How Goes the Fight?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11927, 9 February 1917, Page 8

How Goes the Fight?

HOTES OH THE WAR. THE POSITIOH ANALYSED. CERISTCHXJRCH, February 9. The winter has been by no means j barren on the British front, and the j last few days havo brought the com- j pletion of a highly useful series of j operations in the vicinity of Grand- - court, on the Ancre. This village was | probably one of the objectives in the j operations that led to the capture of j Beattmont-Hamel. Beaucourt- and St i Pierro Divion, but after th? capture j ef St Pierre Divion some elements 0 f ; the Gorman resistance on the slopes of the Ancre remained to !>•■> subdued j and behind Beaueourt a strong system . of ivorks was encountered. As oppor- i tnnity offered the small salient held by | the enemy was attacked, and the: other day it was announced that im-, portant progress had been made immediately east of Beaueourt. Then ' the Germans, under pressure, evacuated a long stretch of trer.'-h south of the Ancre and nlv.i-mately tliey abandoned Grauflconrt, which is new hi , British hands. The hpw 1-nr- commences at HcimtCHiC. run-- r-o'ith-onst to Serre and Grnndcnur:. an'.i ib;-n turns east by Le Sars and the I'u-te de Warlencotirt towards 1.-e Transloy, where it ntrain bends south-east io Sailly-Sallisei. As won a> the conditions of ground and weather are •-/• all favourable the British v.-iil doubtless undertake general oporatior.s a!g»iin~t the fortified group of villngo-s covering Bapaume. The winter has; been spent usefully in improving the. roads and perfecting the railway system behind the lines, and it will be comparatively ©asy to concentrate the guns for the. reduction of the enemy's defences, at any rate on this sector. The expectation that the German attack north of the forest of Farroy in Lorraine would prove to bo only the beginning of a.series of movements on a fairly wide front has, already been . justified, for a French comrir.mi'jue today shows that the enemy has again \ been "feeling" the French positions. ; this timo south-cast of the forest. ; quite close to the route of the railway , from Luneville to Saarburg and Strasburg. Away back in June, FJ'lo, the*. French, by brilliant local attacks. ( ejected the Germans from strong posi- ' tions extending south-east from the . forest of Parroy, by Einbermenil, the wooded hill of the Rcmabois, and the ' Tillages of Leintrey and Reillon. The enemy has made repeated efforts to | recover those positions, but lias always I failed, and on occasion the defeat has ; proved exceedingly costly. In the' 1 recent fighting the enemy reached r':v ! French lines and seems even to have | obtained a footing in them, but- the | counter-aitack ejected him. Raiding ' has been fairly general on this front ' all through the winter, but the at- . tacks reported yesterday and to-day : were evidently organised on a considerable scale, and if that is the case further fhditing may be looked for. j I One of the surprises of Mr Massey's interesting account of the operations east of the Suez Canal is the revel a- j tion of the extensive use of motor-cars J in the desert. "Cars and camels for j this job," seems to have been the current verdict. "So perfect and reliable has tho car supply service become," Mr Massey says, "that tho [ vehicles move to a timetable, and a a t one spot I havo seen two convoys, ' which started ninety miles apart meet : to exchange loads at the exact moment fixed by the conductor. Armoured , car motoring in the desert- adds to tho | work of war the hazards of a difficult . and almost unknown country. 1 have ; done 100 miles in one stretch with them. Wo were out searching for ; buried arms, and ran out of tho old ; fort of Solium (on tho western frontier) when the sun was rising high in j the heavens, a little party of two arm- ' oured and foMr light cars. After four! miles of comparatively good going-I ; lay stress on the word comparatively, j for not one motorist- in a hundred j would dream of running over the best patches of the desert—two tyres of the car I was in burst simultaneously. One driver stayed behind wnh us to assist in replacing them. We wero on the move again in fifteen minutes, but by that timo the other cars were io.st in fcho mirage which Hooded tho horizon like a steaming sea. The tracks were missed, but after some rime we saw our friends in the mirage 3000 yards away, seemingly standing on pillars of air and water. ~ _ . i "Through softer soil we travelled m j lompany in remarkable style, side- j dipping every yard, crushing through j ecrub with stems as tough as oak, and . running over mounds which threw everything loose high into the air. j Dufc we all got through, and took a j share 'in lifting the spoil. Driven by an old Richmond and Gloucester county Rugger player whose sporting game j always pleased the crowd, a staff car j has carried me over rock and sand on j tho Dakhla road at an average speed j of thirty-five miles an hour. 'Hie car has touched sixty-three. No wonder j the Senussi throw off their clothes and j hide at the approach of such dread: j engines of war. The armoured cars used in Egypt axe all Rolls-Royces. Notwithstanding th& rough work they havo done, there has been no engmo breakdown, and the only substantial repairs done have been replacing Bprlngs and one rear axle. The cars have run over thousands of miles of the roughest desert, and complete absence of engine trouble is a triumph for British workmanship. On tho blockhouse lino tho Rolls-Royce cars do an average of 750 miles per week, and when tho Senussi left* Baharaia they ran 580 miles in threo days with perfect regularity. The petrol consumption for armoured cars averages about seven and for light cars ten miles per gallon." : The utility of tho motor in desert I warfare is illustrated by a noteworthy I exploit of the car batteries east of tho i Suez Canal. Three armoured cars, j two light cars with machine-guns, and j twelve other cars carrying petrol and j water, left to make a reconnaissance, j The armoured care ran 4.00 miles in J fifty-three hours, including time spent

wunmaitw>mili ih»ihi'iiii ni '* a rr">—»»»^*ia»«Mi■ wu"""* in bivouacs, and for more than 350 miles they carried every ounce of supplies. There was only one puncturo on the way back. Bur. nowadays tho cars go anywhere and everywhere. British cars have seen service and rendered magnificent assistance to the Russians in Armenia. They have been reported virtually from every part of j the Russian front, including the moun- j tain sectors, A few weeks aero n'■ Russian communique made reference to ' tho splendid work of " the famous j •British armoured motor-cars" in! 1 Rumania, where they were a tmvor of i I strength during the. fighting around j | Rimnic. Cars are operating largely : I now in Macedonia, in spite of the. fact j i that the roads, are atrocious. Indeed. I the use of the motor-car and the motor ! lorry, whether armoured or unarmouri od. is one of tho most remarkable foa- \ tures of the great war. One was prej pared for the extorsive employment of : ear?, in well roadod countries like Franco, bur, the surprisiim development : i has been the adaptation of the autoj mobile for service over surfaces that a : couple of years aco would, have been considered absolutely prohibitive.