PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 79, 27 December 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A tremendous struggle is in progress on the Asiago Plateau, but the latest reports on the subject indicate that the Italians have stemmed and broken the enemy's very determined attempt to penetrate and outflank their line. For weeks i past the enemy has been attacking alternately east and west of tho Brenta, and both on tho east, where tho Italians are established on the Grappa Ridge, and on the Asiago Plateau west of tho river, the area of mountain country held by the defending armies is now very narrow. There is no longer any doubt that if the Italians are defeated on their present line they will continue their resistance on a line further west, but a retreat enforced by tho penetration of their northern flank defences would probably entail serious losses. From the reports in band it appears that the Italians are counter-attacking with great gallantry, but their unsparing efforts have not yet recovered two mountain positions which ware mastered by the enemy in the first vigour of his assault.

In a special order addressed to the armies under his command, Sir Douglas Haig observes: '.'ln France our victories and successes have been very considerable, and might well havo led to early and complete victory but for the Eussian collapse." Apart from its immediate purpose, this is welcome as a terse and unadorned statement of facts which of late have been somewhat obscured in a mist of speculations about the enemy's intentions, and the extent to which his opportunities in the Western theatre are likely to be widened as a result of events in Russia. It is the simple truth that the achievements of the Allied armies during the past year in Franco and Flanders are without parallel in this or any other war, and that thoy havo carried the Allies over a long stage on the road to victory. One part of the achievement of the Allies has been to dislodge the enemy from almost the last of the dominating positions which formerly constituted the backbone of his defensivo lino in Franco

and Flanders, and in this they have very definitely paved tlio way for further aehievement.

Even 'greater importance attaches, however, to the tremendous inroads they have- made upon the enemy's reserves. No comprehensive estimate of the losses suffered by the enemy in the Western theatre during the past year is available at the moment, but the military correspondent, of the Morning Post, writing early in November, observed that during the previous three months no fewer than 68 German divisions had been put through the mill in Flanders. "Of these," ho added, "14 were put in during September. In October, 19 fresh divisions were added. Such was the utate of the German reserves that 20 divisions had to be. subject ed to a second grinding, of which 12 were thrown in last month, whilb two underwent tho process for a third time. Thus, counting those which have reappeared after having been renovated, our troops in Flanders have met, and defeated, during the last, three months, no fewer than 90 German divisions, and these among the best that the German Army can provide Many of them had' tasted our steel on the Somme last year—the 11th (Silesian) Division, for example, which was hustled out of Passchcndaelc on Tuesday. In the course of tho three months we have captured over 25,000 prisoners. Talcing a wider viow, tho Allied armies on the Western front during this year's campaign have, by a similar method of computation, met and defeated in tho various battles at Verdun, on tho Aisne, about Arras, and in Flanders, 276 German divisions. When it is mentioned that the total number of German divisions on the Western front at the height, of the campaigning season was 147, and that some of these were, probably, not, engaged at all, it will be evident that a ■ large number had to pass through the Allied mill more than once."

Another English writer, the military correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, supplies an interesting survey of the position in Flanders, where the British armies put forth their main effort of the year. "The occupation of Passchendaele, after a long struggle, unequalled in our military history for its obstinacy and the frightful hardships that it has entailed," he remarks, "gives us possession of the heights at the north end of the Yprcs Ridge. It is not, however, true as yet to say that we command tho Flanders plain. The enemy has to bo cleared out of the Houthulst Wood, there are isolated eminences between Passchendaelo and Dixmude, and beyond tho Ypres Ridge there is a defensible lino about Thou rout and Thiol t. But it is very significant that the opposition of the enemy at Passchendacle was at tho end so weak. The writer sees no reason to modify the conclusions which he has already stated: that tho enemy no longer expects to be able to hold Flanders, and that the main question there is how long he can defer his evacuation. He has definitely made up his mind that he cannot retain Flanders and get anything of political advantage out of the war. His hopes are now fixed in the East, and that fact is one of several clues to his Italian campaign." This was writtcuat a time when, the enemy was making rapid progress in his invasion of Italy.