CHANGE OF WESTERN FIGHTING SYSTEM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 168, 16 July 1918, Page 5

CHANGE OF WESTERN FIGHTING SYSTEM.

TEN-MILE DEEP DEFENSIVE ZONE. (Received 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, July 15. The "Daily Chronicle's" Parie correspondent states that there is a deep change in the character of the fighting on.>the western front. Both sides enjoy the shelter of the old trench system in the front line, but the prodigious field -works which typified the Hindenburg line have been abandoned by both sidee. Instead of the old ditches and dugouts, which aviators easily mapped and massed batteries of heavy guns wiped out, both sides have introduced a method of defence called '"echelonment in depth." The defensive front haa become an area ten miles in depth, of which the most advanced positions are held lightly by scattered machine-gun posts and little forts, the middle parts by the main bodies, and the rear by the reserves. We have learned much from the enemy during the last three months, but Ludendorff's latest invention has this weaknese, that it proeeede by spasms. While the best German divisions are being trained for the next onset, inferior, units are placed in the front line, of which we are easily masters.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)