The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1918. A WEDGE BETWEEN TWO ARMIES.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 August 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1918. A WEDGE BETWEEN TWO ARMIES.

(With which is Tnc.orporA.ted The .Taihape Post ana Walnwuno News).

The most important item of news cabled to us yesterday is that which informs us that Mangin's army, north of Soissons, on the West Front, has made phenomenal advance; has crossed the Ailette river, and has driven a wedge in between the armies of the Crown Prince and Prince Rupprecht. One of the costliest enterprises taken on by the German High Command was that effort they made last March to separate the British and French armies with a view to the total destruction of the former. History tells how they failed, but what the Germans failed to do by huge concentration of force, only one of the operating French armies has easily accomplished against the Germans. At the price of the proverbial "Old Song" Mangin drove them back as long as they could keep his pace, and when they couldn't he drove his wedge in and separateO the two great Hun armies, commanded by the greatest of German Princes, and the result 'must spell German disaster to a greater or lesser magnitude. In fact, the possibilities will become incalculable if the wedge is driven firmly home. It will be understood that the two armies Mangin has separated are very heavily engaged;'" the Crown Prince's by the Americans, and Rupprecht's by Humbert, and that fighting in from Roye, and it will depend upon whether they can hold their attackers in front as well as turn to their rear to fight against being separated from their fellows, who form the protection of each other's flank. We must conclude that the probabilities are against the Germans and that God is on the side of Mangin. If Mangin can maintain the pene. tration, then he rolls up the right flank of the Crown Prince as well as the left flank of Prince Rupprecht, both armies are outflanked, and they will be in the fatal predicament that Britain would have been in had the Germans succeeded in their effort last March. By the way, the Kaiser may have scented what was happening, for he has given his illustrious son, the Crown Prince, six months' holiday; Rupprecht has also been given a rest, and the "two will no doubt now have ample fime to commiserate with each other. Von Boehm, Germany's cleverest man at running away, Has taken Rupprecht's army, but the successor of the Crown Prince is not yet named. These changes only emphasise the fact that the two armies are in such a desperate fix that the best talent in "Moonlight Flitting" has to be engaged in an effort to extricate them. German calamity In this quarter is only measurable by the degree of success Mangin's wedge has attained; if it is driven right home anything can happen hefore another line can be formed in the rear that can link up the ends that are in the air. With an attack on the other flank of the Crown Prince, in from the Verdun sector, his army might be doomed, and the rolling up process of Rupprecht's flank,,

northward, is fraught with immense possibilities, even to clearing the Hun right out of France altogether.- This seems an optimistic view, but let us remember that such is. what Ludendorff and Foch are both striving for, and before the end comes it has to be achieved by one or the other. Mangin's most phenomenal advance across the Ailette, into the rear of the Crown Prince's army fully justifies the'most optimistic anticipations; with Americans in front and Mangin in the rear, and with one flank in the air what chance has the Crown Prince'? Todayfe cables will probably enable more definite views,to be formed; a>& present the situation for Mangin is most hopeful, and Foch's strategy is proving him to be the superior of anything yet made in Germany, But the Mangin sensation was not the only satisfactorily startling news that came fo hand yesterday; in fact there was quite a series of sensations. Foremost in importance, next to Mangin's, is the Byng surprise, which brought British guns within reach of Bapaume, and thirdly, the report of the fall of Albert. Besides, there is a minor sensation in the report of a successful mission along the Scarpe river, going east of Arras" towards Douai, When the Allied work since Monday is totalled up it will be found to be one of the most memorable, if not distinctly the most memorable week of the war. The success achieved is of such stupendous import that it seems to have stupefied people and press, and rendered them incapable of estimating the value of what is happening; incredulousness is obvious everywhere, which can only be partially justifiable; at time there are the strongest evidences that Foch has fatally deceived the German High Command with respect to his intentions on the Western front from Montdidier to the German frontier, where Humbert and Mangin are operating.