PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 221, 6 June 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The opinion expressed by M. Ci-BMENOEAU that the crisis of the great battle which opened ten days ago is past and that the Germans aro now held finds support in much of the detail news today. The enemy is still striving as. desperately as over to drive forward on the western faco of the salient he has created between the Aisne and the Marnc, but according to the latest reports available , at time of writing he has nothing hotter to show for the powerful efforts iu which ho is suffering increasing loss than a very slight gain of ground west and south-west of Soissons. Losing a little ground in these localities, the French have recaptured Faverolles, a village fronting the forest of Villcrs Cotterets. Up to the present all the enemy's efforts to break into this "great wctodland have been disastrously defeated. In view of wic splendid success with which the French are now maintaining their ground, it is rather of good promise than otherwise that the enemy is persisting so obstinately in his efforts to open a road to the west. It is no doubt much lo l)o preferred, from lihe Allied standpoint, that he should persevere in his offensive between the Oisc and the Marnc than that he should seek some new point, for he has developed his tactics of surprise with a degree of success which not very long ago would have been thought impossible under the conditions that obtain, in the Western theatre.

It is still quite possible that the enemy may open an offensive in some new quarter, or on one or other of the northern sectors on which he attacked at an earlier stage; a Paris semi-official message which appears to-day indicates that the Allies are fully prepared for such an eventuality. _ At the moment, however, indications are that the enemy is grappling with increasingly difficult problems on his present attacking front, and it is obvious that unless he wius a big success on this front his general freedom of action will be seriously curtailed, and the risks which his offensive■' policy entails will bo intensified. The battlefield south of the Aisne is not in such a shape that the enemy can afford to leave it in order to concentrate against some other section of the front. He has failed to radically improve the narrow and dangerous salient created by his violent initial assaults, and the salient will be particularly vulnerable if he appreciably wnakeps the forces by which it is now occupied. Ho may, of course, take the risk, and trust to holding the Allies in play elsewhere, but, as has been said, available information rather suggests that he feels it necessary to'continue the offensive in its present area in spite of the fact that his attacks arc bringing him hardly any return, and that his prospects are waning accordingly.

The front of fifteen miles between Chateau Thierry and La Fcrtc Milon on which, according to one of to-day's messages, the enemy is desperately trying to free his 'left wing, traverses comparatively clear country between the forest of Villcrs Cotterets and the Marno. The general suggestion is that the Germans are unable to concentrate their main efforts upon a drive between the forest and tho river because masses of men and guns concentrated on this comparatively short front, with the forest barrier unconqiiered on the north, would he seriously exposed to a punishing counter-stroke, if not to the danger of envelopment. An advance, if it is to be made at all, must be made on a wider front, and the Germans arc thus under the necessity of heavily .attacking not only in the clear country north of the Marne, but on the direct approaches to the forest of Villers- Cotterets and on the front covering its northern flank. The latest messages in hand emphasise tho enemy's failure to approach

a solution of the problem by which ho is faced and the extremely heavy Kisses his attacks have entailed.

The first intimation that the Germans had succeeded in crossing the Marne is given in a Paris message which states that they were driven back across that river after reaching the southern bank near Chateau Thierry. .There is no reason at present to suppose- that this engagement marks any serious change in the general conditions of the battle. Even if the enemy succeeded in establishing bridgeheads on the south bank of tho Marne it is unlikely that he will venture to materially extend his advance, to the south while he is as definitely foiled as ho is at present in his attempts to open out his front to the west.

# # * # AvAiUKLB reports throw littlo new light upon the latest extension of the submarine campaign to American coastal waters: but a return of tonnage sunk, which appears to-cky, tends to confirm an opinion that a considerable proportion of the vessels sunk were of small size. A Washington message, quoting the Navy Department,' mentions that schooners are being sunk off the Maryland coast, but adds that it is not believed the U-boats will be able to successfully attack convoys. On present appearances the submarines must be regarded as engaged rather in an elaborate raid than in a serious attempt to blockade American coastal ports. A sailor taken. on board one of the U-boats has brought ..away the story that they carry six months' supplies, and by relying on further supplies from captured sliips expect to remain on their present cruising ground -for a year. This is tall but quite unconvincing talk. Other considerations apart, a submarine carries a comparatively small number of torpedoes, and cannot replenish her supplies from surface ships. Lacking torpedoes, she niusfc attack on the surface and take all the risks that course involves.