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Show RETREAT OF ALLIES WAS STRATEGY. Two ver important discloses in regard to the war are made by General Gen-eral French in his story of the part 1 played by the Britten troops in France between the evening of Sep- It tember 10 ?.nd October 8, which includes in-cludes part of the retreat of the Brit- j H i Jfih from Mons and then later their j victorious pursuit of the Germans Ik from southeast of Paris to the River 2 Atene. The retreat of the allies has been j viewed by us as without strategy except such skillful maneuvering as I prevented the Germans from captur- I ing any considerable part of the A French and British forces. The re '; lirement from Mons wns masterful. but seemingly the only alternative "I left the overwhelmed defenders of 1 French territory, but Field Marshal ;W Sir John French tells us General Jof- mL :re had planned to draw the Germans into a trap and did not strike until HI fje time was opportune. Reports to v this effect have been circulated, but -M thii. Is the first official recognition m of whttt heretofore has been nothing 'M more than hearsay j Here is General French's statement H which is a tribute to Joffre's Fabian I generalship: :M "On October Z some five or six Ger- M man corps were ou the Somme facing i w the fifth army; on the Olse at least 3 two corpB were advancing toward my H front and were crossing the Somme a caat ano" WC8t ' Ham; three or four Mti more Gorman corps were opposing 31 the sixth French army on my left. jS 'This was the situation when at 1 rX ociock I received a v,slt from Gen- 9 erai Joffre at my headquarters 1 ? strougly represented my position to H the French coinmander-in-chief, who v.as most kind, cordial and Bympa- tl thetic, as he always has been. He -HI told me he had directed the fifth H French army on the Oise to move iM forward and attack the Germans on 1 the Somme with a view to checking Hi the pursuit. jl "I finally arranged with General 3, Joffre to effect a further short rctirc- -jf ment toward the line between Com- piegne and Soissons, promising him, J however, to do my utmost to keep al- j ways within a day's march of him." ill The Germans were threatening the I British line of communication, and. M continues the report: "While closely I adhering to his strategic conception n to draw the enemy on all points until j9 a favorable situation was created fm frcn which to assume the offensive a General JoffP"1 found it was neces d sary from d to day to modify the method by which he sought to at-tain at-tain this object, owing to the devclop-tnent devclop-tnent of the enemy's plans and a Change In the enral situation" On September 5 General Joffre de-c!d de-c!d d to take the offensive, as he considered con-sidered conditions very favorablo to success. Piold Marshal French believes that about noon on the 6ih the enemy realised that a powerful threat was being made against the flank of bis Column moving south and east and began the great retreat which opened the battle This battle, so far as the suth French army, the British army and the fifth and ninth French armies i ore concerned, was concluded on the evening of September 10, when j the Germans had been driven to the I Soissons Rheims line, with the loas or thousands of prisoners, many guns nnd enormous masses of transport. Another significant paragraph in General French's report is an Indirect acknowledgment that the German I avy guns somewhat outclassed the artillery of the allies and were most effective. W'e quote: "On the night of the 21st another violent counter-Attack was repulsed by Ihe Third di'.isivn, the enemy los Ing heavily. On the 28d four six-Inch howitzer batteries, which I had asked I to be sent from home, arrived. Two batteries were handed over to the Sr-cond corps anil two to the First corps. They were brought into action ac-tion on the 24th with good results. "Our experience in this campaign seem to point to the employment of more heavy guns of larger calibre ii.g great battles which last several days, during which time powerful entrenching en-trenching work on both sides can be carried out." General French, in one of his communications, com-munications, said the German big gun? simply wasted ammunition. Evidently Evi-dently he has changed his opinion. no |