THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, AUG. 12, 1918. THE WESTERN ARENA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 214, 12 August 1918, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, AUG. 12, 1918. THE WESTERN ARENA.

The Allied attack under Sir Douglas Haig is developing south of the Somme in such a way as must have more than fulfilled the most sanguine expectations. To-day we have a perfect flood of cable messages, which, owing to the variety of channels through which they come and to some little confusion in dates of origin and dates of dispatch, take a good deal of sorting out. In addition to this, events fortunately continue to move with such rapidity that comment made now may be rendered stale before our cable-day closes. It is therefore possible only to deal broadly with the position as it stands at the time of writing, when only the overnight messages and such as have reached us early to-day are available as raw material. The first significant feature is that the success attending the initiation of the offensive north of Montdidier induced its speedy extension south, or, rather, south-east, of that town. Here, too, the Allied forces were not to be denied. and as a result Montdidier was rendered untenable and this, the great south-western buttress of the enemy salient created by his March advance from the line between Arras and St. Quentin, is again in French hands. This, in turn, has justified the Allied command in still further enlarging the line of attack, which according to latest advices now reaches to a point within four or five miles of the Oise- Here the French have, at Elincourt-St. Marguerite,; crossed the little river Matz, on which General von Hutier’s Mont-didier-Novon offensive of last June was finally halted. Already the French have recovered an appreciable slice of the country which their brilliant counter-attacks against von Hutier still left in his hands. In all probability we shall have early news of the Allied attack stretching itself right down to the Oise, with an immediate view to pushing the enemy still further up the Oise from Compiegne. von Hutier’s prime objective,' which he failed to reach only by some six or seven miles. Beyond this' it is, perhaps, safest not to pro-j phecy. The obvious suggestion that occurs, however, is that, given further success in the present movement, the active fighting front may eventually be made to include the twenty-nule, section between the Oise and the Aisne. thus giving a continuous battle-line from the Ancre to Reims. Such a development is. however, in the lap of the gods and in the head of General Foch.

Reverting to operations in progress. the AJhed forces between Montdidier and the Ancre have made quite a notable advance, most marked in the centre ot the line, which now takes the shape of a fairly sharp curve, a point about midway between Montdidier and Rove being the southern extremity, Chaulnes, j ist itpoiud i« cantuiiU tne most eastern point, and Dermincourt the noitbini < x limit'. By the time this reaches the reader s eve this description may. of course —indeed, v.-e trust will- be considerably disturbed. It will thus be seen that, despite the forward movement on the line southward of Montdidier. the Allies are creating for themselves a pronounced salient position, the Germans having succeeded in fairly well holding up the Allied attempts to advance in the sector between the Somme and the Ancre. where such of the high ground as remains in their hands is being most stubbornly contested. However, the capture of Moriancourt, the recapture of Chipilly, and —reported as we write—the taking of Epinehem, still further east along the Somme, all point to the enemy now being gradually pushed out of his elevated positions onto the lower ground, where resistance will be less effective. The significance of the capture of Chaulnes is emphasized in the cables, as it is an important railway junction, and the latest reported capture also indicates that the French are now within three or four miles of Roye, an equally important road radiant. The actual joss of the one of these positions and the, domination of the other by the French gunners must necessarily create further confusion in the enemy’s transport, already, judging by the large quantities of war material being taken by the Allies and being destroyed by the Germans, in a quite sufficiently disorganised state. It is. however, perhaps safest to discount the press generalisations, on this head, and take our impressions from such definite figures as are, given in the official dispatches, which are quite satisfactory. For those who are following the war on the map, it will be seen that the Allies have, at certain points, passed the old line of July, 1916, whence the Anglo-French offensive drove the enemy across the south-to-north stretch of the Somme which precedes its bend westward at Peronne. Suggestions that are quite likely of realization are nowbeing ventured that the enemy intends again to seek the advantage of the river’s protection, but there will probably be a good deal of fightin" ere this intention is carried out, for it would necessarily involve a very substantial retirement between the Somme and the Ancre. While we are almost glutted with the volume and variety of the news from the new offensive front, that on which our attention was almost entirely fixed last week is correspondingly neglected by the cablemen. Indeed the only specific incident reported from it has reference to the capture by the Americans of Fismettes, an over-river suburb of Fismes, on the Vesle. It cannot, of course, be thought for a moment that this is the only event worthy of note that has occurred on the SoissonsReims line, where, up to the opening of Sir Douglas Haig’s big operation, fierce fighting was in progress all along the Vesle river sector. Reuter’s correspondent, however, sends a lengthy message detailing the situation here as it stood a day or two ago and detailing, too, the difficulties which have to be surmounted before an unwilling enemy can be driven from the triangle between the Vesle and the Aisne. According to this authority the chief -development of the Allied attack in this region is likely to take place in the neighbourhood north of Reims, where his railway communications are most closely threatened. Meanwhile a good deal of hard fighting, that would command more attention but for the bigger things in progress further south, is going on in the big salient southwest of Ypres. Here the Allies have been quick to detect the enemy movement designed to improve his line, and are keeping up a constant pressure in response to. any sign of German activity., There is as yet, of course, nothing in the'

way of any generally aggressive undertaking, but a constant harassing that must materially interfere with the German plans, be they in the way of holding their present line, or be they in the way of retirement. As a specific result the enemy menace of Hazebrou-ek, like that of Amiens and Compiegne, is being very substantially modified. The only other symptoms of activity on the western front are to be found in the section stretching eastward from Reims through tne Champagne, on the line where the Germans launched an abortive attack intended only as a diversion—simultaneously with the revival of the more intense effort in the Aisne-Marne salient. Here. the enemy is responsible for what little movements are taking place, these being confined to raiding adventures apparently of no particular meaning. On the long stretch of front thence to the Swiss border there seems to be no- sign of anybreaking of the long period of almost complete quiescence that has now held for months. Thus, taking the whole western theatre in review, the conditions are such as to be entirely hopeful for the Allies, and to give the German High Command serious cause for hard thinking. At the same time, while we have doubtless got the Germans, through the Crown Prince’s over confidence, into a very serious tangle for the time being, we must not think that they are yet quite incapable of unravelling it, given a little time. But we can and may now say- that any blow they may still be capable of striking wilt be very much weakened by the change in relative conditions, and that our period of tensest anxiety has happily passed away. Such re verses, if any, as we may henceforth sustain—and there may yet be some serious enough in local application —can be borne with a fair assurance of their being speedily retrieved.