-42-#669, Eighteenth, from London              
 
                                                            
 
 
In the United States also extreme measures have been taken. 
      Let the Germans dismiss from their minds any ideas that the losses 
      or set-backs of the kind we have witnessed will turn us from 
      our purpose. We shall go on to the end however the storm may 
      beat and for myself I do not hesitate today to give my own opinion 
      not dessented from by the experts with whom I live in constant 
      contact that the decisive breaking of the German offensive in 
      the west is more likely to shorten this war than to lengthen 
                               it.                          
 
                                                            
 
 
We must regard Von Rundstedt's attack as an effort to dislocate 
      and if possible rupture the tremendous onslaught across the Rhine 
      and Siegfried line for which the Anglo-American armies have been 
      preparing. The Germans no doubt hoped to throw out of gear before 
      the on-fall of the Russian armies from the East this main stroke 
      from the west. They have certainly lost heavily in their efforts; 
      they have cast away a large proportion of the flower of their 
      last armies; they have made a slight and ineffectual dent on 
      the long front. The question they will be asking themselves is 
      whether they have at this price delayed appreciably the general 
      advance of the armies of the west beyond the period when it had 
      been planned? This is the question, which no doubt today the 
      German headquarters are anxiously asking themselves. I always