THE WESTERN OFFENSIVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 28 September 1918, Page 6

THE WESTERN OFFENSIVE.

The third anniversary of the French offensive in the Champagne has been celebrated by an attack on an even greater scale than that brilliant operation; the initial success suggests that the Marshal's plan corresponds in purpose with that which Joffre entrusted to General Castelnau in 1915. The summer campaign of three years ago closed with an effort to drive the enemy out, of France. Simultaneously, the British First Army, under Sir Douglas Haig,

attacked in Artois between La

Bassee and Lens, and the French Fourth Army, under General Langle de Gary, in the Champagne, between Auberive and Ville-sur-Tourbe. It was intended that the German front should be broken in both sectors, and if success was achieved, that the offensive should be taken up along the whole front, and in, the words of Joffre's order would '" leave him neither truce nor rest until the!

achievement of victory" and " the liberation of our Fatherland." By reason of the numbers engaged and the vital strategic importance of the

sector, the attack in the Champagne was the principal weapon in this plan. The offensive began on September 25, and a second effort was made on September 29. It resulted in an actual breach in the last German position, but only on a front of about half a mile, and the gap in the " steel barrier" was closed. The offensive of 1915 waß confined to a front of 15 miles, and its results, though important, were indecisive. The new offensive has been opened on a front estimated at 54 miles, ex-' tending from east of Rheims across the battlefield of 1915, beyond the Forest of Argonne to the Meuse, north of Verdun. It thus involves in the allied campaign the great central sector between the battlefront of July and the scene of the American success in the Woevre in the middle of this month. Once again, French and American troops have swept over the elaborate German fortifications, and forced the

enemy into the open. Apparent

the . weight of the attack was thrown against the positions between the Argonne hills and the valley of the Meuse, and names

familiar as the scenes of Frent heroism in the spring of 1916 occi

again as the points from which the new armies of America sprang into the battle. The early reports of the operation describe an advance by the Americans ..of seven miles, while the' French in the Champagne have pressed forward four miles. The great offensive in the west has thus been resumed in a most auspicious way. At a moment when Germany's situation is gravely embarrassed by the desperate plight of two of her allies, Marshal Foch has struck a powerful blow at a vital point in her defence. Substantial success has been achieved at the outset; and while it is being rapidly exploited, a second blow has been delivered by the British forces in the Cambrai sector. The parallel to the double thrust of 1915 is thus complete.