Military Review From May 18 to June 18, 1918--Fighting
on the Marne and Oise--The Austrian Offensive
The third month of the great German offensive may be considered the
complement of the second; it has been an attempt to accomplish south
of the great Picardy salient what north of it had been tried and had
failed. In the second month the Lys salient had been developed, but the
barrier ridges of Ypres and Arras still held. At the end of the third
month the southern barriers--the Chemin-des-Dames and the watershed
of the Oise-Aisne--had been carried by the enemy, but the terrain of
occupation was so constricted, the enemy troops so distributed, that
neither of his ambitious objectives had been brought nearer attainment.
These objectives were the reaching of the sea by the Somme via Amiens,
with its corollaries, the isolation of the allied armies north of that
river and the occupation of the Channel ports; the decisive defeat
of the French armies in the field, with whatever moral and political
corollary that eventuality might produce; the occupation of Paris, and
the demoralization of the French body politic. [See map on Page 19.]
But the German failure of the third month is far more significant,
has a far greater bearing on the war, than the failure of the second.
The enemy has not only failed to broaden the Picardy front so as to
permit a further advance down the Somme, to inflict vital losses on
the Allies, to force the French back on the defenses of Paris, but,
in attempting to do these things he has transformed all his potential
resources into active resources, and these give evidence of approaching
exhaustion.
Only one conclusion is possible: Ludendorff with an initial
preponderance of men and war material, with the tactical advantage of
being able to manoeuvre from the centre outward, has been outgeneraled
both in tactics and in strategy by Foch, so that the former's gains of
terrain, while being of no advantage whatever--even a danger in certain
sectors--have been purchased at an expenditure of men and material
utterly incommensurate with their area and position.