NOVEMBER 8, 1918
Rumour and suspense
All the world awaits with eager desire news that Germany has taken the next step towards peace. Every hour that she delays increases her losses and her danger. The rumours which filled London yesterday that she had signed the armistice were manifestly premature, for they were circulated before the delegates could have reached their destination. A wireless message states that they left Berlin on Wednesday evening. The only official information as to the course of their journey is contained in Marshal Foch’s communication to the German Headquarters. It states that if they wish to meet him to ask for an armistice they are to advance to the French outposts by the Chimay-Fourmies-La Capelle-Guise road, where they are to be received and conducted to the place fixed for the interview. There they will be met by the Allied Generalissimo and by Admiral Wemyss, the First Sea Lord, who has been appointed to act with Marshal Foch as his naval associate. The terms are irrevocably fixed and are to take or to leave within a definite period, which we may assume from precedent to be three days from yesterday afternoon.
The capture of the western part of Sedan by the First American Army is a dramatic incident in the great advance of the Allies which has been sweeping forward since the close of last week. It looks as though the Germans had delayed their retreat from the Laon salient too long, and the rapid advance of the Americans disconcerted their plans. They may still extricate themselves, but their situation is obviously full of danger.
German newspapers publish accounts of ominous disturbances at Kiel, Hamburg, and Cuxhaven. A “Soldiers’ Council” has been formed at Kiel, the red flag hoisted on at least one battleship, the sailors have mutinied, troops sent to suppress them have joined them, the men are complete masters of the ships and the officers powerless. Some ebullition was inevitable once the rigour of “militarist” control had been mitigated, but there is nothing as yet to suggest that the movement is general. Public order has been preserved, though two or three officers have been murdered. At the same time it is clear the excitement among the working classes may become dangerous if their hopes of an immediate armistice and early peace are disappointed.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-11-07/register/the-german-retreat-br9fktpnj
NOVEMBER 7, 1918
The German retreat
The magnitude of the victory of last week-end becomes every day more apparent. For a month or more the enemy has been retreating on to the line of the Meuse, but now he has reached the last stage of his journey. A month ago it seemed possible that the Germans in France might be completely enveloped from the east and from the west; it was then that Ludendorff threw up the sponge. Later this danger receded, and Ludendorff, who had set the peace negotiations in motion, drew back, because he thought that the German armies could be extricated without disaster. It was too late, for his first memorandum advising negotiations had been too persuasive. When he changed his mind he persuaded no one, and had to resign. Now the prospect for the German armies has darkened again. Whereas a week ago most people would have prophesied that the Germans would escape without irretrievable disaster, ruin again stares them in the face.
The enemy held out on the line of the Aisne as long as he could. That line is now lost, thanks to the renewed activity of the French and the recovery of the American Army from its transport difficulties, and the real squeeze of the German Army is only just beginning. The bottleneck through which it is passing is a narrowing one, and the congestion will tighten. To change from the offensive to the defensive requires time and organization. To organize a new line or to pull defeated troops together after a long and disastrous retreat is, in the most favourable circumstances, extremely difficult; if the retreat is hard pressed, and there is any suspicion of demoralization amongst the troops it is frankly impossible.
All the indications are that if the war were to continue the Meuse line is too near the scene of the German Army’s disasters to be a rallying-point. The enemy is in danger of having a large part of his Army cut off, and finding the pocket of retreat from the Aisne closed against him; and even if he reaches the Meuse line, it will be in a state which does not permit of his rallying upon it. Just when he wants every man that he has to protect himself he finds himself outflanked on another front, from the side of Austria; and even if he escapes a military debacle, there is behind that the threat of a political disaster still more terrible.
NOVEMBER 6, 1918
The terms and their consequences
The terms granted to Austria by the armistice are all that the most exacting opinion could desire. They leave her disarmed and helpless and, place her territory, communications, and many of her resources at our disposal for the prosecution of the war against her late ally. But that is not the whole reason of their importance. They may be assumed to foreshadow the terms on which the Allies will grant an armistice to Germany when that Power makes up her mind to sue for one. In their latest Note to President Wilson the German Government declared that they “awaited proposals for an armistice”. They have their answer. The Supreme Council have begged the President to inform them that “they should make application to Marshal Foch”, with whom “the British naval representative will be associated”. The reference of all inquiries to General Foch and his naval associate bolts the door against those diplomatic intrigues on which Germany fondly relies. Equally welcome is the resolve to place the supreme strategical command in the hands of the great soldier who has marshalled the Allied forces from victory to victory in France.
The territorial provisions of the armistice involve the withdrawal of all Austro-Hungarian forces behind a line which corresponds to that natural frontier on the north-east and east which Italy ought to have obtained when first she flung off the foreign yoke. The remaining terms include the total demobilization of the Austrian Army, the surrender, uninjured, of all military and railway equipment, the complete evacuation of all German troops within fifteen days, and the immediate repatriation of all prisoners “without reciprocity — a provision which may leave Austrian prisoners available for the work of restoration in territories devastated by the Central Powers”.
Strict as the terms are, they are not more severe than the situation demands. When Germany’s turn comes she will have to give similar “pawns”. There can be no armistice, Mr Wilson has informed her, but an armistice which will leave the United States and the Allies “in a position to enforce any arrangements that may be entered into and to make a renewal of hostilities on the part of Germany impossible”. She can judge by the terms accepted by Austria-Hungary what sort of provisions it will have to contain.
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