The Spectator

All peril on the Western Front

From ‘The situation on the Western Front in light of the Paris speech’, 11 May 1918: Instead of the Western Front proving impenetrable, the enemy has penetrated it, and brought us nearer a position of peril than we have been in since the retreat from Mons. There has been ‘real unity in the war direction of the Allied countries,’ but even if it may be an advantage per se, which we are not going to deny, it has proved a very poor substitute for Brigades and Divisions… Our line has been broken in, not from any want of so-called good Staff work, or from any failure on the part of our men, or from bad generalship, but simply and solely because if in modern war 14 Divisions are opposed by 50, the 14 must sooner or later succumb.

 

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