PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10085, 26 September 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The grass is not growing under the hoofs of that astonishing cavalry of General Allenby; nor is his incomparable infantry losing time. The army is in full march forward, ■ pursuing whatever remains on foot, sweeping up booty and prisoners as it goes. The cavalry, swinging past Mount Carmel, have captured Haifa and Acre, where Sir Sydney Smith's gallant resistance stopped the progress of Napoleon's invasion. But there is no one to stop Allenby's march. Even the shadow of Liman von Sanders has departed Id search of safety. The immediate consequence of the seizure of the port is, of course, the establishment of a sea base capable of feeding any possible advance on Damascus and Aleppo. It is a matter of but a few days to have the place in running order, capable of meeting every requirement by the advancing general. In theory, there may be doubts. But the handling of stores at Gallipoli supplies the answer of actual experience to any theory that may be aired. The naval services that did those wonders on the exposed Gallipoli beaches can be relied on to transform a sheltered port in "a brace of shakes." For men, guns, stores, munitions, evacuation of wounded, tor the army of liberation. Acre is the base from heucetorth.

Tlie men who overcame the difficulties of the Cairo base during the march on Jerusalem will be quite at home drawing supplies from Haifa as they march on .Damascus. The Lebanon ib to the north with a considerable body of sympathy for the liberators, and the cross railway from Damascus ' stands inviting capture, not frowning defence. What tho Turks think of their chances of holding anywhere on the line of the Hedjaz railway they are proclaiming by abandoning all the positions on which they were expeoted to offer firm resistance Thev hint in a curious bulletin that they are going to hold this eastern region, and that they are preparing tho defence by a series of most skilful plans. But the blow thev have receiyed removes all mystery, about their immediate future.

That six milos of road between Nablus and the Wadi Fara tells us the reason with ghastly conclusiveness. The Turkish infantry wore holding the plateau from which that road descends, holding back bho Allied infantry, while the Turkish transport was making frantic struggles to get to the Wadi and over. When the British artillery barrage stopped tHe head of that disordered motlev column, the Allied infantry tumbled the Turkish resistance off the plateau right into the tail of the stopped column. On his congested mass, of fugitives the artillery opened a pitiless, -undiscriminating fire, tho roar of its (runs was echoed by rifle and machine-gun fire, and tho air squadrons, comine down to 200 feet, systematically raked tho whole mass with machine-gun fire of tho deadliest. Mr Massey, who saw this six-mile stretch

in the heyday of this awful punishment, declares he never saw the like, and quotes veteran soldiers to the same effect. Multiply this by the number of wadis and bridffeheads or fords, of these great tactics and you get the effect on the Turkish moral of this great victory—a victory, according to a general quoted to-day by Mr Massey, unsurpassed in military annals. The rarity and the deadliness are too much for the Turkish defence and if the attack keeps up while that demoralisation lasts, the British will be presently in Damascus and Aleppo. That the advance of the victorious forces is being pressed is evident from all the reports. • • •

Tho tremendously effective service done by Allenby's cavalry is a proot that cavalry, far from bemg obsolete, has still the effective power which has distinguished this arm since its first appearance in battle. General Allenby's cavalry sweep behind the beaten armies to Nazareth corresponds to Napoleon's sweep with cavah-y (under Murat) after the twin battles of Jena (under Napoleon himself) and Auersbadt (under Davoust). The Prussian, infantry, having been practically destroyed in these two simultaneous battles, Napoleon loosed a flood of cavalry over Western Prussia, with most disastrous effects to the Prussians. Walled -towns and fortified cities fell at once almost to the cavalry, armies trying to make a start were caught in the open and annihilated, and the pursuit ended before Stettin with BlUcher's surrender of the last Prussian army. General Allenby's exploit, though on a smaller scale, certainly has the Napoleonic touch of making a victory complete by following it up swiftly by cavalry while the debacle is still in process. It is a reminder that cavalry can, if properly led, still do the great things it did in former days. And in all probability the effects of General Allenby's exploit will be very far-reaching, though they will not, of course, reaoh so far as those of Napoleon's Jena campaign, one of his most brilliant. Napoleon's cavalry, after Jena, brought down the Kingdom of Prussia. General Allenby's cannot bring down the Ottoman Empire, but it will liberate Palestine, and may give the Ottoman Empire a shake by sweeping the Turk out ot Damascus and Aleppo.

The campaigning season has settled down. The moment is favourable for that reason for an advanoe of General Marshall's army of Mesopotamia- * on Aleppo, along the Euphrates. Even it is possible at this season to cross the Syrian desert in the direction of Damascus. That is done every year by flocks and herds, from Mesopotamia, grass and water being plentiful in these regions in the season. The opportunity to wipe the Turk off the map of Syria, to seize Aleppo, and strike a vital blow at the Baghdad railway where it pierces the Taurus and Amanus ranges is probably of the very best. The Turkish concentrations are dispersed, and the European Allies of the Turks cannot give them effective help. The way lies open for the junction of Allenby's and Marshall's armies, and the opportunity is at hand for establishing a dominating post on the Mediterranean in the bay of Iskanderoon, linking the regions ot Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine with the Western world.

At ibis moment the failure of the Bulgarians and Germans to hold tne Macedonian line against the Allies offers a possibility of cutting the great Oriental railway and stopping the transport of guns and munitions, for which the Turks look to Germany. The capture of Prilep, about half-way to Uskub, means the command of the Babuna country, and, therefore, the command of the whole distance to Uskub. These movements" in that direction, and the passage by French and Serbians ol the vardar in the centre, have not only brought down the enemy's line on the Doiran side, but. have made it impossible for the enemy's line ever to coordinate again. That line is irretrievably broken, and it will require the most desperate efforts to prevent the seizure of Nish and the recovery of the greater part of Serbia. If such a thing can be done, the Serbian soldiery, in their concentrated temper of furious determination, will do it easily.

General Desperey's success in daily growing more important. He has the enemy broken in two. whereof one part under Teodorotf. on the west of the Vardar valley, is vainly trying with a few detachments to stop the pursuing British; the other, under Tesolf, is spread all over the mountain roads and bridle tracks on the east of the main river. Demoralised, disorganised, foodless, their one hope is to reach the Babuna nass before the Serbians, who have out into the Vardar. can reach Veles to close the road' through the pass from the north. But other Serbs with French and Greeks are at Prilep, and threatening to reach the Babuna before these flying, routed, foodless remnants. It lookß as if Tesoff's men are lost beyond redemption. Any moment we may hear of a mighty disaster and a triumphant march of the Allies on Uskub, unlocking the gate to Nish. What appears to be certain is that the broken line of the enemv will never be restored, and that certainly covers taiany possibilities. The retention of Salonika and the long line its hold implied is about to add abundantly to its justification. Having saved the region from becoming a nest of submarine piraoy, this great army is about to fulfil the standing promise of reconquering Serbia for the Serbians. Everything comes to him who knows how to wait. It is a sayine: for the Greeks to rejoice ot»r and their ex-King to mourn bittorly. • • •

In the Western news we note that certain newly-arrived Serbian divisions are fighting in the futile attempt to recover Epehv and tho sector in that region. This oan only mean that German divisions have been brought from ehe Serbian front. It suggests tiaat Marshal Foch. having noted the weakening of the enemy line in Macedonia, has sent that line forward, with the results which tho"world is discussing with agreeable surprise.

Besides the ropulse at Epohy, wnicn is now proved to have been a, vital portion of the German Hindenburg defence, Sir Douglas Haig reports an advance on a four-mile front' in the Omignon Valley and plateau, agaanst St Quontin. Thi s includes the Holnon sector. The object appears to be to help the French, who have advanced m co-ordination to overcome some difficult and unexpectedly strong resistance towards St. Quentin.

The Bussian news is unoertain, confused, and very lurid. There appears to bo some sign of stabilising on the Siberian side, and the Czeohß are

moving. At present the one clear thing appears to be the failure of the British t 6 retain their hold on Baku, through the unreliability of the Armenian population to make good according to promje. The British detachment seems to hare got across the Caspian to the forces barring the road against further exploitation to the East. Bufc of the exact position there it is difficult to speak. At all events it is a comfort to know that there is a British force in that region. For better thing s in Moscow, Petrograd, and the Ukraine we must wait awhile. The present state appears to be that the Bolsheviks are in command, sparing nobe-dy bufc Germans. Truly an evil alliance.