SOME ENEMY GAINS TO BE EXPECTED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 126, 28 May 1918, Page 5

SOME ENEMY GAINS TO BE EXPECTED.

RELATION OF ADVANCE TO LENGTH ATTACKED. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. General F. B. Maurice, writing in the '"Daily Chronicle," says: —One of the lessons of the numerous attacks on entrenched positions is that if the defenders are resolute and the reserves adequate, the limit of advance bears a definite relation to the length of the attacking front. The British victory at Arras on a ten-mile front advanced live miles, and the British at Wytaehaete on a seven-mile front advanced three. The Germans in 1918. on a seventymile front, advanced about thirty-five miles. General Foeh has been nursing reserves carefully. We need rot fear the worst, though it would be contrary to experience if the enemy does not make some gain. Germans in the latest attacks adhered to the practice of employing massed infantry, and paid a heavy price, but in the main it was justified. The only new features of the March offensive were the short bombardment nnd the use of fog. The former, by sparing the ground beyond the British front lines, enabled the Gprman infantry and reinforci-mente to push ahead with huge loads of food and munitions, thus obviating other forms of transport. Gen. Maurice points out that the British sometimes successfully employed artificial fog: but nothing can equal nature's fog, under cover of which the Germans broke our line when the machine-gun? and artillery were blanketed, but they are unlikely to have this advantage in the coming months.— (A. and S.Z.)