The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1918. THE GERMAN RETREAT.

Taihape Daily Times, 9 August 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1918. THE GERMAN RETREAT.

(With which is Incorporated The Feihape Post and WaTmarPio News).

The Allied offensive from the Marne is achieving all the most sanguine expectations of Britain, France and America, and very much more than the German HWh Command had made up its mind to concede. We know now that the army of manoeuvre held in readiness by Foch early in July, however much it may have been doubted and sneered at by pacifists and pessimists, was something of inintenso reality, and huge in its proportions, equipment and morale. It has swept the area between the rivers Marne and Yesle clear of the enemy that was boasting about bringing defeat of the Allies and securing a negotiated peace that would leave Germany a thousand times the victors, and seal the downfall of our own Empire, as well as give to the War Lords hegemony of the whole world. All menace against Paris is wiped clean # out, and now conditions are fast arising which may terminate, before the battle is concluded, in much more French territory being evacuated. Close observers will see ‘.by the map that advances the Allies are making are extremely threatening to the worn out, dispirited, retreaters, who are trudging behind their wagons from the Yesle river to the line of the Aisne. Foch showed no desire to risk life in a pinching off process that he might have applied between Soissons and Rheims. To have attempted any encircling movement while the enemy was yet fresh and with an uninjured morale would have required a higher price than Foch deemed it advisable to pay; he was content to await a more favourable opportunity for a big scoop. Whether that opoprtunity is now rapidly developing or not is not certain, but the advance of the Allies along the north bank of the Aisne, going straight for the Chemin des Dames, while the plodding, sore-footed and downhearted Germans are yet a long way south of the river, does not augur well for the safety of the Crown Prince’s whole army. Can Foch push his way along the roan some of his forces have already goner We must conclude that he has some intention of doing something of that kind or he would not have munched upon the obvious project. Both flanks of the retreating army have been turned, and in co-ordination with this encircling movement on its right flank from Soissons, strenuous efforts are being made to achieve a similar movement on the left flank, north or Rheims. Cables state that north of Rheims the enemy is fighting despej-. ately, but as the Allies are better served with reserves, and as they are waging a victorious battle while the defenders have already, for weeks, been retreating, and have not been given time to stabilise any line on which a stand could be depended upo/n, there is little doubt about which side will have to give way. The prospect is certainly not encouraging for the tired-out army of the Crown Prince, for if Foch can reach the Chemin des Dames before the Germans arrive at the Aisne that array is doomed. Of course, this is only what may happen, but there is a strong probability of such a manoeuvre being accomplished owing to the extreme strain that is mercilessly being main, tained along the whole line of retreat. If the Allies fall short of a complete encircling movement north of the Aisne, there is still the almost certainty that the retreat cannot stop till the Chemin des Dames north of the Aisne, is reached. All experts are agreed that the Aisne Valley is not a haven in which a worn-out army can be rested and re-organised so as to ensure effective resistance against their victorious pursuers; then, there

i* no pla«<j c£f.-;ng all the conditions foi a srtCcessful sland until the Chemin. ties Dames is reached, and the Jrowsi Prince's generals are now fully alive to the fact that it must be a race between their men and Foch’s men for occupation. Von Bcohm is not likely to waste much time in holding up attacks north of Rheims, however, knowing that Poch’s men are already traversing the north bank of the 'Aisne, east of Soissons; to make matters more difficult heavy rains have fallen, rendering the area between the two rivers, over which the Germans are going, a sea of mud. It is evident the retreaters must go on plunging and wallowing through the slough with utmost haste, but they have the advantage of the retarding effects of the ploughed-up country on their pursuers; still, there is the vision of the Allied forces that are hastening along the north bank of the river which is their own destination. No doubt men will be hastened to offer strong resist, ance to such an advance, fraught as it is with so much danger, and possible disaster to the Grown Prince-s army. In only a few days indications will be available as to the result, or probable result, of the race. There Is now mo longer any doubt about the far-reaching effects of Foch’s counteroffensive, for it is not only in tno Marne salient that the Germans are falling back, and giving up valuable positions it cost them so much of their best blood to wrest from the Allies, but they are also retreating at various other points on the whole line to Flanders, and if these reports are true the German High Command is making admissions that the German cause is in a much worse plight than we in New Zealand have been led to believe. In fact, regarding these latest reports of German retirement as true, it is possible that Germany is contemplating a very considerable shortening of the line on the whole Western front. Amiens and the Channel ports are no longer German objectives; the abandonment of such gains can only mean that Prince Rupprecht has been depleted of the reserves that would enable him to hold them, and which have been hurriedly despatched to save the Crowm Prince’s army from capture. A retirement from the Montdidier sector is the final notice that there will be no further rush for Paris, 'and we can with some confidence say that “the Kaiser has met his Marne.” German ambition for world dominion has received its death blow; Germany has passed the zenith of what she was capable of and is now on the down grade; the tide of the war has turned and the hosts of , the invader are retreating in several sectors of the fighting front. There are no present indications that Foch’s enterprise is going to be held up, but there arc good reasons for believing that it will go on so long as it can be profitably employed, The situation is not yet devoid of the possibility of sensational achievements, -.1-.u ■•■■■■