OPEN WARFARE CONTINUES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16497, 24 March 1917, Page 8

OPEN WARFARE CONTINUES

STEADY BRITISH ADVANCE. APPROACHING ST. QUENTIN. - Australian and N.Z,"- Cablo Association.. (Received 1.15 a.m.) LONDON, March 23. ; The correspondent of the Morning Post at British headquarters states that open warfare, cavalry skirmishes, - and: occasional encounters with German cyclist patrols are still the feature of the British advance. The resistance by the German rearguard is curiously irregular, varying from the stubborn opposition ,of entrenched infantry east of Bapaume to mere glimpses of isolated detacjimenta moving among trees and in the villages west of St. Quentin. Although the British are driving in the rearguards, they have not yet obtained Contact with the main armies. The German Guards and machine-gunners still hold the Beugny-Ytres position astride the Cambrai road, but this consists of isolated entrenchments, as the enemy screen continues southwards of Sovengs more to the eastward. The angle is daily more pronounced, becoming thinner and more flexible, inviting increased cavalry pressure. Nowhere is the British advance more cautious than east of the Somme, where, however, it has reached Savy, close to St. Quentin, representing an advance of twenty miles. After the long confinement to tho trenches, the temptation to rush pell-mell over the fields and along the hard roads was almost irresistible. The men wanted at least to get within hearing distance of the guns, but it has mostly been a steady movement. A large portion of the ad- \ vance falls to tile cavalry patrols and cyclist scouts, who are far ahead scouring tho woodland gullies. The infantry and the guns go forward steadily along the roads as they are mended. Beugny is on the Cambrai road, about four miles east of Bapaume, and Ytres is 6£ miles south-east of Bapaume.