PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2887, 27 September 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

One splendidly successful assault by the Western Allies has followed quickly on another. Tho echoes of the great battlo in which the British smashed the enemy third lino south of Bapaumo have hardly died away, and now it is announced that another important stage has been covered in the movement towards that vital ccntro in the German local communications. At a stroke the British troops havo captured tho enemy defences on a front of six miles, between Martinpuich and Oombles, to a depth of more than a mile. As a result of the British assault and simultaneous attacks by tho French, Oombles is now so wrapped about, and its communications so dominated that its fall must be regarded as imminent. It is more or less futile to try to determine tho importance of one battle in comparison with another as the offensive develops, but choir latest stroke brings the Allies notably and visibly nearer to tho decisive results for which thoy are fighting. A certain departure from Sreoedont is involved in the fact that 10 British have twice in succession attacked on'tho grand scale instead of alternating In action with their allies. Generally speaking, since the offensive opened, the French and British.have struck-alternate blows, so far as major movements are concerned, and it lately seemed quite likely that tho British attack which overwhelmed the German third line on and beyond tho Thiepval ridgo would bo followed up by a French assault on the defences covering Peronne on, the north. Tho actual procedure followed is a dep'muro from past practice in which the enemy will find little comfort. While the two sections of the Allied army contented _ themselves with striking in turn, it was open to him to suppose that , this method afforded each of them a-necessary interval in which to recuperate and prepare •for further action. It is now demonstrated very convincingly that ono of tho two main wings of the Allied army is capable of spee.lily following up. one mighty blow with another, and the fact indicates that the Allies have an even greater reserve of power and an wen grea'or margin of superiority thaii bas ap peared from past events.

Mehe distance covered counts for comparatively, litfclo in a battle of

Wiis kind, but it is an arresting fact that the British line is now j.iit about thrco miles distant from Bapaume, and four and a, iiaif wiles north of the lino on which tho baulo opened. This depth of four and a half miles consists of a practically continuous rango of field fortifications and fortified villages, and it includes the Thiepval ridge, well beyond which tho British are now advancing oxcept at Thiepval itself, on the Western flank of the offensive front. From positions west of Mouquet_ Farm (less than a mile east of Thiepval) the British are now masters of the ridge for a distance as the crow flies of seven, miles, to 'Morval, one of the fortified villages captured in the latest advance. The northern outskirts of Morval reach the summit of the ridge. Along a considerable part of the iront west of Morval the British are beyond the ridge, in places as much as a mile and a half. They are advancing through the generally descending country which separates them from the Ancrc. The upper waters of this stream cross tho path of the advance midway between the line now reached and Bapaunle. Beyond the Ancre and on the immediate approach to Bapaume, the country again rises gently. There is no suggestion of any recent attempt to press the direct at-, tack on Thiepval, either from tho south or from the west, and a reason for this policy appears in the progress made further east. Thiepval has been called a strong bastion in tho enemy line, on the western flank of tho British advance, but evidently possession oi' this flanking position does not enable the Germans to seriously hamper the British movement against Bapaume. [On the othor hand, Thiepval is the [point of a section of the German defences which is assuming peninsula shape as tho offensive develops. It is already a pronounced salient. Before tho offensive reaches Bapaume this salient will become untenable. Without being directly attacked it will have to do evacuated or the forces holding it will be cut off.

The position of the Germans at Combles is absolutely desperate. Now that the British has captured Morval, the Allies are astride every road serving Combles, except one cross-road approaching it from the north-east, and from this solitary, road the French are only about half a mile distant, on the south, llancourt, the latest French capture, is a village two miles east of Combles, on the main road which runs south Irom Bapaume by way of Peronne. The French, by getting astride this highway at Bouchavesnes, a mile and a naif south of Eancourt, bad already largely destroyed its usefulness to the enemy, but the northward extension of their hold on tho road makes for the widening and strengthening of the front facing Bapaume. The capture of Combles, now to all appearance imminent/ will be a further important stop in this development.

• It is noteworthy that towards the end of July, when the Allied offensive had been under way for a month, and the German newspapers were exerting themselves to discount its success and importance, tbe military correspondent of the Norddeutsche AUgemeine Zeitimg declared that not before the German lines on either side of Peronne had been thrown back to the road, Nesle-Peronne-Bapaume, would the AngloFrenoh offensive have gained sufficient room for a strategical break through. To-day the Allies are comfortably astride this road north of Peronne, and aro in a fair way to drive the enemy back upon it south of that centre. It is not pretended, of course, that tho German writer quoted was in a position to state the lines upon which the Allied of.fensivo must develop to succeed, but some importance attaches to tho fact that in less than two months the offensive has been all but carried to a point which official German circles believed, or to believe, was unattainable. As to tho main question there is, of course, no need to reljr upon enemy admissions. The Allies obviously nave excellent prospects of driving a practicable breach through the German front, and on present appearances it seems likely that they will do it before winter sets in.

Sir Douglas Haig makes the important statement in one report that tho British losses, in relation to the results a-chioved, have up to the present ■ been comparatively small. Whether this refers only to the latest battle or to the popiod of tho offensive it promises well. Tho Herman losses are certainly not comparatively small—both French and British official roports havo repeafcodly described them as exceedingly heavy—and Sir Douglas Haig's statement must, therefore, be regarded as a definite assuranco that the onemy is not only suffering heavily, but in a much greater proportion than the Allies.

Late news tells of further important .headway ■ north of tho Sorame. Striking north between Oombles and Rancourt, the French nave reached the southern outskirts of Fregicourt. This village, about a mile from Comblcs, stands on tho one road of approach to that place mentioned above as being still more or less open to the Germans. Oombles is now isolated. The French line extends cast from Fregicourt to Hill 148, which adjoins the • Bapaume-Peronne main road half a mile north of Rancourt. "Hill 130, also reached in the attack, stands three-quarters of a mil© southcast of Bouchavesnes, and about the same distance east of tho main road. North of Bouohavesncs the French have advanced a thousand yards east of the road on a front of a mile, and just north of the Sommo they havo captured several trench systems in the defences immediately covering Peronne. These aro possibly only the first details of an assault which will be carried considerably further before coming to a- halt, tmt the success already obtained is of high importance.

News of the Macedonian campaign is to the effect that the western section-of the Allied line is advancing from Greece into Serbia, but the campaign as a whole ha?> not yet taken shape. The announcement that M. Venizelos has reached Salonika and assumed control of tho revolutionary movement raises most important possibilities. Greece as a .military factor is no longer very seriously regarded, but it would greatly strengthen the hands of tho Allies to be freed from the emI barrassraents which to some extent Iclog their action in Greece. If M. Vznizelos gains command of tho situation—and ho claims that ho has a majority of the Greek people at his back—the complete discmnfiture of King Constaktine and his party should follow as .a matter of course.