TRENCH WARFARE

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 137, 9 June 1917, Page 7

TRENCH WARFARE

ADDRESS AT OFFICERS' IN.

STITUTE.

An intensely interesting address on "French Warfare on the Western Front" was given.at the Wellington Officers' Institute last evening by .Major G E. Andrews, N.Z.S.C. . Colonel G. F. C. Campbell, V.D., presided over a good attendance of officers. Major Andrews said that the strategists held that trench warfare was only a phase of the war, but they would agree with him that it was a very long one. They seemed to be unable to extricate themselves from trench warfare.. They had not been able to get the Hun properly on the run, and pursue him in open fighting as many of them would like to see. Trenches were really a form of fortification; for fortifications were divided into threo classes—permanent, temporary, and field fortifications. Permanent fortifications were built in time of peace to protect harbours, lines of communications, etc. ; the temporary ones were built by civilians behifid the lines as "prepared positions" to fall bafck upon, etc. ; while the field fortifications were the hasty entrenchments carried out in the presence of the enemy and possibly under his gunfire. These hasty field-works, however, were often developed into more permanent works, and then- roads and railways would be built up to them, guns and so forth would be brought tfp, and thus they would gather, strength for another assault on the enemy's works. When they succeeded in seizing ground from the enemy, they would have to dig in again, carry on their roads and railways, bring up their big gums, etc., and so prepare for the next assault. The Germans in the present fighting had the advantage of all three forms of fortifications. They could rise the permanent fortifications that had beep hujlt in time of peace; they had civilian* working behind the firing-line preparing positions for them to fall back to-? and as they fell back they also made i»ee of hasty field-works. The Allies, on the other hand, could only make use of field works as they advanced. So long, therefore, as the Germans were prepared to fall back deliberately to prepared positions, the Allies —unless, of course, they could actually smash and demoralise the Huns —could only advance slowly, a comparatively short distance at a/time; because, of course, the Allies had to wait for flieir guns to be brought up again before they would have the necessary weight to attack the strong German positions. Ever since the Battle of the Maine, the enemy had. been falling back in that way on prepared positions, and very strong and well-chosen their positions were. That was why the .Allies had such a tough proposition to meet.