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Show MIGHTY IN FRONT OF nyra Prince Rupprecht in Command Com-mand of Forces Which May Be Hurled Against Haig's Men. EXPECTED ATTACK DELAYED BY FOCH Much Harassing and Destructive De-structive Artillery Fire From Both Sides Along Line in Flanders. By PHILIP GIBBS. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) WAR CORRESPONDENTS' HEADQUARTERS, HEAD-QUARTERS, July 25. What will be done with Prince Rupprecht's group of armies opposite the main British front from Flanders to the sea remains the chief problem in this present stage of the war. Those armies are still mighty strong in reserve and fit for immediate fighting and I have but little doubt if things had gone well with the German crown prince we should already have felt their weight in another series of battles bat-tles against the British. Now the general situation of the enemy's offensive power on the western front has been entirely changed by Foch's counter-offensive and the utter disaster it caused to the German plans. The crown prince's gap of armies is almost out of business so far as offensive offen-sive action counts. Most of their fresh divisions have been used up and their losses in men and guns has been very heavy and the best they can hope to do for some time is to establish themselves on a new line of defense and prevent further pinching out of their salient by desperate resistance on the wings. That is the very best they can hope for and even that may not be fulfilled if Foch can still keep moving and striking. Lone Hand for Rupprecht. Prince Rupprecht, therefore, is faced with the task of playing a lone hand unrelated to a larger strategy, if he is ordered to attack on the British front, and it at least is doubtful to my mind whether the German high command will give him that responsibility while their position is in flux down south. But that is simply a matter of the psychology of the German leaders and one can have no certainty of what will happen from day to day. All depends upon the supreme decision of the French generalissimo, who has proved now that his genius in strategy strat-egy is patience as well as boldness and that he will bide his time until the right moment comes. So here we have two great forces; on one side under Rupprecht Rup-precht of Bavaria, on the other under Sir Douglas Haig, watching each other closely and waiting upon events elsewhere else-where which will decide their own action. ac-tion. It is a historical situation of enormous enor-mous and terrible interest because it is the turning point of this war and the issue of it will be a great decision of the war, whatever may happen afterwards and however long the last phase may be. Fire Very Destructive. 1 Meanwhile there is much harassing and destructive fire from the artillery on both sides, the German gunners shooting with the most violence In the Scherpenberg , area up in Flanders and on our side of the Dys. In the Bethune area and southward south-ward they also have been pouring gas ; shells, as many as 7000 rounds in one day, into Villers-Breton neux and its neighborhood. In the country around Hebuturne, where I went a day or two ago to see the New Zealanders at work, is another piece of "activity," and the enemy has pierced all this ground of old trench and dead woods and winding tracks, through fields knee-high In flowering flow-ering weeds, with innumerable shell craters, but there he is getting the worst of it all the time, as I saw for myself when I watched the bombardment of the ground beyond Rossignol wood. The New Zealanders this morning have moved their line farther forward under cover of this Intense fire. The German troops in line are sufTer-lng sufTer-lng heavy casualties every day, and In places like Ancre and Aveluy wood, near - Albert, where they are in low ground, under the constant harassing of our guns their conditions of life are real-continued real-continued on Page Seven.) PRINCE RUPPRECHT of Bavaria, who commands the Hun troops facing the British in Flanders. II i'f -- I t If i -?'!: j ? t ift "t 1 ' A. -is IT, s ? i ,y ( 1 fX t J -f ? 1 f f 51 1 MIGHTY Id! FACES THE BRITISH TROOPS (Continued from Page One.) ly frightful. Prisoners taken from that part of the line bemoan the .terrors they have suffered. They place the most dread in Aveluy causeway, which they have to cross on the way Lo the line. Night aftnr night our shells killed many of them in this passage, of the stream, and the ground about Is strewn with dead horses and the wreckage of transport wagons and field kitchens. Now when the reliefs go up they cross Aveluy causeway at double, and, as they have abandoned the effort to get their transport and field kitchens as far as this, the men in the front line and outposts out-posts have no food except what they carry with them, and no hot drink of nights, so they are miserable and dispirited dispirit-ed men. On both sides the increase of harassing lire in night bombing and in gas shelling makes life in the line and in the camps one long strain upon the nerve power and endurance of the bravest men, hut some of the German troops are less able to bear the strain, being less well nourished and still suffering suf-fering from the influenza and other fevers. They are the . holding troops, war weary and war worn. Behind them are many divisions of men in rest, perfectly per-fectly lit in physique and restored to the discipline and quality of the best German Ger-man troops by immunity from shell fire, by intensive training and regular rations. It is these men who will be our menace when they get on the move. |