PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10028, 20 July 1918, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

General Foch’s great counter-offen-sive is the sensation'-of : the ■day. Soiz-i ing the favourable moment, lie has hurled his mass of manoeuvre from the region of the Villers-Cottcrcts Forest at tho right flank of the enemy s fiftymile thrust. Advancing between the Aisno and tho Ourcq, from the vantage ground of the recently-recovered positions, tho mass swept along, carrying all before it. On the other side of the Ourcq, the French' joined, and then the Americans came swiftly into the line.' Seeing tho adversary they have been hammer ing for the last three days outflanked and weakened by the flank attack, General Pershing rushed at him with shattering force, and, driving him hack pell-mell, joined tho advancing French mass, the whole sweeping toivards the Soissons region, taking towns, villages, ' strong positions, prisoners, and no doubt booty of all kinds. Distant iNew York, elated by tho nows of victory, burst into flags and acclamations.

Tho first accounts describe tho counter-attack with torse vigour. _ It has a front of U'outy-hve nines; it is making splendid and rapid progress; it is leaving a wake of prisoners and guns; its first spring has covered and cleared a four miles depth or tho territory before it; its artillery lias readied within range of the railway communications sustaining tho enemy’s advance west of Heims. The,..abandonment of his hold on the Marne by tho enemy is to bo imminent. Naturally, for if tho drive of the masses of the codntor-attack is not checked, and its artillery not driven back beyond tlio range .of the hostile communications, tho enemy’s troops in the Marne region aro doomed if they attempt to stay where they are.

The accounts- that report this state of things are not confirmed, we regret to say, and moreover they appear to be contradicted by the facts subsequently reported, or, at all events, made to appear unlikely. There is a mystery to be cleared up, to which we will refer later.

Waiting , for further news of the great Allied onslaught—and for the moment assuming it to be correctly reported—wo must take a look at the situation into which those fresh masses have been hurled by the French General. Wo saw the enemy yesterday with his main attack, which had been held up, changed into a series of local actions, in considerable confusion of», fighting. On his side, the enemy was endeavouring to widen hie front by driving the Allies to Kpcrnay and beyond; on their side, the. Allies were counter-attacking, and villages, towns, and woods were changing hands in the rolling fluctuations of the battle- On the Marne the counter-attacks of the Allies were prominent, and they had driven those troops of the enemy which remained south of the river off the high ground everywhere (except at ono point not named) down into the valley, where the Allied guns were bombarding them and their bridges.

But In all this fighting the enemy was dependent for success on the cooperation of his masses east of Reims. But these, which had been held up by the second battle-lino, which had brought von Einim’s army to a full stop, were not seriously attacking. They were pushing forward for vantage

ground at points. One of these local pushes had forced its way , over the river Veslo at ITunay, but was unable to debouch from tho valley. The enemy’s long-range guns were bombarding Chalons, but his whole eastern battle was in the preparation- stage. On the ISth this condition of his ended, and he hurled an assault against part of tho new battle-line, with the evident intention of ending the doubtful conflict in the centre (Heims to tlie Marne and beyond), by a mighty drive down the plain of Chalons.

The same day the French General launched his. counter-attack with the intention of settling the issue of the confused struggle in the centre lin quite a different way. His attempt, assuming for , tho moment tho truth of tho reports, with his masses of counter-attack goes steadily and swiftly ahead. Tho enemy made some progress towards the •‘mountains of Reims,” by which wo understand that the drive which was hold to the Veslo bunk at Prunay has been helped by the six-mile assault to debouch on to the higher' ground, where, after some advance, it was held. The enemy’s attempt, therefore, to relievo his centre by restoring the momentum of his left assault has met with blank stoppage, while tho French General’s counter on the other flank—the flank of the awkward salient into which his abortive attempt to reach Oompiegno had placed him—is moving rapidly forward on its front of twentyfive miles.' It is nob surprising, in-view of these circumstances, to hear a general declaration on the side of the Allies that the enemy is beaten.

What is surprising is that some French reports confine themselves to predicting that tho enemy will go on as ho pleases under the liberty of action left him. But this great offensive threatens his liberty of action. It is such a grievous menace to tho very life of his wholo attacking force, of twenty-five, thirty-five, fifty, sixty divisions, whatever may he its aggregate strength, that his only object will bo to place him on the defensive with every, nerve strained to save himself from destruction. One of these commentators thinks it possible that the enemy will seek a way out by making an attack against the British lines before Amiens. But one of the latest messages of yesterday afternoon announces that the British have begun attacks in several places. If this is correct, the scale of the battle is rapidly approaching something never been dreamed of in this war, of which the scale has thrown into tho shade the scales of oil previous wars. Is it credible now? On tho other hand, we have to remember two things. - One is that the increasing strength of the American armies has greatly swelled General Foch’s masses of* manoeuvre. The other is that General Foch has, relying on the quality of Ids troops, managed his reserves with parsimonious care. The enemy on his side has used his forces prodigally.

These reflections are, however, subject to what modification the clearing up of tho mystery di the counter offensive may prove to bo necessary.

While watching tho development of possibly groat events, wo may revert to the question of tho first French line in, Champagne, captured by the enemy at- the start of ■ -his offensive. That was the capture which ho intohded to bo decisive, but .which did not decide, because the French General had provided another battle-line to step the onslaught. A message to-day declares that the first lino never was defended; that it'was evacuated during tho tremendous French bombardment which anticipated the enemy's preliminary, of which the result was that while the enemy was destroying ernpky trenches, tho French guns were destroying his men assembled for the assault, and tho French men were taking post on the second battle-line. It was, wo remember, said yesterday by a correspondent that tho French did not draw for the defence any forces from the general mass ot manoeuvre, hut relied exclusively on the local reserves. If this is true, tho local reserves and the troops evacuating the first lino proved between them able to win the decisive advantage of stopping von Einim m tho second mile of what was intended for a thirty-mile rush of hourly gathering momentum. The upshot is that wo are asked to believe that General Foch deliberately gave up the strong Champagne line for tho purpose ot crushing the enemy from the second, of tho existence of which the enemy was not aware.. If this is true, it completely accounts for the obscurity into which tho second day’s Frencli accounts of tho battle throw the °Porations. That is not contradicted by Mr Perris’s report df tho hard fighting before the first line was given, up, because the success of the daring ruso of’ tho French General would require the leaving behind of a few units, .to fight with heroic self-sacri-fice against overwhelming numbers, to give the enemy tho idea that he had stormed tho main positions. His surprise and disorganisation when he confronted an equal force in a new position must have been the surprise of his life. This message wo are discussing may, or may not, bo true—we think it is, for obvious reasons—but it throws a most interesting light on the battle.

Wo return to the French counteroffensive, which was announced yesterday afternoon as proceeding on a twenty-five-inilc front between Snissons and Chateau Thierry, the French and American troops carrying all before them. At midnight no further reference to that movement was made in the cable messages, beyond the statement of the Australian and New Zealand Cable Association that the London Stock Exchange had adopted a cheer ful tone, and prices of investments had generally hardened in consequence of tho nows of the counter-offensive. But two messages had arrived reporting a French-Amorioan advance from Fontenoy north of tho Aisno, to Belleau (Bollou of tho map), south of the Aisno, and about a mile south of Soiesons, tho distance between Fontenoy and Belleau being about seven miles. This means an advance astride of the Aisno, with a front of about seven miles, to which tho messages give a penetration of between two and three kilometres, with capture of prisoners. Tho two messages reporting this smaller advance are a French official communique and a report of the, United Press Agency. Now, tho latter agency reported in the afternoon the larger counter-offensive of General Foch of twenty-five miles between Soissona and Chateau Thierry. The other afternoon authority for tho larger movement was tho Australian and New Zealand Cable Association, tho same which later reported tho effect on tho London Stock Exchange.

If wo read tho two messages (tlio afternoon message and the later message) together, wo can conclude that the counter-offensive has a front of 30 miles from Fontonoy, north of the Aisno, to Chateau Thierry, on the Marne —clearly if this reading is right a very formidable attack on the right flank of the enemy’s salient. The difficulty in the way is that only the smaller French offensive, Fontenoy to Belie ;iu„ is officially reported. The larger one has no official corroboration. This ono, moreover, is not mentioned by any correspondent or commentator, except the two agencies we have quoted. and of those one (tho United Press Association) reports both tho smaller and larger counter-offen-sives. Tho Australian and New Zealand Cable Association gives the details of tho larger movement and its results more fully, and supports its story with tho effect on tho London Stock Exchange; an effect which would not ho produced by tho smaller movement.

It is a curious situation to resolve. In the afternoon a groat counter-of-fensive is announced in circumstantial detail; it is carrying all before it on a twenty-five mile front; it is rapidly driving in the western flank of tho enemy’s salient, at the moment that his attempts to help that salient by bringing up the other side of the salient with a rush has failed. This, as we have said, is announced in tho afternoon. But at one in the morning not another word has arrived about it, and not a syllable has come to show any effect of such a tremendous stroke on any part of the enemy’s front. On the contrary, the reports of tho local fighting on that front, and of tho second repulse of the enemy’s crucial attempt 'east ’of Reims, all come in toned to tho old state of things, allowing no sign of any formidable movement making progress into tho heart of the enemy’s position. «* ( *

A message comes in from the Australian and Now Zealand Oable Assocla-. tion giving details of tho fighting on the centre, showing how tho enemy’s Marno bridges are under bomnardment, and how his attempts against Epornay .and tho mountain of Heims still continue. The defence is described as very good. But neither on the Marno nor tho mountain of Reims sector does the enemy, according to this account, appear to weaken either in his hold of the river or his attacks on the mountain. But this is tho account of the agency which announced tho. great thrust progressing ' rapidly, which ought to have made him very nervous about his prospects, to say the least of it.

The only conclusion wo can come to is that the report of General i'oeh’s great counter-offonsivo cannot be accepted without complete confirmation, and that it is not in any way corroborated by the course of events in tho other part s of the field, which would be sensitive to any such movement.

The official report only vouches for the smaller French advance, and of the report of British advances at various points, the only corroboration is a report of an advance of the Australians, who have moved a mile forward in the region of Vlllors-Brctonneux.