PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9631, 11 April 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

There is a great operation of w. Without suspending his offensive against Cambrai and St. Quentin, Sir Douglas Haig has delivered a tremendous stroke, which extends the attack on his left on a front of 12 miles. This has fallen on the original German line, which has not been assailed, except by systematic raiding, since the great battles of Vimy and Loos in the autumn of 1915. On that occasion the , British captured and hold Loos, which has been in the British line from that day, and tho French captured a great portion of Vimy, but , were unable to hold it. The fighting in these battles was the most costly of the whole war,' and tho most desperate. Tho attacks failed to reach their main objectives, partly because the munitions were insufficient, and partly because the staff work was deficient. (Since then the Allies have been content to look at tho extremely formidable German positions in these sectors, and to improve their munitions, as well as to think out a better system of attack- The result is that tho Vimy ridge was captured in less than half a day’s fighting. Tho ridge, which the daring and skill of the Canadians stormed in' great style, commands tho plain on which Douai stands.

Bufc Vimy was not the only success of this new stroke. Between the great, strong positions held by the Womans before Arras—as strong as anything the enemy has constructed in this war—and Vimy there was a formidable row of groat forts, at 'Neuville Sc. Vaast, and Telegraph Hill being the strongest and the most famous. All these have been captured as well as Vimy. Regarded as impregnable, they are now in the hands of the British.

Neither do these captures and Vimy constitute the whole gain. The whole of the positions that have dominated Arras for two and a-half years have been stormed. The British bombardment smashed them to pieces, and the British infantry carried the remains—■ a network of trenches some three miles in depth, on a front of twelve miles — with one determined storm, which received no check whatever from the defence Tilloy, Blagny, Observation Ridge, St. Laurent, forming a lino a mile from Arras, which looked absolutely impregnable, fell, each at tho first frontal assault. Here we- see the effect of the new tactics. What General Nivelle did at Verdun with his three famous tiger springs. Sir Douglas Haig’s men have done with the V imyArras line, on a front of similar length (12 miles), in half the time, against defences as strong as any the Germans have ever erected. Tho critics once declared that trenches had reached a strength too great for any assault. The scientific combination of bombardment, of infantry masses moving in open order under protection of barrage, worked with daring skill, and tho help of the flying men directing and bombing from the air, and supported by “tanks,” crushing obstacles in the road, has supplied a triumphant answer. Details of the captures are not fully supplied, but enough has been forwarded to let us know- that all the forward positions fell at once to a depth of three miles. Moreover, at time of writing the reports speak of tho advance as still continuing, and one account (that of .Mr Simms, a correspondent at Headquarters) says that tho rear positions have also been captured.

If that is tho case tho British command the approach to Douai, and to tho country between that place and Cambrai, for they look down from their captured heights on the plain of Douai and the valley of tho Scarpe. We have to consider that these captured strongholds were of the firstclass, regarded by the enemy as warranted to bold, who did not until quite recently—when he was struck hard on his now line further south, iu the last few days—expect them to he attacked. We can fairly conclude therefore that he has no positions behind these he has lost which can bo regarded as strong, if indeed he has any. It is fair conjecture that he has no prepared positions to fall back on between Douai and Cambrai. Remember that his new line took in neither of those places. It began with his powerful strongholds commanding Arras, and passed westward longo intervallo . by Cambrai to St. Quentin. Ho, aimed at holding his old line from the north to Arras in conjunction with his now lino from Arras to St. Quentin. If our people have taken the rear positions of his old lino between Oivonohy—three miles southward of Lons, which is fifteen miles from Arras .—the roar positions that is of twelve miles of his old line, then he has nothing of any strength behind those twelve miles.

Now his new line is very sjiaky, as von Hindeuhurg’s lamentation would amply prove, if tho facts required any additional proof. The facts are these; The British General attacked that line from Arras to St. Quentin ; the battle of Benunaetz gave him Beaurains, one of the many strong places on the commanding sites hold by the enemy at Arras, the southernmost of these positions,' in fact. He captured Croisellcs, and established himself at Benin, on the Cojeul river—tho southernmost point of his new advance. He cleared the enemy out of the big triangle— Beaumctz, Hcnin, Roisel —inflicting great losses and carrying his own line in a great sweep forward to within twelve miles of Cambrai, and further south ho advanced it by artillery fire and infantry storm to within a mile or two of St. Quentin. This advance against the enemy’s new line—Arras to St. Quentin—he kept going while delivering his sledge-hammer blow at tho twelve miles of the old line to the north. And to-day he reports his centre at Havincourt Wood, at Boursies and at Hormies, all within nine miles of Cambrai, and his right at Lovergnies (Levergles on the map), well to tho north and slightly to the east of St. Quentin, the latter place being therefore, as reported by a correspondent (Mr Gibbs), in great danger.

The facts are that the new German line is losing its hold on St. Quentin, all jts railway communications hut one, and that a roundabout, being cut off, and the British and French forces closing in on the place; that this new German line is bulged perceptibly backward in several places between Arras and St. Quentin; that the British advance against it commands all tho roads and railways for frontal and lateral communication.

It comes to this then, that while pressing tho new German line hard, almost, if not quite, making it totter, tho British general has delivered a tremendous blow at the old line on its left, on a front of twelve miles, which seriously threatens a breach. If that blow has really driven the enemy into the open behind tho strong places wrested from him, the enemy is within measurable distance of dire disaster. We, of course, require confirmation of tho report that the rear positions of the twelve mile old front have fallen to fire great sledge-hammer stroke so skilfully dealt by the British general. If they have, we shall require no ghost to tell us what is likely to happen.

Various statements are made by correspondents watching the great battle. One is that tho German commander feeling the St. Quentin end of his new lino dangerously weak, and growing weaker, hurried troops to tho northern end to prevent disaster from an attack (this very sledge-hammer blow of the British general) which he feared there. This implies that, fearing a break of his Ime in the south, tho German general set to work to prevent a break in tho north, trusting to he able to swing his southern lino back to certain prepared positions while making every effort to make good his hold to the north. It is not easy to believe. Ho had traced his new line, and he believed in the strength of the pivot by which he had co-ordinated his old and new lines together. He would therefore ho more likely to try and' make good his new line at the weak point than to divert his strength to the old.

Another correspondent suggests that the enemy had made up his mind to further retreat and on a larger scale than the last, feeling that bo could not make good the now line anyhow. This moans that he was planning a general retreat, with,a time-table for the whole of his forces, and that the stroke of the British general caught him before he was ready and' effectually spoiled his scheme.

It is difficult to discuss either alternative. But the fact that the alternative suggestions have been made shows the difficulty in which the enemy finds himself. . It has been held from tho first by the students of Jofire’s strategy of this campaign that he locked tho German armies in their trench position, with a view to making their retreat impossible in the event of his being able to subject them to overwhelming pressure. It begins to look as if this theory is about to bo tested. At all events tho suggestions above made read, by the light of the futile retreat from the Somme sector, do make it appear as if tho enemy does not seem to know which way to turn to avoid disaster. It is now quite demonstrated, at all events, that the enemy cannot hold his ground, and that whatever retreat he decides on will necessarily be extremely difficult. Ha cannot hope to always blind the Wgilanco of the very superior forces operating against him, and it is. now pretty clear he has no properly prepared positions in Lis rear to help him to get comfortably away. The stories of all his mighty preparations are now seen to have been mythical.

The latest reports of the correspondents show that the great attack on the 12-mile old front lias not taken the rear positions. It has done all that was expected, and was a marvellous success, at small cost, showing that ths lessons of the war have been taken to heart, ancT that the munition preparation has placed the armies in an infinitely better condition for the work of capturing trench strongholds. The enemy has been driven out of his first system, losing,trenches and strongholds to a depth of three miles on a front of twelve,or thirty square miles iu all. But ho has his nest system of lines

ctill, and rherc he will be again attacked. The great stroke lias been a great success. That the British are in a position now to deal a greater stroke may be judged by the fact that they hold the whole of the Vimv ridge, which commands the Douai plain.