The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1917. THE STRUGGLE FOR CAMBRAI.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 146002, 7 December 1917, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1917. THE STRUGGLE FOR CAMBRAI.

The tremendous efforts which Prince Eupprecht is making to repair the break in his line in the neighbourhood of Cambrai may he regarded as evidence of the extreme importance attached by the German High Command to the retention of that position. Indeed it is only necessary to consider the number of railways and roads converging upon and passing through the town to see that its fall must have, a very serious effect upon the enemy’s dispositions. From the north there is a line from Douai and Lille; from the north-east a line from Valenciennes and Belgium; from the east a line, which reaches Le Cateau, where desperate fighting occurred in the first few months of the war, and there joins the great international route through Maubeuge to Liege, while by another line liuked with this there is communication with Mezieres, and through St. Quentin and Guise with the southern front. In Cambrai, too, there cross each other three great national highways, that which runs from Arras by Le Cateau to Mezieres, that which comes from Amiens through Bapaumc to Valenciennes, and that which, coming from St. Quentin, passes through Douai to Lille. All these avenues of communication, as well as others of minor importance, would be lost to Germany if Cambrai fell into British hands. From this it will he understood why Prince Eupprecht is hurling masses of men into the breach in the hope of throwing General Byug hack or at least preventing his further advance. The enemy losses have already been enormous, probably vastly in excess of the British, and although some little adjustment of the line has become necessary it is unlikely that the British will be forced to give up their gains of a fortnight ago. We need not worry if they do not immediately capture Cambrai and so compel an extensive German withdrawal, for at the present stage the British ob-

ject is rather to use up enemy divisions than to recover territory, and that is being accomplished at a very satisfactory rate. When General Ludendorff, who is said to have, planned the present attack, is tired of sending his men ■to the slaughter, or is convinced that he cannot repair the breach in the Hindenburg line, Sir Douglas Haig will probably make another push forward, either here or at some other point, and it is not at all unlikely that he will then he able to force a great enemy withdrawal. Writers who take a pessimistic view of events predict an immense movement of German and Austrian troops to the western front and a great enemy effort to resume the initiative there before the Americans can place auy great number of men in the firing line. The attacks round Cambrai, however, point to the conclusion that the German jmsition is almost desperate there, that it cannot await the transfer of the millions of men who, the pessimists say, are shortly to be released from the eastern front. Some, men are doubtless being transferred, but probably they are being used up as fast as they arrive. It is not unlikely, too, that the enemy will find it necessary to send more divisions to the Italian front, where the Italians are now recovering the upper hand and inflicting heavy losses. The position on the eastern and Balkan front is so uncertain, too, that the enemy will scarcely dare just at present to withdraw a very great number of men from there. The Cambrai fight has already proved to be one of the greatest and most important of the whole war, and it may, with a little luck on our side, yet turn out to be the severest blow Germany has sustained in the last three years.