THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1918. PERILS OF THE RETREAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16927, 13 August 1918, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1918. PERILS OF THE RETREAT.

The , great events' in . Picardy are rapidly moving towards a crisis, and the t ext few days of the retreat will be full of peril for the enemy. A glanCe at the map' will show that - '.' • .'-v ■'■ • >-v; . the battlefield is bounded on the east and north 'by the ' tortuous course of the Somme,' which from Ham to Peronne flows > almost due north,; and at Peronne;, turns west towards Amiens, : forming a right angle. The allied advance has reached its maximum .depth at Chaulnes, which " lies seven miles west of a point on the Somme midway between;; Peronne and Ham. The advance at Chaulnes represents a considerable salient , thrust into the German front, and if it is pushed farther forward it will throw large forces of the/enemy against the bend of the river, ,in addition to threatening the retreat of.the Germans who ; are still' resisting fto r the south-west, about Roye . and Nesle.' A salient is always open to attacks on the flank, ; but the allied > thrust at Chaulnes is protected on the north by the Somme and on the south by the capture of the pivotal ; position of Montdidier. The: failure ;of the German• counter-attack at Lihons, which , was ; intended to /'■ ward the British off ■; Chaulnes, indicates that the enemy's reserves are not yet sufficiently '. strong ,to v restore stability, and there appears to be no reason to anticipate a . serious stand before the enemy reaches the Somme from Peronne to. Ham. If he ;■ ; succeeds in withdrawing his forces ? north and sast ' across the river he will have emerged 1 from a delicate situation with credit, but his ; difficulties in evacuating without serious losses the Roye salient and the Somme quadrilateral will be of the gravest. The most important crossings of the river are at Peronne and; Brie, and it has been reported that the bridges at both points have been destroyed. If allied airmen and artillery can accomplish anything like a continuous,interruption of the river communications, the enemy will lose 'leavily before he succeeds in withdrawing from the Somme bend. v; f ;' ' • •

When the Germans are across the Somme they will be on the first natural defensive line they have reached in their retreat and the only one in front of the Hindenburg fortifications. The enemy line will then run along the eastern bank of the Somme to Voyennes, near Ham. At this point it will leave the Somme and be continued almost due south along the canal to Noyon. A readjustment of the front north-west of Soissons would permit the enemy to carry his front east from Noyon along the heights overlooking the wide and marshy valley of the Oise, then along the Ailette to the Chemin des Dames, practically on . the line which withstood the French offensive of April last year. Such a front would be defensible, but its weakness would be that from Peronne to Noyon it would, depend entirely on such protection as the river and canal afford. There are no heights in all this region north of the Lassigny 'massif and the forest of St. Gobain. The Germans are retreating over undulating country, where the eminences are isolated, >; slight, and gradual. The rivers wind at will over a plain on which . there? are no natural features to confine them and the roads run straight from town .to

town,' as if drawn by a ruler. The Somme ; Canal line is; by no means ideal, 'but it is the best offering in front of . the . old Hindenburg front. The difficulty of defending the country over which the British are now , sweeping is best illustrated b'the ebb and flow of battle across iu Twice it has been the scene a great retreat, for the simple at sufficient reason that the Germans could find no line worth defending till they reached St. Quentin, and the British could find no security till they reached the front their reserves had prepared from Albert to east of Amiens. They did, indeed, propose to stand on the Peronne-Noyon line, but for some reason which has not been fully explained they were unable to do so. It remains to be seen whether the Germans will prove more fortunate. If they are unable to prevent the British crossing the Somme they can expect no haven till they reach the Hindenburg line, and the Allies will reconquer most of the old battlefield of the Somme by a great outflanking movement and stand almost where they stood on the fateful morning of March. 21. There is no warrant for assuming that because the Germans retreated in the spring of last year without serious, loss they can do so again. The conditions are . entirely , dissimilar, and only the scene of the retreat is unchanged. The retirement of 1917 was a deliberate strategic movement planned for months, covered against accident by every precaution the German staff could devise, and favoured by mists and wet weather. This is a precipitate retreat, which was neither foreseen nor provided against, and in which surprise and preparation are both with the pursuers and not with the pursued. The weather is against neither transport nor observation, and the movement is taking place south of the Somme .battlefield,where there is no infinite ramification of trenches and the country is not pitted with shellholes. The German retreat is in no sense, different from the British retreat of March, although so far it is on a smaller scale. .The movement of March was costly enough to the British in guns and prisoners, and the Germans may suffer just as much before their line becomes stable. , Already they have lost 35,000 prisoners, which, added to 40,000 left behind in the Marne salient,' makes a total of 75,000 in less than a month. Further disaster threatens the enemy at every step, and he will not escape severe punishment if the devotion of the pursuing troops and the genius of a great commander , can prevent »it. - /