idea of our military work and its political importance. The size and the quality of the Legions explain why the Allied Governments and armies recognized them and us, and why they looked upon our movement with respect and goodwill. Moreover, the Legions retained and will retain their value at home; for if we reckon the families, relations and friends of the individual legionaries, we find that there are at least a million people directly interested in them. Thus they remain a considerable and significant source of political strength in our State.
The Decisive Hour.
How crucial for us were the end of 1917 and the events of 1918 appears from the foregoing summary. The year 1918 was, indeed, decisive for all the belligerents and for the war itself which, economically and strategically, was won in the course of that summer; the expectation that it would last into 1919 was not fulfilled.
After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia and the peace with Roumania in 1918 it was clear that Germany would attempt to use the forces thus released for a decisive blow in the West before America could increase the number of her troops in France. At first, it appears, the Germans assumed that America would be unable to send any troops at all, “verifying” their assumption by experiments in their own waters. When they found out their mistake they tried all the harder to bring about a decision in the spring of 1918. Doubtless they perceived that many prominent generals in France were anxiously awaiting the arrival of American reinforcements; and from England reports reached them of a growing pacifist movement and of the readiness of leading public men to bring the war to an end. In numbers, the German army was quite equal to the Allied forces. Thus the offensive began; and, in order to enhance its effect, Paris was bombarded with long-range guns from March 28 onwards. Though they gained ground and made large numbers of prisoners—reaching a point only 85 kilometres from Paris and making some people (not M. Poincaré) wonder whether the seat of the French Government ought not to be moved—the Germans failed to force a decision.
The Allies, for their part, managed at last to unify their supreme command under Foch, who began a counter-offensive in July. On August 8 the Germans were heavily defeated near Amiens and their final overthrow was assured. Their
