The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1917. THE ARRAS BATTLE.

Southland Times, Issue 17921, 28 April 1917, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1917. THE ARRAS BATTLE.

The desperate battle now raging east and southeast of Arras is a sanguinary opening of the 1917 campaign. It brings to light a number of facts which were in doubt while the Germans were withdrawing from the Arras salient and from the irregular Bapaume-Peronne-Roye front to the Hindenburg line. During that time the main bodies of the opposing armies were not in contact. The advance guards of the British were in contact with the reaguards of the Germans, and the fighting consisted of skirmishes between bodies of troops that were sometimes large and sometimes small. Now the main forces are locked in conflict. The fight is a pitched battle, and we are able to form some opinion upon the strength of both sides. It is not to be supposed that figures can be given with precision, but some features of the fighting are obvious, and it is instructive to take note of them. The enemy is still in formidable strength. In fact his coun-ter-attacks are delivered with greater masses of men and greater violence than ever before. The Germans do not yet suffer from any scarcity of men, and their troops are still of good fighting quality. The enemys artillery is also powerful, and at more than one point in the line of battle his guns have returned shell for shell with the British. The Arras battle proves the strength of the enemy and makes it clear that the task of defeating him in the west will call for sustained and terribly severe fighting. On the other hand the battle undoubtedly proves the superiority of the Allies. It is true that the enemy’s desperate resistence and the ferocity of his counter-attacks has stopped the British advance, but it is questionable if Sir Dopglas Hag has any desire to press the advance so long as the enemy, couuter-attackng with large masses, gives him the opportunity of inflicting enormous losses with machine guns and artillery. The reports show that the Germans have attempted to recover lost points by throwing large bodies of troops against them. These bodies have presented living targets for the guns, and whole battalions have been annihilated, divisions have been shattered to pieces, and the ground in front of the British line has been strewn with corpses. It goes without saying that the British losses are also heavy. The casualty lists will be the Somme lists over again, but beyond all doubt the enemy’s losses are incomparably heavier. and Sir Douglas Haig probably considers his purpose well served so long as he is decimating the German battalions.

While it is true that the German bat teries at many points have returned shell for shell, the British appear to enjoy a marked superiority in gunpower. Their barrage is virtually impassable. The infantry in the captured positions are so well protected by their guns that the enemy is unable to drive them out, while, except for an occasional success here and there, most of the enemy’s counter-attacks are broken by artillery and machine gun fire before the rush reaches the British line. The same story is told in the French communiques. In the Laon region and in Champagne nearly all of the enemy’s counter-attacks have been repulsed by artillery fire alone, showing that the enemy's artillery is not strong enough to keep down the fire of the Allies’ guns, while the Anglo-French batteries are able to protect their infantry and to destroy the advancing waves of the German coun-ter-attacks.

The fighting in the air is as fierce as that on the land, and, as noted in this place yesterday, the Anglo-French flying men are re-establishing an unquestionable ascendancy over the enemy.

This battle appeals to be a tremendous test of the whole strength of both sides. At the moment they are locked together in a battle which cannot accurately be described as stationary, but which ebbs and flows over the same ground. If the fighting is maintained at its present intensity that side will win which has the largest reserves. No troops in the world can for long endure the strain of such fighting. The battle can be carried on only by withdrawing the divisions engaged in it after a few days’ fighting and replacing them with fresh troops. The side which can carry on this process of replacing tired, bat-tle-worn battalions with fresh men trained up to the highest pitch of fighting efficiency will win the day. The Germans cannot carry on the battle long wthout drawing heavily on other fronts. They are outnumbered by at least five to three on the western front, and therefore they can obtain reserves equal to those of the Allies only by withdrawing men from the eastern front. The condition of the Russian army at the present moment probably makes it possible for Hindenburg to bring strong reinforcements across Europe, but even so his reserves will be fully tested, for it is certain that the Anglo French command has begun fighting of unparalleled violence thus early in the spring with the deliberate intention of keeping it up throughout the summer. There will be no respite for the enemy in the west this year, and that being so Hindenburg will find it difficult to deny the Allies the decison which they are obviously determined to obtain.