THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 90, 16 April 1917, Page 6

THE WAR

With the aid of a good map th& cablegrams, fnll of local names, make interesting and cheerful reading, but it is not easy, to describe the position in words. To obtain /a comprehensive idea of the operations it is necessary, to understand that the front is now active from Reims to Lens. Starting at the- south end, there is artillery activity from Reims (on the "Vesle stream) to'the EiverAisne (on which is the city of Soissons). Gqing northward, the country between the Aisne and its parent river, the Oise, contains Laon, which is beginning to be threatened by the French advance up the Ailette, tributary of the Oise. In the Ailette valley are Coucy, and not faraway are the St. Gobain woods; here the advancing French not only menace Laon, but still more directly threaten the Germans at La-Fere (on the Oise).

Northward again is the country between the Somme and the Oise. La Fere,being on the Oise and St. Quentin on the Somme, the various cabled re-ferences-,to this country as'"between the Somme and the ( Oise," or "between the Soipme and La Fere,'.' or between " St. Quentin and the Oise " are mainly a distinction without a'difference. For conveniencs let this country be called the 1 Somme-Oise sector. It is the northern limit of the French army's present activity; .here they are making their great effort to turn the \Hindenburg line by getting round St. Quentin southward 6£ tho Somme. The enemy's vigorous resistance at this point shows .how anxious he is to hold tho line, and probably the Germans will no longer have the impudence to assert that the new impending retirement .is being -mado on their initiative.

v. In the above we have sectionised and summarised ■ the French activities between Reims and St. Qucntin. They aim at rolling up the German' line from the south, an effort which the Germans have endeavoured to counter by their artillery attack on Reim3. From St. Quentin northward the British are in charge, • and their lino may be considered in two-sections—St. Quentin to Cambrai, and Cambrai to Arras and Lens.

The St. Quentin'-Cambrai line rnns due north and south. St. Quentin (on the Somme Canal) was immediately endangered from the front when the AngloFrench seized Peronnoi (on the Somme), and the same thins? happened to Cambrai (on the Scheldt) when the British seized Bapaume. First, as to St. Quentin : According to Sir Douglas Haig's despatch published to-day, • the British north of the city are ably seconding the French attempts at encirclement southwards. Sir Douglas Haig's forces have just captured the village-of" Fa.yet and penetrated to within a few hundred yards of St. Quentin. Here the Germans have again shown their anxiety concerning this position, by attempting a counter-attack, which was broken. All the latest news, confirms the impending fate of St. Quentin, which the Germans have anticipated by taking measures of destruction. In order to escape the blame for damage to the historical city,, they have officially announced a destructive bombardment of its main, buildings, as if the French and British have any motive to damage their own property! The same official German message speaks of the German batteries |'figb,ting at full strength at Soissons, Reims, and in the western Champagne." Whether this bombardment has a military effect or not,, the Germans will see that it is destructive to the French cities. Only British rapidity saved Arras from the German guns, and cities like St. Quentin can hardly hope to escape the destroying hand of the retreating Hunnish terrorists.

Proceeding northward, the front is very active- on the next section of the St. Quentin-Cambrai line. Here we have a stretch of country considerably higher than the plain of Cambrai and Douai; its general elevation is above 250 ft. The British have Hust carried the farms east ef Le Verging; and next door they have advanced on a wide front from Hargicourt to Metz-en-Couture —a blow at the centre of the St., Quentin-Cambrai line. Continuing northward, the attack on Cambrai itself develops, and it is mainly directed along two roads leading to Cambrai, one from Ba-paumc and one from Arras. To-day^ there is very interesting news concerning the fighting on the Bapaume-Cambrai road. At this point the British are. astvido the road near Lnuverval, and bcforo them it dips down." to the Cambrai low country. On their right flank (that is, southward of -the road) they hold the village of Hermies and, Havrincourt Wood (which divides Hermies from Metz-en-Couture). On their left flank (that is, northward of the road) they hold Lagnicourt, which position not only threatens Cambrai but, bids fair to turn the Queant end of, fcho improvised German line between Queant and Drocourfc. Therefore the Germans had- good reason for a general counter-attack along the Bapaume-Cambrai road, and especially -lor- -recairimriasr- Lftsoicottrt,. _- Xbw:

counter-attacked over a' six-mile front, and they Teoccupied Lagnicourt but were quickly thrown out again. And it is interesting to note that they were thrown out by ihs Australians.

The fighting on the Bapaume-road, plus the fighting on the converging Arras road, is going to decide the fate of Cambrai. At the moment the British have advanced farther along the Bapaume-road than along the Arras-: road. On the latter they are still somewhere near Guemappe and Mondhy-le-' Preux. In the country between the two roads the German resistance is still vigorous at Queant, which confrontsLagnicourt, Noreuil, and Bullecourt, the recent scene of fierce fighting. North of the Arras-Gambrai-road is the Arras-Douai-road, running in the valley of the Scarpe. Not much new is reported here, but on the next section northward, comprising Vim'y and Lens, the' British progress has been very marked.' By occupying the villages of Bailleul and Willeval, east of Viffiy ridge, the British are well down into the Douai low country; and by the" capture of Angres, Lievin, and Cite St. Pierre they dominate Lens, whose evacuation has either occurred or will early happen. Destruction of the mining equipment shows clearly what the Germans are going to do. They are quitting Lens, the stronghold which survived the Battle of Loos (September, 1915), and the Lens salient will disappear. In other words, the new British front is coming up level witli Loos and Hulluch, and; Germany has lost, in Vimy ,and Loos, the main bastion of her Douai-Lille line. She has either to evacuate a great portion of northern 1 French, or stay and be pounded; eitherof which courses is damaging, both materially and morally.

Easter Monday's results are a sign, and not the first one, of deterioration of the German morale. It has been variously estimated that on that Monday the British took 10,000 to-12,000 prisoners; which number compares with the captures by the French m their Verdun-at-tack of 15th and 16th December, when the Germans left in French hands nearly 10,000 unwounded prisoners, or about 10 per cent, of their active forces. 'Commenting on the results of 15th and 16th December, an American writer remarks: "It has been frequently asserted'that the quality of the German soldier,? has rapidly deteriorated; that, although they fight well in attack, when on defence they are unable to stand the pounding of theAllied artillery and infantry as did the soldiers of a year ago. This view seems to be confirmed by^recent events at Verdun. Nothing but a serious fall in morale can explain the readiness to surrender which marked this fighting." An army order issued by Hindenbnrg after the Verdun reverse made similar admissions of reduced morale and prescribed more drill and discipline. If cannot be said, that Easter Monday's results are a very good advertisement for'the German Commander's remedy. Summing up the Verdun engagement, the writer quoted _ above says: "The attack was delivered" over a front of only six miles, held by nearly 100,000 men, or over 16,000 to the mile. It is perfectly evident, then, that the German line had not been weakened | in order to use the men \in other fields. ,| The Germans were '* outfought man to ' man and gun to gun. . ifcat is the Vhole thing in a nutshell."; And-the advantage of number* was in the enemy's fav-' our, for he had five divisions to France's four. "So accurate was the fire of the French artillery and so devastating that the French infantry were able to seize in less than two days' fighting all that the Germans had taken between 26th February and 9th April."

In this, war territorial 1 considerations are never primary, sometimes secondary, and occasionally almost negligible. While tjie actual square mileage won by the Anglo-French in the Wast is by no means negligible, it is clearly subordinate to the moral and military aspects of the struggle .for ascendency between the two mightiest armies the world has -seen. A hundred.more days like Easter Monday would.cancel the war map, and reduce territorial occupations to their military value. When Germany .tri^d to secure peace on the basis of the warmap, the Entente Powers replied in effect that that map represents only an insignificant and temporary phase of the situation, and not the real strength of the belligerents. History is full of exemplifications of this principle. -When Napoleon was before Moscow the map seemed to indicate that there was only: ona victor. A year or two later Napoleon retired to Elba. '