The Dominion FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1919. BRITAIN'S EPIC OF VICTORY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 90, 10 January 1919, Page 4

The Dominion FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1919. BRITAIN'S EPIC OF VICTORY

• Mere skeleton as it no doubt is, the cabled summary of the dispatch 'in which Sib Douglas Haig doscribes the final' offensive undertaken by the British armies in the Western theatre makes enthralling reading. The dispatch covers the events n as the Commander-in-Chief , himself observes, of three months of epic fighting in -which the British armies brought to a sudden and dramatic end the great wearing-out battle of the previous four years. It is of glowing interest as a.story of superb, achievement, and it wa* needed to enlarge our understanding of the greater facts of the war on land in its final phase. It affords the clearest and most explicit .evidence yet supplied regarding the state to which the German armies had been' reduced when an appeal wasimade on their behalf for terms. Sir Douglas, Haig finally establishes the' fapt that the s Germans submitted because they were powerless in any other way to avert over-, whelming disaster. "The Allies' strategic plan," he says,'"was realised with a completeness rarely ! seen in war,, and when the armistice was signed the enemy's defensive powers had already been definitely destroyed, and a continuance of hostilities could 'only have meant disaster to the German armies and the armed' invasion of Germany." This meets and answers in anticipation'any attempt, that may be made to show that the armistice was in part occasioned by a •moral awakening or change of heart in Germany, or that the Gorman military authorities, having it in their power to continue indefinitely, gave up the struggle rathci 1 / than' prolong a useless slaughter. The truth is brought 1 out in Sir Douglas. Haig's statement that by tho cud of October tho British armies were in a position to prevent the enemy's withdrawal to shorter lines and "were able to force an immediate conclusion." Further fighting, therefore, would have involved not''the defeat, but the destruction of the German, armies, a'nclthat in a very limited space of time. Soimuch being made manifest, it is as clearly established that: the, enemy owed his complete and hopeless defeat above all to thohcroic efforts and wonderful achievement. of the British armies. This fact, which for all time will mean so much to the British Empire, is not in any respect in doubt. Many things contributed to hurl the Hun from the height of power and opportunity on which he stood in the opening months of last year. The naval stranglehold, the gallant tenacity of France, the spectacular rise of the American armies, and not least the wise decision which entrusted to a singlo master mind the task of co-ordinat-ing the operations of the Allied armies, were all factors which heavily influenced' the result. But the greatest factor of all was the fighting power of the British armies. It was in endeavouring to smash these armies on tho Sommo battlefield and in the -Lys Valley that the enemy spent his offensive power. He afterwards attacked and gained a great deal of ground, but from the time when he was Halted , in Flanders each forward step only took him deeper into a trap. It was again the British armies which did much more, than any other force on land to' bear down the enemy's resistance in the final, victorious offensivo of the Allied armies. The_ French had suffered too heavily in the long ordeal of the war to be able to strike the culminating blow in 1918; ■■ tho Americans had 'not' reached the necessary pitch' of organisation. Both these armies co-operated most gallantly, but the British armies proved themselves fully equal to the effort demanded in order that victory might be won in 1918. The mighty part_ played by the armies of the British Empire has all along been generously acknowledged in France, and latterly has been- so freely recognised by Americans as to give full point to the advice offered not long ago by Admiral. Sims, of tho United States Navy: "If you want to know what the British are like, ask an American." In British countries, on the other hand, there is a distinct tendency to take all that our armies have accomplished for granted and as a matter of course. This tendency is inexcusable in face "of such evidence of riofious achievement as is presented in Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch, though not only there. It is the simple truth that the conditions existed in the Western campaign even as late as tho end of July last year all but precluded the possibility of such, a victory as was won in the next three months. At the end of July the fate of the campaign had visibly

been turned, but the Germans still had the great superiority in numerical strength they retained to the end, and except in the matter of tanks and aerial force—exceptions admittedly of very great importance— wero probably not inferior in any material element of fighting strength. They had enormous advantages in their perfect communications, in their successive ranges of defensive positions ' prepared and improved in light of the experience gained during four years of war, and in the fact that the Allies as they advanced were condemned to traverse broken and devastated country. Obviously, if tangible factors of fighting strength and resources_ had' retained their normal value in the struggle which took shape in this setting, the. Germans would still bo fighting a- successful defensive campaign, though doubtless with a narrowed field of occupation. That instead they were swiftly hurled into an abyss of defeat is a marvel such as the world has seldom witnessed, and the marvel seems the creator when it is considered that the fate of the struggle ,was determined in a series "of battlesin which 99 enemy divisions', defending the strongest' positions German military art had been able to devise, were defeated and overwhelmed by 59 British divisions. One or two of thp British divisions, notably our own, wero of more than normal strength, but most of them had been reduced in strength, to a degree_ which probably.left them no numerical superiority over an average German division. The enemy therefore fought with the odds of numbers enormously in his favour. The doetrino that it is the big battalion's that prevail in war has never been more gloriously falsified than in the achievement of the British armies from August to November, 1918. These achievements would stand out magnificently even if the British armies had been prepared and organised at full leisure for 'their colossal _ task. In actual fact their irresistible drive to victory followed closely upon the exhausting ordeal of a long defensive jampaign in which they wero tried to the limits of human endurance under.the attack of vastly stronger forces. Their Commander-in-Chief has truly said that the annals of war liold no record of a more wonderful recovery than that which, three months after the tremendous blows which 'had been showered upon .them on the Sommo and Lys x saw the undefeated British armies advancing from victory to victory, •and-finally forcing the erstwhile triumphant enemy to acknowledge unconditional defeat.