RAPID PROGRESS

Evening Star, Issue 16822, 26 August 1918, Page 6

RAPID PROGRESS

CHEMIN-DES-DAMES* IN DANGER. THE ANCRE CROSSED. ASTRIDE THIEPYAL RIDGE. RUSSIA. [By Ceiticds.] Both the British and the French offensives are making substantial progress, General Mangin's advance north oi the Aisne being particularly successful. The reported crossing of tho Oise lias not bsen confirmed,, consequently we must treat with caution a further report from Paris that French patrols are across trie Ailetta River at some points. It is improbable that the Ailette will be crossed yet. But the French may be said to lino tho southern banks of the Oise and the Ailette, from Sempigny, just south of Novon, almost to the Soissons-Amzy 3e Chateau railway, a distance in a beeline of nearly 20 miles. They have crossed the Divettc. and are closing in. upon Novon. Therefore, the reports that the ene-mv are evacuating Novon are very probable, and the news of its occupation by the French should not be long delayed. It is time also for the enemy to evacuate the Vesle line. There are reports to that effect, and the Americans west of Fismes have carried their line to the highway on a front of about 600 yds. This may be the beginning of a Gorman retirement not merolv behind the Aisne. but behind the Ailette, or at least to the Chemin-dcs-Damcs. It is claimed that General Mangin has turned both the Aisne-Vesle line and the line of the Cheium-dcs-Dames. To press back an enemy's flank _ is noquite the same thing as turning it; bu. the French are only about a couple of miles south of the Ailette near Creey-au Mont, and this moans that the German flank is bent back to a right angle_ along the road leading due north from Soissons. The eastern end of tho Ohemm-des-Dr.mes is exposed to a flank attack _ by General Mangin, and if the German withdrawal from the Vesle is not prompt such an attack should soon follow, m conjunction with a blow by the French and Americans across the Vesle. rheChemin-des-Dames is a formidable position to carry bv a frontal attack. It runs northeastward, from Soissons for nearly 10 miles, then turns and runs eastward alone; the summit of an ugly ridge at n distance of four to five miles north of the Aisne. Its previous capture cost the French a terrible struggle, but they finally succeeded, and drove the Germans down' the far side and back over the Ailette. At the present rate of progress they will soon occupy the old line which they held before the'opening of the German drive in March. During four days tho French armies have captured 52 towns and villages. ■HIE I'.liTH*!! ADVANCE. The successes of the British armies have been hardlv second to those of the French. We aiv attacking on a 30-mile front from Libons to Mercatet, about four miles south of Arras. Ixwal attacks extend even further north, and the best way to boil down the mass of details to a manageable compass will Im. to take the line from the southern end and describe the net progress made. Our right wing may be said to extend from Lihons through Bray-sur-Sommo lo Albert, on ihe Ancre. Along this front we axe attacking heavily, in order to force back the enemy's left flank and render their strong positions along tho Ancre in tho centre tro hot to hold. To prevent this the enemy are heavily counter-attacking. South of the Somme we captured Herleville- ami Ohiiignolles, and cwied our line to Chuigne. which we also captured. Wo carried, in addition, live wood* between the villages and the Somme. Between the Somme and Albert the Australians have captured Bray, and the positions in the neighborhood ; while en their left the London and Eastern Counties' troops carried progress along the high ground south-east of Albert, capturing several thousand prisoners. In the centre the German line alone; the Ancre is hacked up by some formidable clumps of hills, notably the Po/ieres Rid go in tho neighborhood of Thiepval. But the position of their centre has- now become very salient owing to our progress on both flanks, and we have crossed the Ancre along its whole length. Thk-pva-1 is reported as surrounded ; and Sir Douglas Haig states that <mi" troops are again astride the ridge, and advancing eastward, having captured o»ntalmaisoi)\ to the south, and advanced to the outskirts of Le Sars, on the Albert-Bapaumo road, to the north. It it- on the left flank where most progress is being made. Hero we have captured numerous villages aixl advanced our front to a line running through Warlencourt and Grevillers to Avesnes, on the very outskirts of Bapaume, Thence the line runs northward by Sapignies and Behagnies, on tho Bapawne-Arras road, and thence north-eastward by Moiy, St. Lcger, and Oroisill-oa to Henin-sur-Cojeul. It was the Now Zealand division which, northward of Miraumont, captured Loupart Wood, Orvi.lle.rs, and Biefvellers, and reached Avesnes. Our left flank ifi now nearly four miles eastward of tho A-rras-Albert railway. Eastward of Arra9 wo carried a section of the German line to the north-east of Fampoux, on. the northern bank of the Searpe; while north of the La Bassee Canal wo captured the old British lino to the east and north-east of Givenchy, and progressed info the German lines. We also captured Neuf Berquin, Over 18,000 prisoners have been taken and: some guns, and the number of prisoners is rapidly mounting. RUSSIA. General Horvat, some time ago described as the uncrowned King of Siberia, and who is at the head of the Provisional Government of that country, cables from Harbin that there has Keen heavy fighting on the ITsuri front. The Japanese participated, but the Cossacks and the Czechoslovaks bore tho brunt of the fighting. Ho declares that the Allies aro withdrawing, boing otithrmmbered: and, as we hoard on Saturday from Viadivostoek itself that the allied right wing would have to retire, the statement is jrrobablo. But General Horvat adds the significant news that Japanese roinforcements are stemming tha onset of the Bofeheviks. That gives ground for hope that Japanese reinforcements will not bo limited to 7,000 men. Monitors on Lake Khanka are worrying the allied left flank, -and the message addt» "This object-lesson is the result of fch* allied policy of sending troops in driblets." Fortunately, the fact that the Allies nro obviously awaking to the dangers of that policy is an indication that it is not likely to be continued. General Eamsky and General Evert, the latter being the general who commanded the central group of Russian armies before the Russian collapse, are s:iid to have reached Vladivostock, and offered their services to General Horvat This is not improbable, so far as General Russky is concerned, because he was expelled from Russia, during the days of Kerensky's Government. Senator Reed, speaking on tho American Man-power Bill, declared that the United States ought to send immediately half a million men to Russia. It would be a better policy, however, to send those men to Franco, and give Japan a. correspondingly increased representation in the East, and take the fullest advantage of her geographical position, thus economising transport. It is declared' by the 'Fall Mall Gazette' that the Germans are rapidly pushing the railway in the north of Finland to Petehenga, on the Arctic coast, with the object, among other things, of establishing a submarine base. M this is true, it throws a light upon the direction of the promised German advance against the Mnrman Railway. A railway line tuns through, Finland along the shore of the Gulf oi Bothnia to Tornea, at the head oi tho gulf, 'and on the boundary line between Finland and S\ve<len. Thence the line is

continued north-east to Rovaniemi, about 180 miles from Kandalaksha, at the head of the gulf of the same name, an arm of the White Sea. Now, the Murman Rail-wa-y runs south, via. Kandalaksha, from Kola, a.nd it is evident that if the Germans can, puih the railhead from Bx>vaiiietni an additional 100 miles or so nearer to Kandalaksha, that will be the most promising lino '!!•• which to cut the Allies off from Petoxgrad. ft would be striking at the communications of any allied force which might advance southward towards the Russian capita], and the mere threat might prove sufficient to paralyse such, an enterprise. Th© main difficulty the Germans will have to face in extending the railway is the swampy and -wild nature of the country : but, m view of the feats of railway building already .accomplished during the -war it would be rash to that it cannot bo -done in time to be useful to the enemy. "FULL OF GAS." A correspondent describes Albert as "full of gae." There is more in this phrase than meets the eye. The gas in question will bo the deadly " mustard gas ' of which we hear so much in the cables. This gas is in the form of a volatile liquid, which evaporates into the form of ps, but slowly, lingering from two to four days. It is said to be so deadly that it rots the gas masks worn by the soldiers, and if inhaled breaks down the tissue of the lungs like blotting paper. The liquid has a corrosive effect on njiything it touches, and the gas is all tho more deadly from tho fact that it lias only a faint and ncri disagreeable smell. When a town, i village or wood has been heavily bom- j bardetl with gas shells, everywhere becomes isoaked with the liquid, and the fumes are given off steadily for (Lava afterwards It' is thus which makes positions thus treated so difficult 'to occupy, and this is the inner meaning of the phrase "full of gas." Obviously such a factor cuts two ways. When tho attackers heavily shell a position with mustard gas shells, they make it difficult for the defenders to hold, hut they also make it difficult for themselves to occupy. Generallv speaking, this difficulty is met by drenching with gas the strongest points j of the enemy's position, and avoiding these points during the attack. Thousands or tons of the liquid are being used by both sides already. According to an article in the ' New York Times,' the Germans used 7,000 tons of tho liquid in an attaok lasting 48 hours —an credible but not an impossible figure. America is said to be preparing to turn it out in thousands of tons, so the Germans will probably soon me tho day on which they introduced it.