PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9998, 15 June 1918, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

'The battle on the sixty-mile front has passed its fourth day, and has not grown appreciably nearer to decision. The enemy thinks that ho has exhausted General Foch's reserves. In other words, ho thinks that the time has come for him to strike on all his fronts of attack with the certainty of pushing through. His statement either means that, or it means nothing. His statement —it is the official statement—was put forward by General Stein, the Minister for War, in the Ileichstag. The general, however, does not appear to have referred to any of the obvious consequences in any sort of detail. But the deadly drift of his remarks is unmistakable. The attacks on the British* had taken all the French reserves; there were, thorefore, no reserves to defend Cheinin-des-Dames; the Entente are coming to recognise a heavy defeat. u This claims to be a teres sketch of the "strategy adopted with success and about to overwhelm the Allies with' disaster.

Such is the German view. Its weakness is: (1) Its extreme generality; (2) the-lack of any supporting enthusiasm among the armies on the spot, who, if they were fighting an enemy without reserves, would bo very jubilant, but, as a matter of fact, are dull and somewhat dispirited; (3) tho contradiction of a good deal of tho military opinion on tho enemy's side. Apparently critics who watch unbiased, and soldiers who have to stand fire, are against the official view.

"What is more, the facts are against it also. The facts, as wo have seen, provo rosistanco is harder and more quickly successful in the middlo of June than it was at the end of March. As Colonel Ropington says in the "Morning Post," tho answer to Stein is tho defeat of the tremendous Montdidier-Oiso assault.

To that defeat the fourth day has brought a further addition. The enemy attacking the French loft and centre has again heen beaten, and the French on their right have driven the invaders back over the Mate to the north bank. Thus the western sector of the front hag been improved by the French, the enemy being brought to a complete standstill on two-thirds of the front, and driven back on the balance. We have details to-day of the fighting which enable us to understand the dreadful punishment inflicted on the enemy by the vehement and magnifi-cently-sustained onset of the French soldiery. We are reminded again of the substantial work of the airmen, the British flyers working in co-operatioli with the French. It is now well-estab-lished that the air forces aro a substantial part of the battle force. If you nave any doubt, read these descriptions of tho charging 'planes, flying low, scattering machine fire into the infantry masses; consider tho deserted guns and the flying gunners, dropping fast under the merciless rain of lendthrow your eye over time !jv* of bl.::;-' ing munition dumps, and consider those miles of disorganised convoys.

This js tho climax of tho air fighting of tho roccnt months. Tho reports of it in tho steady matter-of-fact bullc-

tins of the commanding Marshal grew monotonous and wearisome. They have turned out to be the liveliest official literature of the war. They chronicled our mastery of tho air, and the additions in recent reports show us what is the moaning of that mastery. It seems to more than make up for inferiority of forces. It is evidently a thing which the enemy is afraid to name. Month after month he published lists of tho many machines, British and French, he had sent to earth, but to-day he keeps tho silence of tho grave into which so many of his airmen have fallen. Their deaths are such eloquent refutations of the official Jies of air victories that it is not advisable to pretend further. When infantry are shot down in rows, artillerymen, forced to abandon guns, and munition dumps explode like volcanoes all over the battle area, it is not expedient to refer to tho air service which ought to prevent such things. To claim air victories would only rouse the anger of the armies, which have suffered through air defeats. On the east of the OTse the enemy's attack was not pronounced north of the Aisno at the end of the third day, and his assault south of that river, between it and the Tillers Forest, was desperate. The fourth day has extended this desperation across tho Aisne, and maintained it south of the river. The enemy is moving on both sides of tho Aisno on a line of nearly twenty miles. In front he has the Forest of IVAigue, and the open country between the Aisne and the Villers Forest, and beyond this open country is the Forest of Compiegne. The French are fighting against this very energetic attack of the enemy's masses with their Usual determination. No 'doubt the struggle is making a heavy call on their reserves. But their commandei is famous for his economic uss of re. serves; and his men second his saving habit with tho most sublimo heroism—look at those Cuirassiers who died in the twentieth assault at Plemont. No succour could be sent; scorning surrender they wirelessed, "We are done for," and they sold their lives.

North of Compiegne is the hill,, of Canelon, which overlooks the towi» from the north on tho west of the river Oise. He who holds Canelon commands tho corner of the Oiso and tho Aisne, in which lies tho Forest of L'Aigue. If the enemy coming on. from the Matz and over tho Arondo took Canelon, tho defence of L'Aigne Forest would collapse, and the French line would have to pass south of the Aisne. Colonol Repington says that vpn Ludendorff will never bo satisfied till he gets Canelon. Naturally,, for he knows that he cannot drive the French out of L'Aigue by attack from the east. But Ludendorff's men. are just now north of tho Matz, having been driven over the river on the morning of tho fourth day, and the rest of his western fine is held very firmly. There is no reason, therefore, to fear that the enemy will get Canelon, and unless he gots Canelon ho will not get L'Aigue Forest, and if he does not get the Forest the French lino will not be driven over, the Aisne.

What the chances are of the tattle between the Aiane and the Villers Forest it is impossible to say. It maintains its fury, and the enemy has begun by getting a'footing in the French position. It is the beginning of tho usual battle fluctuation.

The .latest news describes the powerful counter-attack made by tho enemy on about eight miles of the French left, CourceUc to north of Mery, and its repulse. It is significant that there is no note of any attempt on his part to recover tho ground south of tho Matz, from which he was ejected in the morning of tho third day, "-s-ita reverse to his attempt to drive down the Oise valley to Compiegne. It is announced that the civil population has left Compiegne. But that is not necessarily a sign that Compiegne is doomed to fall. It is only a. sign that the enemy being within six miles of tho place, is quite likely to shell it to bits in pure wantonness of savagery, according to his habit, which ho has "indulged in all over the region covered by his recent advance. This thrust of the enemy, which, according to a later message included the Matz front on the French front, is described by one correspondent as a very dangerous thrust at Compiegne. Clearly it was, for it was intended to strike'from tho north in co-operation with tho attack south of the Aisno, striking from the east astride of the Aißne. The two together constitute the battle for Compiegne, which .the correspondent says holds • the stage.

Had the northern attack reached the hill of Canelon, and tho eastern made appreciable progress in quick time, the French troops north of the Aisno defending tho Forest of L'Aigue might have found it very difficult to extricate themselves from tho' enemy's pincer movement, and might with Compiegno have been crushed. But, as reported, tho northern attack was rery firmly thrown back. The attack astrido tho Aisno, on tho other hand, mado north of tho river against tho Forest of L'Aigno no progress at all, and south of it was repulsed at all points but one. Tho defence is holding tho lino of a small tributary of tho Aisne flowing north from the north-east corner of tho Forest of Vil-lers-Cotterets, and reaching tho Aisno about seven miles below Soissons. Tho points held by the French when the battlo opened were St. Pierre, Aigle, Coevres, Cutry, .Dommiers, Ambleny, and Lovines. The battle raged all day. Aigle fell to tho enemy, as also Levines, and at the other points there Was a fierce ebb and flow of desperate fighting. In the end the onemy was beaten out of ovory point except Levines. And thus -it was possible to report ,that Generals Foch and Petain have the situation well in hand.

Further south, between tho Ourcq and the Marne, the I'rench and Americans have not only maintained their gains, but added slightly to them. On the whole, the battle rose to a climax on the fourth day, all along tho sixty-mile front, and tho enemy, though gaining a footing at one point on tho small river front south of tho Aisne, was defeated all along tho line. Obviously the battle cannot stop there. For the enemy to get through is a vital necessity. Ho must bring Up fresh . masses. But as tho French have tho situation woll in hand we can look forward with some confidence io a ;vi.cv.;il of hl.s defeat of the fourth day.

The magnificent daring, skill and mn:-','.;-:y oi tl:.' Allied nirmen continue to claim largo space in tho reports. The latest is that they havo taken to

silencing heavy artillery by dropping powerful bombs from low altitudes. Tho French owe much of their success to thorn, and their tank forces have not been backward in the fray.

Daring is not the monopoly of tho airmen. Neither is it of tho British Navy, which has definitely closed Zeebrugge and Ustend. The Italian .Navy lias come into the limelight with an exploit absolutely astounding for its daring and skill. Captain Rizao, with' two destroyers, actually joined the covering Austrian destroyer squadron in the darkness, and steamed with it to the big ships in harbour, seized a favourable opening, let fly with his torpedoes, sank a battleship and a cruiser, and came safely out. Such a deed will live as long as history is written.