PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9042, 13 May 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

‘ More startling news from Flanders. This time the Gormans have come into the fight with an attack from their side, the one for which they were yesterday reported as having concentrated large forces and a. heavy park of artillery. While this was preparing, the Allies delivered their blow at the Gorman trenches in the neighbourhood of Arras. The front of their attack was five and twenty miles, as reported yesterday, the same length of front as the British held at Mons in the historic August of 1914. To-day this attack has'been maintained and widened, so far as we read the message, and during its progress the Germans have crashed into the Allied lino in Flanders, further north, at two points— Ypres and Nieuport, the latter not far from the edge of the Sea. And the flame of battle burns for something over 70 miles. Two, great parallel tides of War, running opposite ways on the same line of battle, swirling with desperate fury. It is a battle unprecedented in the history of war. The Allies are thrusting to pierce the enemy s line; the enemy is striking to break and turn the Allied position on the right.

The news is by no means prompt, for to-day wa are realising what began on the German side on Saturday last, and what was already in progress from the side of the Allies on that day.

The most desperate of the battle was again in the Ypres section, which the enemy made his main point of attack to force his way into the coast country and send his hordes through to Calais with a rush. H© began with salvos from his great gun -at Dixmudo, the same that astonished Dunkirk the other day with that “bolt from the blue,” which destroyed a few innocent lives in the old French seaport. That, was, it is now evident, a trial of the great weapon set up with such patient labour bv the men of the Kriipp Foundry. This time it was the prelude ■to the colossal assault as carefully arranged as the setting up of the great gun. The design was to demoralise the Allies by dropping huge shells over twenty miles in their rear. But the Allies were not to be demoralised. Their artillery faced the great gun and silenced it.

The main assault at Ypros was helped by another on the extreme right of the Allies at Nieuport, close by the sea. This time there were apparently no ships to punish the attempt on the Allied line, after the manner which proved so effective in the autumn when that part of the line was also attacked in the historic attempt to break through at Tpres. The Allies frustrated the attack nevertheless. They clayed off a fine “ruse de guerre” on the advancing enemy. When his infantry advanced on their line, the Allied troops withdrew their centre in feint of flight, their wings standing firm. When the enemy rushed into the abandoned trenches with loud shouts of victory, the wings turned upon them, raking them from both

sides with devastating fire, and tho centre facing about fell upon them with the bayonet. There was a bitter struggle for a moment, ending of course in the only possible way. The enemy was driven out, thrown on the beach, and compelled to abandon his design, retreating in confusion, leaving great numbers of dead, and wounded behind.

One recognises in this manoeuvre the hand of the French General Foch, who commands the Left wing of the Allies in nanders and Artois. A noted writer on military tactics, whose books have been studied by soldiers in all armies, who had trained vast numbers of his country’s army, he went into the battle of the Marne at the head of the army, occupying the section of the French line covering tho upper reaches of the Ourcq There ho proved that his power of promptly using his knowledge was equal to the knowledge itself, and it was to his brilliant strategy, which forced two of the German armies to turn and retreat with enormous losses—a feat which imposed greatly increased speed of retreat on the whole German, line—that much of the great victory on the Marne was due. He was acclaimed as a genius emerged from the war, and when the Allied line was extended from Soissons to the sea about the time of the fall of Antwerp, ho was placed by General Joffre in command of the extension, which has done such creat work since. In this brilliant repulse of the extreme German Right at Nieuport, one recognises his tactical skill. He is, We may add, one of tho many fine tacticians who have emerged on the side of the Allies, whose presence in the field is a good guarantee against the nightmare of "stalemate” which has oppressed the, pessimists of the Allied world for the last six months.

While this brilliant feat was in progress demolishing his left attack, the German general was bombarding tho Allies opposite his centre at Ypres. It was the work of tho great park of artillery he had brought up, and the bombardment of those concentrated guns was tremendous. It is described as the heaviest of the war, which, if correct, is saying much.

Oa this, the first day of the battle —of the. second tide of the battle, we ought to say—the Germans, so far as we can unravel the various accounts, were prevented by a mighty wind from using their diabolical asphyxiating gas. They had to rely on their bombardment, and what that was, and how fiercely it was replied to by our guns, we are shown by the brief narrative of a wounded officer, who described the pandemonium of the gigantic contest and the frightful losses suffered by both sides. He was unable, when brought out of the fight, to say which way it was going. We who have the various accounts of the combat are more fortunate, for we have the results. . • » •. ■ . „ ■When the German general judged that his batteries, had done their work with sufficient devastation he hurled his infantry forward in the usual massed formation. The British troops, after withstanding the guns with amazing courage and coolness, had been forced to retire. Nothing could live under that tempest of fire so accurate and searching. The advancing enemy followed them to their second line, and then met his usual fate. The rifles of the incomparable British infantry, their machine-guns, and the shrapnel of the well-served, formidable artillery swept his lines away. He sent on line after line, with disastrous results. One of these reached the trenches, and the bayonets of the infantry gave it stern forbiddance with the dash and vim which the obedient soldiers of the Kaiser have been so well schooled to know, the artillery completing their destruction. Thus the first line was regained, and the first two days of the battle ended. Of the division between the two it is difficult to speak, for the accounts are confused in their generality and overlapping. But this that we. have described is their general sense.

On the third day the enemy, who had made counter-attacks to stop the driving .back forced upon him, made another most furious counter. This time ho used the gas to herald his ad-, vance. And this time he had the task of trying to regain 1 ground that he had lost of his own as the result of the two first days of the fight. Marshal French reports that he “countered again” east of Ypres on the Menin road. tie began with-a bombardment, which this time failed to make our trenches untenable. He followed it up with his gas clouds. Bui the British were supplied with respirators. They stood their ground, they made nothing of the gas, they fired steadily with methodic precision, and kept up a fire of all arms on the masses of the advancing infantry. The Marshal reports that the enemy was literally mowed down. The third day’s battle was over, and the unconquerable soldiers of Britain were in possession of positions in advance of their’original line, which they had taken from the enemy. ■

It was in this fighting, probably, that Anthony Wilding fell, as a soldier wishes to fall, on the field of honour. He had brought renown to his country in other fields, showing the world the mottle and pith that are made in New Zealand. In the field of war it was not granted to him to rise to the same height, but it W** granted to him, os to many others, to show that the same mettle and pith are in that field equal to the most arduous task that can hr set before the soldier. A sketch of his career is given elsewhere. We need therefore only emphasise the point which that career has brought into prominence. Throwing himself into the great cause of his country and his Empire, upholding Bight against unprincipled Might, he had risen by his bravery and merit to captain’s rank. He had fought in the field and he had found time to make a beginning in the brilliant work of aviation, in which his great courage, his firm nerves, his keen sight, and his cool judgment promised him a great career. Going back to the field, he took his place among the soldiers, whose glory will never fade, and he died bravely in the tremendous battle of Flanders, a worthy son of New Zealand. There are many such, and among them he leaves several brothers who are with the colours, ono in camp to-day at Trentham, waiting for the day when he will be privileged to carry on the work of his elder. To the parents of Anthony Wilding, New Zealand offers the deepest sympathy for their loss, and the highest congratulations on the glory he has won by the manliness of his patriotism.

How is tho other tide of this great battle of 70 miles? We have fewer details of it to-day. Enough there is to show' that it also was a desperate fight: also did it come to victory. Not decisive, as yet. But tho enemy has lost ground, which if measured by the strength of the positions wrested from him by our gallant Allies of France, with the impetuous and enduring valour of their race, recalling the work they did under tho banner of the greatest of all the masters of war, must bo regarded as very considerable. And these substantial gains have been all consolidated in spite of the fierce counter-attacks of the indefatigable enemy. , o • • , In both these tides of war, the strength, efficiency, tenacity, courage, and enterprise of the Allied arms have ■ shone conspicuously, and their heartiness for war has come out of most tremendous battle undiminished. What strikes one chiefly is the great contrast with the fights of the autumn in these regions. Then the Allies were purely on tho defensive. They were content to hold their ow'n then, and the holding at Ypres especially, was tho nearest thing. There the line was thinner than any line that ever had faced masses. It held by brilliant tactics, of which their great commander tho Marshal is a master, but it held also only by the skin of its teeth, with not a man in tho reserve left to strengthen the defence. This time the fighting was hard, and tho assault equally tremendous, perhaps more tremendous. But the defence was full as well as firm; the reserves were abundant, and there was no inferiority in the artillery calibres. The gas was the new thing, and the gas already is conquered. Moreover, a great proportion of the men were new troops, and they well sustained the reputation made from Mons to the Marne, and from the Marne to the Aisne, and from the Aisne to Ypres. Tho facts . open out a glorious vista of campaigning for tho coming summer.

Praise from Sir lan Hamilton is praise indeed, and our men, whom he reviewed in the callow youth of their soldiering, have earned it well. He has given in addition a brief businesslike account of the campaign so far as it has gone. We can see exactly the service of our men. The French and British have been advancing up the narrow portion of the peninsula, fighting every foot of tho way, and’ the Australasians landed at the top of tho narrow strip, have held up strong forces of the enemy from going to the light further down. Both sections of the force effected landings unexampled in military history, and both have made good in tho country they have invaded The fleet has helped them considerably. But how much they have reduced the forts does not appear. Evidently the ships will have more to do of their own work when the troops are in the positions for cooperation which they are now helping them to get.

.The Eastern) line does not send such good news to-day. The Russians have suffered somewhat on both flanks. On the west they have been obliged to bend their Polish line back from the Nida to conform to the new position of the Wisloka. Berlin says so, and Petrograd does not say No. We may take the Kaiser's decoration of the German general as a fair corroboration. That general certainly did perform a great feat of arms, with his crossing of the Donajec and his pressing back of the Russian line. Moreover, the Russians have suffered very eerioUs losses. So much is evident; still their line is intact. So much also is evident. And in battles like these it is the unbroken line that counts.

On the other flank the Russians frankly admit a set-back. The Austrians, foiled in their many attempts to turn the Russian left on the Lornnitza, have tried a little nearer the centre. Russian reserves were thrown into the fight to stop their, advance, and,- as the communique reports, they were too impetuous. They got out of hand, and “the enemy's onset enabled them to fall back on assigned positions.” It is a beautiful way of putting it. Enabled them to fall back I At all .events, no great harm appears to have been done. On the whole, however, the eyes that are on this Carpathian position will be for some time eyes of anxiety.