THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE
Third Month of Desperate Effort to Break the French and British Lines in France
By GEORGE H. PERRIS
Special Correspondent with the French Armies
[Copyrighted in the United States of America]
The May and June issue of Current History Magazine contained detailed descriptions of the first and second months of the great German offensive in France, which began with a terrific blow in Picardy, apparently with the object of driving a wedge between the French and British, and then shifted to a deadly attack on the British in Flanders, aiming to break through to the Channel ports. These phases of the great battle were described by Philip Gibbs. The new phases, sometimes called the third and fourth offensives, began May 27 and June 9, respectively, and are known as the battle for Paris and the battle of the Oise. The blow of May 27 was delivered between Rheims and Montdidier, with the evident purpose of breaking the French lines and clearing the way for a drive to Paris. The descriptions which follow are written by George H. Perris, a special correspondent with the French armies.
[This dispatch was written before the drive toward Paris was launched, and indicates that Mr. Perris had a clear and correct idea of the German plan]
May 26, 1918.—The delay of the third act of the German offensive was abnormal. The first was perhaps, in design and execution, the most powerful operation in the history of warfare. The second, the attack in Flanders in the middle week of April, almost certainly began as a diversion intended to draw the British reserves from the Amiens front and to fill the interval needed for the reorganization of forces.
Up to the middle of April the German armies not occupied in fighting could do little but commence the strengthening of their new fronts, as lines of defense and departure. Their staffs, high and low, must, however, have been already engaged upon plans for the next push. Six or seven weeks then have passed in constituting a new mass of attack, with its armament and transport, in constructing roads and railways, dumps and supply centres, in bringing forward batteries, airdromes, hospitals, and so on.
True, this is not as long as the time of preparation for the first phase of the battle, which may be broadly counted as from New Year's to March 21. But there should be a vast difference between the mounting of a wholly fresh offensive and its pursuit into the later stages. A relentless continuity of pressure is evidently of very great importance after the advantage of the initial surprise. It is the thing which a commander will most aim at.