NOVEL ATTACK BRILLIANTLY DEVELOPED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 51, 23 November 1917, Page 5

NOVEL ATTACK BRILLIANTLY DEVELOPED

TANKS HAD OFF WITHOUT ARTILLERY PRELUDE

ITALY >

ITALIANS HIT BACK AT HEIR ENEMIES

RUSSIAN PROLETARIAT PEACE OFFER

Following on the bare hint in a late message yesterday fiat Sir Douglas Haig had initiated a 8 eries of operations between St. Quentia and the Scarpe, the dispatches from the .Western front today give thrilling accounts of the various phasee qf_what is doscribed as the most wonderful battle in the world's history. For ' novelty of attack, completeness of surprise, and low . casualty rate, thero has been nothing like it during the war. Mustering a big fleet of tanks, cavalry and infantry behind the lines of the quietest sector of the whole battlefront, Haig dispensed altogether with the usual artillery prelude, and hurled the tanks at the formidable wired obstacles of the Hindenburg defences. The enemy was completely surprised. The tanks, opening great gaps in the line, let the infantry through, and pioneered by the leviathan land cruisers, took position after position to a depth of about fire miles, striking almost to the gates of Cambrai. The number of prißouors, guns, and other booty has not yet been estimated, but reports range from 6000 ,to 8000 prisoners to date. The Hindenburg line'has been smashed, and the British cavalry is sweeping out th o villages on the Cambrai Plain. In Italy the military situation on the Piave, stillgravo, offers here and there'a gleam of hope that the Teuton oneet will be checked in time to save the interior from the horrors of'invasion. Venice, it is considered, may have to be evacuated. The Italian resistance, however, is hardening to a dangerous degree, and they are effectively counterattacking. The Russian' Bolshevik Government is negotiating for an armistice as a uigludeto peace negotiations. The armies at the front, however, jo not, it is stated, acknowledge the Bolshevik Government, and General.Kaledin, the Cossack leader, continues'his march ' on Petrograd. In Palestine, the British are now close to Jerusalem. An important conference has been held at Downing Street, at which Mr. Lloyd George presided, and stated oertain urgent points for elucidation, points constituting the essential factors for victory. 31. Clemenceau, the new French Premier, in his policy speech, has declared for "war, and nothing but war."