Bingham Bulletin | 1918-05-31 | Page 2 | On the Western Front

ON THE WESTERN FRONT All military writers agree that on Monday,1 April 29, when the troops of General Von Hindenburg attempted to enlarge the salient to the south of Ypres, the Germans received a baptism of fire which crippled their divisions and broke the backbone of the offensive offen-sive on the Flanders front. Whether the enemy can reform and return to the attack with strength enough to gain any one of his objectives is yet to be disclosed, dis-closed, though more than one military critic holds to the opinion the kaiser's army has not the recuperative power to make another successful drive. For one not in the confidence of the military authorities to weigh the situation on the west front requires at least a small degree of presumption. It is impossible to wisely forecast without more reliable information as to the losses of the allies and the Germans in the battles from March 21 to April 30. No two correspondents corre-spondents on the battle front agree as to the German losses, estimates esti-mates ranging from 250,000 to 600,000. Even the casualties of ! the French and British are indefinitely stated as approximately I 200,000. The British lists so far reported total 100 000, with no accounting for the 140,000 prisoners which the Germans claim to have taken. The most hopeful feature of the. fighting is that all eye-witnesses agree that the' Germans, at every stage of their offensive,-were offensive,-were mowd down by the British and French-guns and at certain sectors on the front entire enemy divisions were wiped out. Assuming this to be correct, it is just possible the Germans, even with their 1,900,000 men between the Belgian coast and the Oise river, are not strong enough to break through the allied lines at any point.