THE YPRES RIDGE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 155, 28 December 1918, Page 2

THE YPRES RIDGE

AN EPIC OF 1918

THE GERMANS' LAST ASSAULT.

Monday, 29th April, 1918, w«i»'a Mon- j day to remember, tu> this Informative and illuminating appreciation of the facta by the Observer »how«i— In a mantlet little- realised, the last week has been one of the most important in the whole war, and one of the most encouraging for the Allies. I<V the British and French and Belgian armies last Monday was a very memor* abl« day. They won a magnificent de-> feneivc battle on a Kcale which, in any former war, would have made it stand ouf. as one of the landmarks of military history. . ' On the hill front round Ypres, but chiefly oil tho ridges jUst south or that spectral ruin, they met- tho heaviest on' slaught yet made by the Germans in the 1 north. They not only repulsed and beat it down at all poirit3 ; they shattered it with su-cll Ices as may Well give even the German Higher Command furiously t6 think. Last week's great test "h of the best augury for the final failure of Hindehburg and Ludendorff in thi« campaign and for tha defensive triumph of the forces under General Fock All authoritative military judgment still regards it as certain that the enemy has yet to attempt his crowning stroke. Iti all probability this present May will be the decisive month. No One has the right to assume that the danger is over, whether for the Channel ports or for Amiens. But there never were so many reasons for a cool conviction that, as the Germans fa<4?d last Monday in Flanders, they will fail to the end. THE ENEMY QN KEMMEL. The enemy had made parallel onslaughts on the Amiens and • Ypfres fronts. He had failed absolutely ..In his renewed bid for his main southern objective. He had advanced on the northern hill front. He stood south of Ypres, within two miles of the ruins. He had stormed. Kemmel Hill. The next ahd serious question was what he could do with it. - Would he break onward for five or. 6ix miles through Locre to Poperinghie directly in the rear of Ypres, thus making our whole historic salient untenable and opening in the next event a menace to Dunkirk? Would he concentrate on an attempt to carry the whole chain of 'heights and ridges stretching westward to Mont dcs Cats with CSssel itself beyond? ' \ • .. This was what the Germans determined to attempt with their 1 'whole strength. Dropping the Amiens objective -for a moment, they summoned up a mass of men and guns and a swarm of flying craft for a crowning effort to 'flatten out the Ypres salient and to break onwards from Kemmel Hilt towards Poperinghe and Cassel, whence their heavy artillery in due course would command the whole 20 miles further to Dunkirk.and the sea, while even Calais would be only 30 miles away.THE WOftST BOMBABDMENT , The new onslaught was heralded by the worst and Widest ■ bombardment that had yet pounded the Allies' northern Jront;. .The .storm of ajssatilt broke ""0 ,:; : three ■Allies.;'.'. ■■•'•'■■'-■" ..»' -.."., '-•. ■ .■ ■' ,'p Wo follow the. action downward from the north.. The. Belgians were assailed by two divisions j'but again they were ti'ue to 'the great fighting form they had "recently-iishownioiv the ;Yser. At Langemarck. they, ..were first forced back for a codple of hundred yards, but returned to .the charge with 'irresistible; spirit, and flung the enemy out of every yard he had gained. Southward of Ypres the brittle swayed all day upon a 10-mile front. To shatter it,, if possible, the enemy employed, no fewer Ulan .eleven divisions ■ against three of burs and two of. the .French.. The odds were more- than two to one. The Sritish sustained the fight from La Glytte—-a- mile from.the under slopesof Kemmel--to Zillebeke' Lfike. which is just south-east of Ypres. Nowhere that day did our men yield one inch, but held -their lines, piling up Cerman casualties before them. Out new drafts'.were worthy ...of-the veterans*. Our. men stood like: granite) and did more. Nowhere, was the. grapple fiercer, than at Ridge AVood, near- the Dickebush pool, and less thaii a couple of miles from the northern fall of the Messines tableland. The Germans sought to come on in serried weight With fixed bayonets, by.no means their darling arm. It Was a- fight like Delville Wood. The enemy j was repulsed again and again, mown do\Vn with riile fire and Lewis guns. : . But when that work was sufficiently done our men took the Roche at his offer, fell on hini with' bayonets against bayohets, and in hand-to-hand fighting swept him away. To complete the British .part of it,- let us take a more distant) corner, passing, ■ qvet for the moment the French, ;who were in between, Metel'en was held by Australian veterans. Ts.it necessary to say that Meteren continued to be held? But nothing was more brilliant than the exploits of our French comrades guarding the range of heights just north and west of KetnmeL At first they seemed in danger. Once.more they lost Locre, which has changod hands so many times. They^.yeve pushed back upon the lower slopes. of. Scherpeilberg and Mont Rouge. But they only Went back for a springl. Eapidly ci-gariised, the counter attack came on, and the enemy went down before it Soon our Allies were amidst the debris of Loere -again. By nightfall not only, was it in their hands, they advanced fully a mile on the Dranoutre-road beyond the line they had held when the battlo began on Monday morning.•- Never did blue and khaki do a better day"s fighting together. GATES OF THE CHANNEL PORTS. .When darkness wrapped the field, the enemy had suffered heavier'losses than on any previous day of the northern struggle, and had jess than nothing to show. He will try again* but for three weeks he has been trying, and apart from the capture of Kemmel, which has as yet proved useless in hisjiartds. he has made no way on the rbads'to Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne. The gates -.f the' Chan nel ports'are strong, adds the Observer German military experts declare that the Ypres and Arras positions are the pillars of the Allies' defence north of the Sommej and that no large results can. be expected until one or the otiier is thrown down or both are. So far, both pillars have stood immovable. Wo shall see. Let us-record that "the Allies' flying craft have been wonderful They have tipped the epuivßletit of ...wagon loads of bombs upon the German ranks—especially on Kemmel Hill—and since the Battle of St.. Queniin they have been destroying or disabling eiietoy machines at an average rate of over a couple of hundred a. week. This is the .fourth,great struggle which the site of\'pres has witnessed. The first epic iri its importance Was decided in November, 1914, when the German march upon Calais was stopped. The secon.il was foitght m April, 1915, when by their treacherous use ,of gas the Germans drew very near to the city, but ; were Iti the 1 end checked by the magnificent valour, of the Canadians. .. .Ii) the tliird battle or series of battles last year we .were the assailants', aiid but. for' the stormy -weather which arrested oin- advance we might then have dealt, the enemy:, a f»t*l blow -