The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 27, 1915 THE WESTERN FRONT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 230, 27 September 1915, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 27, 1915 THE WESTERN FRONT.

For thr rau.tr thnt Uirlct asaistanoe, for wrong that nreds rr-jutfance, .-or thr future in thr dUtanrt, And the good that u-r γ-i n do.'

The nen» (hit reached u« to day from tae nwtfrn front records by far the men important and r'jcce&eful n«nw of operations that the Allies have conducted in France during the present yej,-. In the first place, the British.! nho now hold about 40 milee of trenchesj fToai La Busce northward. hue launched Mreral attack* on the German i linen with good, effect. They have made ' a distinct advance along the road from ' Ypres to Menin, they have ro-orxrat/v) | .WitbxUi? F.rrrvh. in an offensive northeC'Xirit, eride-rflly with the purpose of] seizing the Lens Arras railway, and! they hive captured five miles of trenches south of La Bae»c«, penetrating the drrnian lines to a lopth of about ' 2j miles. These arc extremely subntan-! tial pain*, at mil be «een from a glance ] at the strategical aspects of the British! operations But they are altogether, overshadowed by the brilliant achieve-! ments of our gallant Allies further i south. In the rhimpajnif region, between thf Suippe and the' Ai.«ne, the French have attacked in force, after the usual preliminary bombardment, and they have carried the German trenches over a front of no leje than fifteen miles, driving the enemy back along this front from one to two mil's at various point*, and capturing many thousands. This in certainly a great achievement, and though it. may be premature to in terpret the very meagTe. report* that have reached us in too optimistic A epint, we can safely say that thie is thf most decisive eucccsn that the Allies have won in the, west Bine* the trench warfare bcgajn, and that if the French have men and materia] to push their advantage, it may be confidently expected to lead to far reaching results. As regards the operntionn from Arras northward, the easiest way of rendering | them intelligible is to rcmembor that they must be considered a* forming the inevitable sequence of the strategical movement* that followed on the hattlc of the Ai*ne. In October last the Allies started the series of outflanking movements whirh ended in the race for the sea coast, and thus compelled the Gcr mane to extend their right wing so as to prevent their position from being turned by the armies on our left. The last effort that tho Allies made in this direction, before the line wae finally closed, iron to occupy T>a Bassee and Lille. The attempt came too late to succeed against th» overwhelming force of men and guns t. . the Germans had by this time conci.Jated there, but Sir Henry Rawlineon. who had charge of this movement with the Fourth Army Corps, was instructed by Sir John French, if he failed to reach Lille, at lcaM to advance to' Mrnin, d-ie north of LiUc, and thus to i occupy a point of \jntagc from win. h the Allies rnuld threaten to turn the whnle German right "ing. But Iho Fourth Ainu. thrniißh n> ! Uilll i.f ils own. Ivan too lair r\cn 'o rrach Moliin; and then followml tlic re tircuient to the Yprea line, and its ma,;- .

niiiccnt defence by the British forces against the furious attack of the Germans. But strategically Mcnin haa etill .s be.en the principal objective of the Brit S ! ish because it commands Lille, from the north, and therefore ita possession would Rive the.m a point of vantage from which they could practically render the pre sent German position untenable- ine I. operations south of La Bawof, which the 3 French have recently conducted with '• tremendous vigour—aa witness the tcr- ( nble carnage when they captured »u----ville St. Vaast, with its "labyyrinth" and the height of Notre Dame de Lorctte— r have chiefly been directed toward the seizure of the Arras-Lena railway which in turn, would jpve nn approach to Lille | from the south. Within ihe pan t\ro ! r months the British have extended their I - lines considerably southward of La j Bassee, taking over the positions seize I i J by the French; and the cooperation he I tween tbe Allies at this point, alons with the operations in the direction of the Menin road east of Ypres, may this be regarded as two di/Terent aspects of a determined effort to threaten Lille from north and south at once, and thuj to menace the German communications through Belgium eastward toward tho ' Rhine. Of course. Mjrh a movement would ! ■ have no special Mrnicsnce it isolated. But naturally we must regard the opera tions in this region aft closely connected with the offensive that the French have been conducting much further south in the Champagne. Here, ax we have already explained, the Germ&n front has been broken for a distance of fifteen j miles, the trenchea occupied, and the enemy pushed bark to a depth of], more than a tnJe along the whoJe lin<-. I ■ This nieces* is important not *o much j • because it indicates a decisive lnral j ' superiority over the enemy, but because jj . it is eulTicientJy larje in ecale to afford 1 ) 1 «n opening for decline developments, i t I For man} - monthe past military critics,! , ! in discussing the prospects of trench- , warfare, have pointed out that no single | j breach of the enemy's line could lead to a any important material consequence* r unless about twenty miles of the hostile! front were broken at once, £i\ ing room ; lor a very larfe body of troops to for.-c. '). their war «n-t-i'ploj—befepr-tbr--rncmr-i-i l.Hfi'lfl ' ». ■ ill ri• j . . •\Jf\ had time to concentrate again and , ' attack the a?*ai!ants from both side»j'" at one We have vet to di_-ccner nhe : ther Cental .Joffre'» include* the forcing of a wed;e through the! enemy* line* at this point, an.i an it-l' tempt to cut ofl the German army in : ' the Argonpe from contact with the Ger r man m*in bodi. But the collapse of the' v Gfrtntn defen-e alon; a front of fifteen c miles not only provea that the Allies are w*tt .lartaiferr MifiArior to the enemy j u'hen they concentrate for attack, butP open* up poesnbilititj which ran hardly ' fail to exern&e a decisive influence on I n the course of the campaign in the imme \ d diate futare. j " j g Naturally all thete remarks and com j i, ments are baaed on the assumption that a the Allies have made their preparations '' and that they now have at their dis I n potal not only a heavy numerical supe I nority of men. but a practically un limited quantity of high explosive thclK Without this last requisite, any attempt r ,to carry the enormously strong trench t i defences that the Germans have con a I structed can lead only to wholesale " j slau%hter But, given an ample supply 0 !of ammunition of the right the r !" P rp n* rfl ?# n ''.s"h ft* ?** ha rf&fftiiW;« ! Mich cases is rather cynically termed, ' I leaves very little for the infantry to do j ( j -in fact, as a distinguished French ofli )j ! cer has said, when trenches hare been I f , I " scientifically " bombarded, it is possible n I to capture miles of country . ' with a walking stock. What happened „ ■at Xeuve Chapelle la»t March is a sirnal' t ! example of the efficiency of high cxplo- ° i sive shells, and the following report I ° from an eye witness may eujeejt the ' true character of the artillery -prepare ' s tion" by which the French , and British jo armies have gained these latest sue ! ' cesses: "The eilence was torn by a pan j r demoniuni of sound. It split the ears and Tent the heavens, f o that our i n troops, crouching under cover. were |l< dazed and maddened by the brain-rack- ■£' ing concussions. The dischargee were so i*' rapid and incessant that they sounded j a* if they came from some supernatural machine gun. The earth vibrated as if rj struck by a gTcai hammer. The first a shell* that hit the German positions L raised a mighty cloud of smoke andi 1 ' dust, a.nd for the noit thirty T ' five, minutes we eouid sco no t ] thing hut a pall of green a, lyddite fumes and great mushrooms w of red earth. Barbed wire entanglements *" J were sliced through, p»apete—the | *"' work of month*—were crumbled like . eandcaetlej, and horrible fragments of I f mortality blew hack upon us with the pt lyddite wreathe.' . After thu "prepara st tion" had lasted half an hour, the *' artillery lengthened their range to cut off the German supports from coming up ,• to reinforce the front trenches, and B under the shelter of this "curtain' , of T shell the British troops advanced When B the ehells reached Neuve Chapelle itself fT "the hou*e* of the village began to leap \ c into the air: great riust spoute went up R to heaven; trees were raj.cd like grass "^ before :< jevthe; and the cloud crew P' 11| denser with the debris of hr.ck and mor- t r tar.' . When our mf.intry reached the th trencher "they found them filled with al dead an 1 wounded men, while theeurviv ors crawled painfully out. kneeling on of the ground, and holding up their hands in n < ! token of iiubmiraion. >n.-h is the <p-j M [palling of cnnccntr.iter! ,1 r: illrrv |j lire, atvl there is l.ttle reason : ■ doubt I that II the Allie. no« bur 'urlu.ciit nm . ( munition al the r rommand iho\ ran >le ! t t:ir\ operJl cm- nn I hi- >\t--\ In linil vie I it , tori . mi living not m:,> ilcicat. but ir-i .remodiablo d.eaatcr to the enemj. j y