The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1917. THE WESTERN FRONT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 37, 12 February 1917, Page 4

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

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1917. THE WESTERN FRONT.

For the cdtue that lMche attmtamM, For the wrong that needs resistant*, For the future in th« distance, And the good that we can do.

The capture or the village of Grandcourt, on the Somme front, is the most substantial winter success the British have achieved against the Germans. It is difficult to attack at this time of the year, but the operations culminating in the capture of Grandcourt went on for some time, a tribute both to the determination' of the troops and our strength in munitions. In the end the enemy evacuated Grandcourt, and we walked into the place. The occupation flattens out a small salient that had been strongly organised, and materially improves our position in relation to Bapaume. Mr. Philip Gibbs says the evacuation proves that the German command prefers at this stage to save casualties rather than hold ground regardless of cost, and that this is a new phase, for a year ago pride would not have allowed the Germans to do this. This is not the first time the Germans have evacuated. a place to avoid envelopment. Most of the garrison of Combles slipped out before the French and British joined hands there. But the retirement from Grandcourt is in strong contrast with the stubborn resistance offered in the earlier stages of the Somme offensive, a resistance that in at least one case led to troops defending a village being surrounded and captured. German orders of the day comimanded and exhorted troops to stand fast at all costs, j and declared that the lost positions must be re-captured. Mr. Gibbs says the new German methods seem to consist in falling back here and there to the defences before Bapaume, which they have 'been strengthening since the beginning of the Somme offensive. Bapaume is covered by rings of villages, all of which will have been fortified with the German's well-known thoroughness. But it is doubtful whether the enemy can oppose to us anything much more powerful than the fortifications we stormed in the summer of last year. They represented a year and three-quarters' work, and the Germans thought them impregnable. Moreover, Bapauane can now be attacked from the south as well as the west. From Grandcourt the British line runs east and southeast; and a successful northerly thrust would take in flank the western defences of Bapaume. The intentions of the Allies are, of course, in the dark. One assumes that tbe main effort will continue to be made in the Somme area, but we may find any day that a tremendous offensive has. been launched suddenly elsewhere, perhaps in the Lens region. It seems safe to assume that the British attack will be on a much wider front this year than last, if only because, as the war goes on, Britain must bear more and more of the burden of fighting. A sustained offensive along the whole of our front would be a much more serious thing for the Germans than last year's offensive on a front of about twenty miles. The Somme offensive drew German reinforcements from many other points, but would the enemy be able to fill the gaps made by an attack along a hundred miles of front? The Russians chose a wide front for their offensive last year, with splendid results in prisoners and territory. If figures of production and statements by high authorities stand for much, the British commander will be able to launch and maintain an offensive on a wide front. A well-known correspondent with | the British, writing at the very end of 1916, cays that "shells are now used with a prodigality beyond belief," and that practically the only limit is the speed with which they can be brought to the guns. A battery commander has not the slightest need to worry about his supply, "ge can shoot to his heart's content, can, keep firing day and night— and, what is more, does so often enough, working hia officers and inert in regular shifts." We have to set against this the | fact that Germany has also been, speed-

ing up production. Wiiting recently from j the front, an artillery officer expressed the opinion that if it was a question of infantry alone the war would soon be over, but tne German artilleij- was very formidable. Our production figures, however, are most impressive. Figures recently compiled up to the end of November show that the weekly production of light shells then was forty-three times, as great as in the first year of the war, while for heavy shells the production was from 46 to 323 times as great. The production of guns has increased enormously, as shown in the following table, in which 100 is taken as the average for the first year:— » Monthly average rroductien during for first fire weeks ending year. Dec. 2, 1916. IS-pdr. ...„ 100 _ 138 Medium ... 100 4100 Heavy 100 _~.. 1250 The comparatively small increase in the production of light field guns is explained by the fact that the equipment is approximately complete. For every ton of explosive employed in September, 1914, 350 tons were employed in July, 1915, and from 11,000 to 12,000 tons in July, 1916, while the nmount of explosive used in charging shells at the end of November last -was nearly seven times as great as the amount used the previous April. The bulk of this enormous output of guns and shells is being concentrated on the enemy on only a fraction of one of the three front- on which he is engaged. It should be sufficient to blast a way through the strongest defences.