PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10073, 11 September 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The keynote of the day’s campaignl- - appears to ho the British advance on the front facing Douai and Carabrai, reported as iust begun and in full swing, without so far any sign of serious resistance, which means probably that the enemy is waiting on a newlyprepared lino for the attack of tho British. It is a front of about 12 miles, and the ends of tho advancing line—north of the Arras-Cambrai road —are each five or six miles respectively from Douai and Cambrai. In front of Douai tho country is dead flat, falling here into tho great plain of tho Scheldt: in front of Cambrai it is rolling and wooded, a, country of rather formidable foothills. Whore the German, hew lino is has not boon made known. We know that tho attack which is moving upon it has smashed and captured the strongest elements of tho Hindonhurg and Siegfried lines, which are now several miles in its rear. If misfortune should befall these troops that broken line will give thorn a strong stand.

But why should misfortune befall them? They earned everything before them, miles of positions stronger than anything they aro likely meet in their advance. They have liad~Tftno to put their communications in order—thanks to tho wonderful engineers of tlie British- armies—and tho resumption of the advance on their part makes it certain that they have a sufficient accumulation of material to sustain their attack. Tho enomv on his side is actually showing signs of a shortage of artillery ammunition. The statement is nob the only sign of tho shortage. There is the sign of the collapse of tho tremendous bombardment against our mon across tho canal, which bombardment was to havo beon a stern forbiddance of further progress. But the bombardment lias ceased to. be formidable, and tho advance on the crucial central front has been resumed. It is a blow aimed at the very heart of tho German position in tho West front. Tho British General prepared tho way by tearing off the breastplates of Siegfried and Hindenburg— tho latter sometimes called Wotan, after another German divinity of Pagan times—and there is nothing of any strength. It is on tho cards that within a week the nowly-proparod centre between Douai and Cambrai will bo brokon with a crash, resounding from tho Belgian border to Verdun.

But this is not the only stroke aimed at tho German line. The French armies of Debcncy, Humbert, and Mangjn have begun to threaten Laon, known always as tho second main hinge of the Siegfried lino. The Allied strategy of April, 1917, had tho same combined objective, Haig attacking towards Oambrai, Nivello towards Laon. Tho failure of Nivello frustrated the combination, and the British general turned his attention to Menders, after ho had scoured n good hold on tho northern Siegfried hinge, Now tho French advance is

on a larger, more comprehensive scale. It is thrusting on both sides of Baon. Dobeney and Humbert are driving at St. Quentin, on the Somme, and Ba Fere, on the Oise, with intent to break that 12-mile front. They have cut the main communication at Tergniei, near Ba Fere, into which their cavalry are already nosing, and their left is within three mile a of St. Quentin, ai Etreilles, due west from that place, and almost touching hands, with tlio British, who are at Vermand, a couple of miles to tho north. Between Fireflies and Terguier the French troops are making swift advance, and a dozen places have fallen into their hands, with the perfection of clockwork. East of the Oise they have reached Scrvais, their old location before the fateful days of March last, and stormed the place, threatening the flank of the great fSt. Gobain massif. Further east Maugin’s advance on the Ailette has broken the German line facing Baon. Further east the French general has got possession of the ridge leading to the Ohemin-des-Dames, and still further ho is menacing the enemy with a flank attack on his line of the Aisno. The probable intention is to clear the ground as far as Crnonne, at the end of the Aisne plateau, for a thrust by the gap of Reims, at Baon, supplementing the frontal attack from the broken sector of the Ailette front. The enemy recognises the possibilities of the triple assault—by Ba Fere, Terguier, and Servais, by the Ailette front, by the gap of Reims—and is making prodigious efforts to meet it at all points. He is reported to be strengthening his defences towards Ba Fore, to be endeavouring to mend the Ailette gap (a very difficult operation), and to bo bringing up troops to stop Mangin’s advance towards Oraonno. A spectacular battle for Baon has begun, and will presently bo filling the news columns of the world with tremendous fighting.

While the British and French attacks against the two main centres of the enemy's position in France are in progress, we can throw our eyes over the line to see what has happened bebetween these two groat deadly thrusts. The British have covered the whole of the old Somme battlefield and have brought their men within a mile or two of the old Hindenburg line. Their right is 'close to Hainan north of west of St. Quentin, where the Fifth Army was broken on March 22nd, and their loft is east of the canal, where the great breach was made in the Siegfried and Hindcuburg (alias Wota.nl lines. Thus . while the great British thrust is in progress against the DouaiOambrai new centre, the British troops have come right up to their old positions. and the French have done nearly the same between St. Quentin and La Fore. The timing of the great campaign has been perfect, the great thrust being launched north and south just as the armies closed up in ‘the interval between. The advances have been t frpm Feronne. , ten to twelve miles," from ■ "Ohanliies seventeen miles, from Roye, twenty-one miles, from Noyon in proportion, until the whole great lino presses hard upon the enemy close to the positions from which he started for his great adventure. The end of the adventure finds the British and French lines (I not only swung back to nearly all the old places, but well advanced beyond them in the Arras sector, with two great thrusts in .progress for utterly, smashing the enemy’s line in two' 'plabes to the destruction of tho whole. There are very stirring days ahead, and in these days the armies that, have not yet had a say will bo thrown into tho fight, and the newly-formed field army of America will play tho great part which General March hints has been assigned to it. If all goes well, including tho weather—which has so often come between the Allies and victory—it is fairly probable that tho enemy may be driven out of Franco before the winter, in dire disaster. •