THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1917, Page 6

THE WAR

The phenomenal bombardment of the enemy's lines all along the British front has borne fruit in the Wytschaete salient, the sector to which the German- reports have pointed as the centre of the shellstorm. The map published to-day will enable readers to locate the attack. It shows the whole stretch of country affected by the bombardment. The fighting line may be traced as follows, from north to south: Along, the Yser Canal from Nieuport to a point four miles north of Ypres; round the east and south of I Ypres through Zillebeke ; round the west of Messines and Wytschaete, which ..is about two miles north-w.ost of Messines and is not marked ; east of Armentieres ; south-westward on .the west side of Aubers and Fromelles; then past La Bassee on the west, skirting the east sidoof Givenchy ; then round the east of Loos and the west of Lens, then south eastward, passing between Fresnoy and Gavrelle, and on through Boeux on the Scarpe; thence almost due south and off tho map. The front on the Ypres and Wytschaete sectors forms a double curve ; and the new British attack has driven in the southern half of the curve, and as far as progress has "been reported has taken off about one-half of the .bulge. But the chief feature of the gain of ground is that it has secured possession of the southern portion of the hills running north-east from Messines, described in yesterday's notes. Messines and Wytschaete are both on the crest of the range, and the official report that satisfactory progress continues to be made indicates that a still more extensive grip of this'useful elevation may be expected. . ,

' Sir Douglas Haig's report shows that the attack was made.on a front of nine miles, which is, on the scale of big offensives, comparatively short, and may be subject to extension when the attacked salient is sufficiently reduced. The now flattened bulge was originally so pronounced that if extensive operations south of Ypres were contemplated its reduction was the obvious first step. A glance at the map shows that a' direct advance eastward would cany the British pact the north of' Lille, Tourcoing, and Roubaix; and that is a movement which has long been expected in many quarters as a probable line of attack in the major operations of this year. At' present, however, it is too early to do more than guess at what may be done. It is quite likely that the lively fighting on the Hindenburg line positions from Roeux to St. Quentin may be followed by renewed a-ttacks about Lens and to the northward; and as the "preparation" has been on an unbroken front of over forty miles, the possibilities for more extended operations are obvious. The air raid earned out by the enemy on Tuesday night was a serious effort to reach a military objective,, which the Germans allege was Slieemess. According to the British official / reports it did not have any very serious results, although the casualties —twelve killed and .thirty-six injured—were by no means trifling. The.Germans claim that the raiders, sixteen of which were counted, dropped five tons (five thousand kilogrammes) of bombs. As a set-off to the damage done by the enemy, the raiding squadron suffered, heavy losses. In extent of casualties inflicted, the Sheer ness raid was not nearly so serious as the attack at .Folkestone at the end of May, when about 250 people were killed or injured. But it is quite possible that the Germans will regard the attack as sufficiently successful to warrant . further attempts.. It seems as if, in order not to give iip the idea of hurting the British at liome, they have substituted the aeroplane for the air-1 ship, which has, signally failed. The change is not one'to be pleased about. As a raider the aeroplane is much more likely to be hurtful than, the dirigible, because it is cheaper, requires fewer men, and is faster and much harder to hit. That its ability to drop bombs accurately is rather less than that of the airship will not worry the Germans in the least. They never .have troubled about what they hit, so long as they hit something. \ \ . ;

The actual raid on the Thames estuary is entangled with several oncounters at sea, and as fa-r as can be judged the enemy squadrons engaged were nearly all on the same business. First of all an independent German machine was attacked off Dunkirk and "driven down" in a vertical dive; but whether it was destroyed or not the report does not show. It was on Tuesday afternoon that the big enemy force was first seen, "well out from Ostend." There were eighteen of them, and four naval, pilots chased them to England. It seems as if this squadron was the one which attacked Sheerness, where two machines were lost. The remaining sixteen-, flying home, were met off Ostend fry ten machines from Dunkirk, and here two more were destroyed and four; driven down out of control, of which two are considered destroyed. Two others were driven down by machines' from the. Kentish aerial forces, so that. the.total casualties were four destroyed, and six driven down, and perhaps two of these gone for good. More than half the original eighteen were' thus put out of action; but the words "driven, down are ambiguous and ' appear to mean "fate undecided."/

The German experiments in attacking the English coast, whether with naval guns or- with aerial bombs, have been by no meaas so vigorous as the -A-lhed attacks on German coastal pdsitions. The enemy's naval raids, which were practically stopped by the . Battle of the Dogger Bank, never had a military objective, and merely killed civilians. On the other hand, British warships have repeatedly shelled the German-held ports of Belgium notoriously used as submarine and destroyer bases; 1 and the fact that as 'a rule the. enemy reports casualties among the Belgian civilians by no means makes them a parallel to the abandoned German raids. Similarly the enemy's air raids have hitherto been futile in the military sense. An enormous total amount of damage has beri done, and hundreds of people have been killed and wounded. But as a military measure they cannot be compared with the persistent attacks made by. the Allied air squadrons on Ostehd, Zeebrugge, Bruges, and various other points in Belgium, all selected because they are hives of war-industry or depots of warlike stores. It is worthy of. note that the British Admiralty, after seeing aerial photographs of Ostend taken after the- bombardment, is able to declare that the damage was confined to the dockyard buildings.

The weekly report on the losses of shipping through mines and submarines' attacks (published yesterday)- shows a further slight reduction. The number of vessels over 1600 tons sunk was 15, as against 18 in the preceding week, but the number of smaller ships wats three, as against one. Seventeen vessels were unsuccessfully attacked, so that the vessels which escaped amounted to over 4&z> per cent., the highest proportion in fifteen weeks. The difference in. the figures is, ■ however, slight, and doefe not indicate that any drastic effect upon the underwater campaign has yet been achieved. The actual effect upon the available tonnages, howevor,' U_ presumably leducsd, aa compared with the

previous week, by the lower number of large vessels sunk. During the period in which tabulated reports have been issued by the Admiralty this figure has never been so low since the first three reports, when the numbers were 15, 14, 13. The total number of ve&sels per week was only once below 18, the loss during the week ended 11th March being 17. Up till last week the average loss had been over 25 ships per week. The total number of attacks (35) is also oom-parativ-ely low. In three previous weeks it was as low as 33; twice before it was 35;_ twice 36; and the rest of the weekly periods all showed over 40, while the average has been over 46.