterprise has, yesterday’s cables state, been rendered abortive and it is officially stated that the south-eastern corner of the salient, in the vicinity of Dormans, has been rendered too hot for the Crown Prince’s picked men, and they are fleeing northward. In trying to hold Foch the Germans took a great risk, but the stake to be played for was.too big to let go without the utmost being done to win it; the moraFeffect on the people of Germany, on the Austrians, Turks and Bulgars would be fatal if the Allies succeeded in scoring a great victory, and, it is said, that although local commanders had ordered a retreat, the High Command instructed that positions were to be held to the last man. The position now is that the enemy has been driven back from the Marne to about the centre of the salient, in the vicinity of Fere en Tardenois, on which place the Frencn are advancing, already being in possession of the western outskirts, as well as of Fere Wood. British troops are pushing on towards Fismes, about midway on the River Yesle, between Rheims and Soissdns; and those German in the body of the salient have yet to run the gauntlet of these troops before they escape the trap Foch has prepared for them. It is remarkable that no effort has yet been made by the Allies to take the town of Solssons; at the same time there is some significance in the fact that they will not be driven from the positions that dominate the town and railway. Some are of opinion that Foch considers the task too big for his men, but our view is that the holding firmly to one post at the entrance and exit of the trap while driving in front the other is distinctly a part of the Allied Generalissimo’s scheme. We have not a shadow of doubt about the strength and determination to rush over Soissons when the psychological moment arrives. So long as advance across the entrance to the salient is only made from one side the Germans , may feel some confidence in being able to get away as they please, but if the mosr difficult side is closed by the British we think Foch can be depended upon to “pull the string” and rapidly close the other side. Germany is lulled into confidence in this way, at least, that is what we think, and we regard the German escape as most improbable. The fact that Soissons has become the chief subject of discussion by correspondents, is suggestive of something vitally important to happen. Obvious-

ly, it would' be of little benefitHo rusn in along the Vesle from Rheims, if It

were not intended to do similarly from Soissons. It is noteworthy that the cables have brought to us more loan one minor sensation; it is reported that the Allied numerical strength is equal to that of the enemy, and that its quality is almost incalculably superior; German newspapers have stated that the retreat from the Marne will not stop short of the north bank of the Aisne; it is also stated that, sixty German divisions have been recognised in' the Marne fighting, and that Rupprecht has only thirty divisions left wherewith to commence an offensive elsewhere. Taken singly these three statements may mean nothing, but collectively one corroborates the other so strongly that it gives to them some aspect of truth. We know that to launch the counter attack on the Marne congestion in the salient became much more intense, and the failure which resulted in the Germans being driven from along the whore Marne .front into the interior, has made the congestion so great that there can scarcely be room to fight. The failure of the enemy counter-at-tacks has rendered his position much more critical, but, of course, there is the possibility that he may attack further north, possibly against the British on the Ardre, who are bent on pushing through to Fismes. Such an attack is not probable as the attackers would have the Allies facing them from Rheims on the east; from Fere en Tardenois on the west, and from the victors who are pursuing the retreaters from the. Marne. There are critics who have made so many mistakes owing to their semi-prophetic statements, that they are now approaching the Foch enterprise with noticeable temerity, despite the clarity of indications that the Bocheshavo got themselves into what looks like a disastrous tangle. In the position an£ strength of the armies of both sides It seems that Germany is doomed to suffer the greatest, most far-reaching defeat of the whole four years of war, and we believe that owing to the situation, numbers, communications and morale of the Germans being as they are at this moment, a sensational denouement, is at hand. However the Germans may extricate themselves out of the Marne trap they will not be able to prosecute, any other offensive of any magnitude for at least two or three months, and during that time the Allies will have at least another half-a-million soldiers in the fighting line.