PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3017, 2 March 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

r It is ijiskiil'l.'nf- fi.& events arc j: now moving i'& Ihe Western theatre |j lo recall tho account, which tho Gerjj mans gave oi the Soirimr. offensive ' when bad weather aur! iiUi'tl llriiiiglil tlio Allies w> ;i, bait, last autilrnn. Eniliny.f»pi}k' l o»\eri-, Erdni the Kaiskr. u'owinvarci, dcolaro-d that the (JuteoiSie of tlio Üblussal struggle on .ihe Somnle was an Allied defeat. This verdict was interestingly elaborated in an .articta {'ft the New York Timcss b, v Mil. Oyku. Brown, an America!! correspondent, who was porlttiUxi'd to visit the Oci'miin lines in tjs'e Sommo. regiUh at the end of .List year-. Tito ferouud on which tllft (JSei'UliJis based their claim to a, victory, Mn. Brown remarked, was that the British started out for Bavjaumo and did not get there. He went on to describe tlio battle «.foa from his personal observation. Bapaumo, once «, pretty little town, when ho saw it 'Vflft laid In ruins; but he ndded that it was stronger in I'uihs thaii wuon ii, w'aS intact. "The Germans ( working overtime, particularly in the last five nonfighting weeks," ho continued, "have turned Bapaumo into an inland Gibraltar, seemingly impregnable if anything could withstand the irresistible roodei'tl machinery of war. . , . Biipaiinie has been and ia still being fortified against every point, of the compass—-insulated against the near-by_ British with many wrappings of extraordinary trenches and broad girdles of barbed wire, with every evidence that the fortifying process will bo continued all winter. . . . Just how many fortified layers enclose Bapaumo may not bo told, but I passed through more than twenty on my Way to the, first line, and the last was stronger than the first." Mr. Bnow.fr further observed that whav j seemed trench perfection in August i or October was puny compared wI on t the 1917 models of field fortifica- . tions. Yet the German leaders ■ were unwilling to commit themselves to tho positive statement that ! Bapaume could no)i bo taken if the British wanted to pay the price. ] ''One's impression is," Mil. Brown, "that Bapaume is not physically unattainable; that, it is rather morally untakable; that the British will shrink from paying tho fancy price which the Germans aro now able to exact for this ouetime town of six thousand inhabitants, already heavily mortgaged . with blood."' One other point '. raised by Mn. Bbown is worth I noting. Ho quotes a Bavarian officer who said of the Allied offensive: "It died of exhaustion."

'.Co-day anyone may measure i-his estimate at its true worth. Jn view of tlic continued retirement of the enemy north and south of t'nfAncro no other opinion seems possible than that he now despairs of holding Bapaume. During the last few days tho British have pushed forward, apparently against slight resistance, at a rate that was hardly approached at tho utmost height ot their offensive last year. The further advance reported to-day indicates that tho fate of Bapaume is already determined. The capture of the village of Thilloy brings the attackers to within 1500 yards of Bapaume on tho direct approach, and notable progress has been made in other areas. Tho capture of the Gomraecourt salient, at tho northwestern extremity of the offensive front, and the village of Puisieux-au-Mont, moans that the developing breach in the enemy lino has been very materially widened, and southeast of Bapaume the British are now extending the area they already hold east of the Bapaume-Peronne high road, and working round the stronghold of Lo Transloy, As much progress has been made in a few days as was mado in many weeks of the heaviest fighting during last year's offensive, and there is every indication that the forward movcinonb will be rapidly extended.

Tub plan to which tho enemy is working remains a matter of conjecture, but the claims he made regarding the outcome of last year's struggle are already very completely exploded. If it is true, as the correspondent above quoted and others have asserted, that the enemy spent tho winter in elaborately fortifying the areas covering Bapaume and neighbouring positions, the present retirement, is so much ths move significant of his failing power. At the moment no adequate explanation is available of the fact that the Germane have, retired, as the L'clil Journal poiats out, from strong positions to a mediocre line. The destruction of heavy guns oerkiH*- suggests a forced retreat, but or; -ho other hand there is no evidence 4 ,hafc tho British are v> yet attacking in full power. Some i.'rencn experts think that the (}ermans contemplate a stand r/est of -Bapa'.uu-:, and others that they are intent -in,-)!! a retirement to the Ai-i-as-Ua-rabi-ci line. Thin atraca-rs to-cover immediate possi'hiiitiua biii it is still difficult "to •.-.iH-iersiavid what the enemy hopes to gain bv abandoning a great extent of prepared ppsitiojic for the sake of falling back to a lino not materially shorter than t.ae one upon which he I IS COW iijriiiijj-;.

Wiif.. the Allies were working their way mto the enemy line, last summer some of the Gorman newspapers talked of a possiblo retirement to a line covering Lille Maubeugo, and Mcziercs, and turmn" round Verdun. It was computed au the time that such a retirement would at most enable the enemy to shorten his front by (iO.OOO yards, and that tho operation would almost certainly cost him far moro men and material than it would save. > This opinion was advanced by Mr. IIHiAiKE Belloc, who maintained also that a really serious ahorleninff of line—falling right back to the Mouse, for instance, abandoning half Belgium and all bull an insignificant strip of tho occupied district of Franco—though it would save perhaps double the number of men saved by tho Lille-Ver-dun line, could not bo undertaken without promise of such losses as would be disastrous. On all grounds a retreat should bo more dangerous lo tho enemy and should hold, out less hope of profit now than last year, and it is fairly safe to assume that ho will not atlonipt an extended retreat unless under the spur of imperative necessity. Whether ho is already conscious of such a necessity should speedily bo apparent. Tho idea will, of course, occur that tho enemy may attempt a retreat while- conditions of ground and weather still to come extent hinder the free, development of Mv Allied offensive. But these conditions aro not likely lo hamper an Allied pursuit more seriously than they would hamuer an eiieinj; retreat.