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Show ill . WHAT THE GERMANS I THOUGHT. M In an Interview with an Associated tUS I press correspondent, the crown prince, II Si Sl0W 3U8t Plaln FrederIck William Ho- 4lfitl ' henzollern, makes a number of state- jSlJgll' ments which throw new light on the fflll scenes back of the German lines after jji 311 the beginning of the war in August, m US' he crown Prmce sa's the war was m Wi JSt at thebattle of tQQ Marne, Sep- m lember 6, 1914, and he so stated at ) ill tlie tIme' We aSree with him, but the iitl allies were far from being reassured ii Mil a t0 the ful1 effect of tnat v'cory un- 1 all U1 after July 18, 1918, The standard I at the time of the first battle of the i twill Marae, said the German command had 'Illlii maie a fatal mistake, but on March 21 1I Standard was not certaIn ut that the enemy had overcome Its military errors. The crown p"rince denies he was responsible re-sponsible for tho German disaster at Verdun. We are of the opinion ho Is trying to escape from his mistakes. Ho would have been accorded credit for the breaking of the French line at that point, had the drive on Verdun succeeded. Ludendorff is charged with being tho mainspring of Germany's warlike activities, while Von Hindenburg was a mere figurehead. If that is true, then tho Germans selectcd a great hulk with which to impress tho outside world. It will be recalled that In the earlier period of the war, all the German Ger-man war pictures had largo men in the foreground. The German was a great bluffer in his attempts at overawing. over-awing. If Ludendorff is correctly described by the crown prince, he is the criminal crimi-nal for whom the allies are searching. Hero is an illuminating comment from the crown prince: "Ludendorff and his staff continually continual-ly underestimated tho enemy's forces, he declared, and never believed that America's contribution ot soldiers was 'as great as it actually proved to be. OlTlUIViO, II UUUi X JUT Gil Mllll 1 1.11 whom I lived continuously, and who, if 1 1 may say so, loved me, fought with j the utmost courage to the end, even when the odds were impossible to withstand. They had no rest, and sometimes an entiro division num-bercd num-bercd only 600 rifles. These were opposed op-posed by fresh allied troops, among whom were American divisions containing con-taining 27,000 men apiece." What finally brought about the downfall of the German military power, pow-er, the crown prince declared, was revolution Induced by four years of hunger among the civilians and troops in the rear, together with the overwhelming over-whelming superiority in numbers attained at-tained by the entente powers since America's entry into the war, whjch had undermined the confidence of the German fighting forces. At last a confession. Here is clearly clear-ly disclosed the tremendously depressing depress-ing influence the entrance of the Americans had on the Germans. The moment they discovered the Americans Ameri-cans had exceeded all expectations in transporting troops, the Germans, from Ludendorff down, weakened. The Standard has maintained that when the news of Chateau Thierry reached German headquarters at Spa, the war had been won in morale. Then for the first time Ludendorff and all his advisers knew not only that the Americans Amer-icans were in but that the Yanks had the fighting spirit. |
