The Offensive.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16309, 5 September 1918, Page 6

The Offensive.

A German official statement quoted this . morning states that between tho Scarpe | and the Somme the movements which they commenced on Monday night were 1 completed in accordance with plan. This may bo regarded as 6trictly true, for nothing in Sir Douglas Haig's report contradicts it, even on tho one point upon which we might have withheld our credence, namely, tho concordance of events with the enemy's plans. Whether or not the Germans hoped to hold the armies of Home and Byng, or evt>;i to attempt' to recapture the Woian switch positions, we do not know, but it is remarked that his failure to hit back was contrary to expectations. On tjiis part of the battle line the enemy's retirement is more in the nature of a rout than an. orderly retirement, and the attack is being pressed home with such force and, when the naturo of present-day fighting is considered,- with such speed, that the losses in prisoners and material customed by the enemy are very great. The second strong lino which he is understood to have prepared is reckoned to be weaker than the IhocourtQueant line, and it has been shown that these strong lines cannot be held against tho pressure Haig is now able to exert. Further south the enemy has been pushed back to beyond the line of tho Tortille and tho Canal du Nord, which, at Mceuvres, is only seven miles west of Cainbrai. On the French front there is no activity reported between the Oise and the Sommo, but further gains have been made north of Soissons. The clearing of* the Xiys saliont continues, and the line there now runs from "Wulverghem to Nouve Chapelle, in a fairly, straight line, which is hourly nearing Armentieres. .Lens has not yet been occupied, but apparently its occupation may be expected at any moment. The offensive to' date nas produced a quickly straightening line from Ypres southward through Peronno to north of Soissons, and it begins to look very

like a definite first chapter of tho great enterprise of clearing the enemy out of Franco. lS T o long continuance of the pressure will be necessary to produce sensational and even decisive results.