Haig's Review.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13523, 6 October 1916, Page 2

Haig's Review.

ENEMY'S MORALE WEAKENED.

(Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, Oct. 4. Sir Douglas Haig's further despatch reviews the recent fighting. He pays tribute to the English and overseas troops far their unrelaxing pressure. They behaved with the discipline and resolution of veterans. It is now possible to give a fuller account of the fighting succeeding the advance on September 15. That advance, which won Courcelette, Martinpuich, the High Wood, Flers, and Bouleaux Wood, created several minor salients in our front, and it became necesary to advance our line between them. This was the task of the succeeding week. We carried the Quadrilateral work on September 18, a redoubt of considerable strength and tactical importance. It successfully resisted an attack on September 15, thereby limiting the extent of our successes on the right flank. The weather was wet and stormy between September 19 and 21, but we captured two lines of trenches on September 22, enlarging our advance between Flers and Martinpuich. We also gained ground eastward of Courcelette on September 23. By the evening of September 24 we completed the preliminaries fox the next stage of our advance on September 25. From Combles and Martinpuich the country is gently undulating and the villages in this area, surrounded by trees were natural strongholds fortified by every resource of modern engineering. We carried Les Boeufs and Morval on September 25, advancing our line over half a mile. The capture of Morval, combined with the French pressure from the south, virtually isolated Combles, which fell next day as the result of the combined Anglo-French movement. The capture of Gueudcourt, Thiepval, and the Zollern Redoubt followed, and a large amount of war material were taken. The Germans fought stubbornly, hoping to check our advance.

They have brought since September 15 seven new divisions and against and against the French five. The severe and prolonged struggle demanded great determination and courage on our part. Since the opening of the battle on July 1 we have taken prisoner 26,725 and engaged 8 divisions,- whereof 29 have been withdrawn, exhausted or broken. We hold the uplands, giving direct observation northward and north-eastward. The Germans have fallen back upon their fourth line behind the low.ridge westward of the Bapaume-Aransloy road. The importance of the quarter's offensive must not be judged by the distance advanced or the number of trenches taken, but by.its effect upon the enemy's strength in numbers, material, and morale. Our aircraft have shown the highest degree of the spirit of offensive. They patj|Ued regularly far behind the lines, and fought many air battles. For every enemy machine crossing our front two hundred British machines cross the German front.

A captured German corps report describes our aeroplane as surprisingly bold, and t 1 - "r work as of conspicuous skill, judgment, and daring.