THE GERMAN COLLAPSE

Taihape Daily Times, 22 March 1919, Page 4

THE GERMAN COLLAPSE

REASONS FOR DEBACLE

PARIS, March IS.

9 A German iofficer's writing throws' light upon the collapse of the GeV man army. He states the collapse wan not due to revolution. Discipline haa Considerably deteriorated during the last year of the Avar, especially among the troops on the Eastern front. These went unwillingly to the Westernfront* Headquarters no longer had influence lat the War Office, so Ludendorff, after much disputing, took matters into his own hand. From top to bottom there was also a lack of fresn battalion loaders, and war weariness was contsantly met with. The firs* great mistake Germany made was In underrating the Englishmen as lanr fighters, and the second in the undervaluing of America's capacity to bulla ships and raise an army. The writter says:—We got false information from our navy which was thoroughly spoilt by the great fuss made over it from the Kaiser downward, and by the injudicious distribution of distinction made to the sut;-

marine commanders, who reported larger sinkings than was the case. Thus the army and staff worked on »»

wrong basis. The German's letter adds:—Our navy was to disturb the American: transports, and when this truth was released we had to take the offensive earlier than we had planned and before the army was sufficiently trained. The result was we lost 180,000 in the first offensive, and Germany had scattered her troops in every theatre orthe war instead of having every man at the decisive point. Our offensives at Soissons, Jfermsel, adjd Rheims were miserable failures_ After tnrfailure at Rheims Ludendorff lost h!s nerve and risked all upon one throw. Then followed a fight of despair. The moment to try for peace had nov:slipped by.

The German's letter concludes ny a stating th? Entente ever lost its stubbornness_ The revolution was no! the cause but the result of the defeat. When the American leaflets undermined our confidence,, the use«of tanks completely broke it down. Order is entirely lacking in German finances, and there was no money to spare for sufficient prepan tion of a world war. The organisation of the revolution be- ' gan a year proir to November las? without the help of Russian Bolshevik capita], but later, when the Kler

m'i'iny occurred, o i-Jrge portion of the troops at home and at the front had already been infected.