THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17592, 24 September 1917, Page 4

THE CAMPAIGNS.

Theue has been muck heavy lighting on the Ypres front since Thursday, when the British, in a one-day attach, broke down the enemy’s defensive system from the Ypres-Comines canal to Dangemarck and achieved an advance

tip to a mile in depth. Tho correspondents attach considerable importanco „ to tho battle. They say that the Germans had worked out a now defensive

method, involving the use of numerous fortified machine-gun posts in tho first, lino, while tho reserves were massed •in the rear, out of the reach of the 'artillery, for counter-attacks. Tho

theory, apparently, jvas that even if the attack succeeded, in driving tho de-

fenders from the first lino tho reserves '•would catch the British before they could consolidate and would recover tho j ground, inflicting heavy casualties in 'tho process. But tho battle did not jworh out in that way. Tho machine-gun posts certainly proved troublesome, but the British barrage proved sufficient to

rlcoep tho Germans at a distance until jtho ground was consolidated, and when ’the counter-attacks came, as they did come in rapid succession throughout the Best day or so, they were beaten off. ffho whole of the ground won on Thursday was retained. It is not tho depth ©f the advance that counts in such an action. Thursday’s battle was an emphatic warning to tho enemy that his best tacticians and engineers have not been able to devise an impregnable deference, and tho result of it will help the enemy to realise that lie is a beaten side. The British fight with the conviction that sooner or litter thero will ho a break on this front in Flanders, and probably the Germans liavo that conviction, too; , and if the enemy once grasps tho fact that liis cause is hope-

jess the break will not long bo delayed. Elsewhere in /the west thero has been piuch artillery work. Th© Russians hav© suffered another

sharp reverse on the Dvina, and tho fctermans have captured tho Jakobstadt bridgehead. The enemy claims that the Russians abandoned positions west of the Dvina on a front of twenty-five miles, losing fifty guns in th© process.

Tho development was not unexpected. In view of tho collapse of the Russians on the Riga front it was impossible to suppose that the divisions south would be uniformly reliable, and it seemed to bo only a question of timo before tho enemy would launch an attack on a wide front and discover a weak point. The abandonment of Jakobstadt may now b 0 followed by just such a demoralisation, as occurred in the Russian divisions after the loss of tho Uxkull crossing, and in that case the enemy will bo permitted to cross the Dvina, compelling the abandonment of positions lower down and threatening the turning of the Dvinsk lines. The Russians ought to be able to hold the river line, even though the bridgehead is in the hands of the enemy, but there is at least tho possibility, if not the probability, that tho unfortunate business at Uxkull and Riga will bo repeated.