heavy with it. When the British left Bourlon Wood enough poison remained to last for days. The normal German strength in the west had been about 160 divisions, or, approximately, two and a half million troops. In three months, however, nearly twice as many divisions had been identified, so that the number of German troops in France and Belgium had become not less than four and a half million. Opposed to the Germans there. were not less than four million British and French. For the first time in many months Germany found herself numerically superior to her enemies. Moreover, there was every indication that this superiority would be maintained, at least until the summer of 1918, and possibly until the winter. Germany had every available man at the front. Her possible recruiting during the year would, however, be small. Equally so would be that of France and England. France had almost drained her manpower. Britain likewise had thoroughly combed her population for men of military age and fitness. The indications were that summer would find not more. than a half million American troops in Europe, so that, at best, Germany's numbers would be hardly more than equaled by the Entente. French and British had now carried offensives to success, but had never been able to break through and roll up the Germans, and there was no reason to suppose that the Germans would be any more successful in this respect with their coming offensive than the French and British had been. They had superior numbers, but they had no such superiority as would warrant the expectation that they could smash through into the French rear and force the whole line back. The most reasonable expectation was that, even if the French and British suffered heavy losses, and perhaps defeats, when spring came the front would not be very far from where it was now. The crying need was to get American men and equipment to France as fast as possible. That the AustroGermans were relieving great numbers from duty on the eastern front and throwing them into the lines in France and Italy became daily more and more apparent by reason of the almost continuous augmentation of Teutonic forces in these regions. The belief still grew that with the fighting ended on the Russian front-for the moment at least-the Germans were preparing for a great offensive on the Western Front in the spring, as indeed Ludendorff was. On December 12 the Germans, following heavy artillery preparations, made a vigorous atempt to drive another wedge into the British line. Altho they used numerically superior forces, their effort brought only a minor gain. The attack, launched between Bullecourt and Quéant, was similar to that adopted by Crown Prince Rupprecht's troops when they pierced Byng's front southwest of Cambrai nearly two weeks before, and caused a retirement of the British on the salient which Byng previously had driven toward Cambrai. Huge waves of Bavarians were thrown upon the sector in an endeavor to overpower the defenders, but the British held tenaciously to their ground, except at one point, where the Germans penetrated a frontline position. The Germans lost heavily, the British mowing them down with machinegun and rifle-fire from dawn until 1 P.M. The spot chosen for that attack was similar, from a strategic standpoint, to that near Gonnelieu, where the offensive of a fortnight before had begun. Had it succeeded, another retirement by the British probably would have been necessary. Notwithstanding their failure, the Germans kept up an intensive bombardment all along the Western Front. They were daily receiving additional reinforcements in men and guns. Next day an attack, made between Bullecourt and Quéant, was a complete failure, PRESS ILLUSTRATING SERVICE. PRINCESS MAUD AS A NURSE The Princess is a daughter of King George provided the Teuton losses in men killed and made prisoner were put in the balance with the small gain of ground. Another attack by the Germans in the Caurières Wood on the Verdun sector met with a repulse. A most expensive operation was an attack between Bullecourt and Quéant. Berlin admitted that only a few British shelters and ninety prisoners were taken, while Haig reported that heavy casualties were inflicted all along the front. Under an armistice now negotiated with the Bolsheviki, not only had the best German units been taken from a field where they were no longer required, but an elaborate system of exchanges of small units, and of individual men was going on for weeks, by which a skeleton army of weaklings could be kept up for a time in the east, while young and robust soldiers were conveyed to depots or to corps engaged against the French, British, or Italian armies. The so-called Russian front was to become a training ground for lads of 18 and a camp for invalids and some hundreds of thousands of ablebodied prisoners of war were to be repatriated. Germany's chief aims were to liberate completely what remained in Russia of good material for use elsewhere. She had already engaged her best in Italy. The dangerously thinned ranks. of western divisions, which had fallen to as low as 12,000 men, were now being refreshed. Rather more serious, perhaps, was the reinforcement in artillery and airplanes which the armistice permitted. Would Hindenburg now use all this and his previous strength in an adventurous attack in France? The possibility was viewed without serious alarm by men able to judge. The Allied armies were in a better position to resist such an effort than they were when they broke previous grand assaults. Certain appearances notwithstanding, the Central Empires were in a desperate condition while the Allied armies were confident of the result.16 British troops on the Cambrai front passed the last day of the old year in a desperate but successful fight to break down German attacks. Preceded by liquid fire, the enemy attempted to rush the British positions on a front of 1,200 yards around the Welsh Ridge, a commanding position south of Marcoing. The first rush brought the Germans into 16 Cable dispatch from G. H. Perris to The New York Times. trenches on the ridge, but the British, in & counter-attack, threw the enemy out and restored the position. On the center and northern ends of the attacking line, British artillery and rifle fire repulsed the Germans.17 17 Principal Sources: The "Military Expert" of the New York Times, Associated Press and United Press correspondents; The Sun, The Tribune, New York; Canadian Press reports, The World (New York). RETROSPECT AND OUTLOOK AT THE YEAR'S. END -CLEMENCEAU MADE PREMIER OF FRANCE WITHOUT fust that the promised great German offen WITHOUT further notable activity, the year 1917 came to an end, so sive, if it made its appearance, would have to do so in the new year.18 A postponement, if not the final banishment, of certain German and certain Allied hopes had marked the old year. With the Russian collapse an end came to an expected Allied decision, but before Germany could capitalize for herself the moral and military consequences, the United States entered the war, bringing a moral influence which promised to dissipate the effects of Russian desertion. The Allies, trusting Russia, had hoped to win, and the Germans, knowing Russia, expected to triumph; each had been disappointed. It seemed clear that the Germans no longer had he resources necessary to obtain that decision in the west which they had sought and which had escaped them at the Marne and again at Verdun. They had hoped to find in the submarine a weapon that would force the Allies into a negotiated peace, but this by the end of the year had failed and, despite its ravages and its existing peril, it was no longer regarded in or out of Germany as likely to win the war. The Allies, when they saw the extent of the Russian collapse sought by an offensive in Flanders to compel the Germans to shorten their lines and evacuate western France, but the thrust failed of a decision and with it went the chance for that year of clearing northern France. British and French alike won victories and Germans lost territory in this offensive, but the Germans at the end of the year made a masterly counter-offensive before Cambrai. Meanwhile in the East, Bagdad and Jerusalem with Mesopotamia and Palestine, had fallen, and German East Africa, the last of Germany's colonial possessions, had virtually passed into British hands. 18 Not until March 21, 1918, was this expected German offensive begun. |