Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTERI Militaby Situation In Eukope In The Spring Of 1917 An Estimate of Available Forces. The Nature of the War Problem Faced by the Allies The United States entered the war at the moment when the Entente were about to undertake operations of a decisive character agreed upon by the Commanders in Chief, November 15, 1916, at the Inter-Allied Conference at Chantilly. The plan of action thus established at the close of 1916 for the year 1917 amounted in effect to concerted offensives on all the fronts of the Coalition, at a date approximating as nearly as possible to April 1st, with due allowance for the climatic conditions of each theatre of operations. Since America did not declare war upon Germany until April 6, 1917, her army could not take part in the campaign of 1917. If we wish, however, to realize the unquestionable value, both national and moral, of her intervention early in 1917, we must recall how the great and well founded hopes of the Coali- tion crumbled under the double blow of the Russian collapse and the prolonged disorganization of the Inter-Allied High Command. Accordingly, it is easy to understand that the promised despatch of American troops to the French front, and their arrival in 1917, were a potent factor in effacing the painful impression of the events of the spring. The campaign of 1917 had been planned by the Allies to the end of obtaining a decisive victory, and it was to this end that they ought logically to have planned it. The Allied armies had, in point of fact, attained at the opening of 1917 a maximum strength which they were certain that they could not surpass, and which they were not sure of being able to maintain, in view of the losses suffered by their armies and the relative exhaustion of their resources in men....