How Goes the Fight?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11947, 5 March 1917, Page 8

How Goes the Fight?

i NOTES OH THE WAR. THE POSITION ANALYSED, OHBTSTCHITRCH, March 5. The defeat of tho Turks on tlie Tigris must, have boon very complete, because on Tuesday the remnants of tho array wore streaming back Towards j Bagdad through Azisiie, which is about half-way hot ween Kut and Bagdad. They must h&vo been in retreat before the British broke across the lines as the neck of the Shumrnn bend, for otherwise, they could not possibly have got away the bulk of their material from down the river. It looks as if one division had to sacrifice most of its guns in order to cover the general retreat. The British, it will be remembered, wera attacking the Sanna-i-Yat positions, fifteen miles below Kut, while tlio crossing of tho Tigris was being forced some five miles above Kut. In these circumstances tho enemy was very lucky to have saved anything from the wreck, but tho troops at tho Shumra'n bend must have made a very stubborn fight of it while> the main army was getting clear. There was further rearguard fighting up the river until the British cavalry got seriously to work, and then the Turks bolted. It. is not indicated in the latest communique that the British are pressing tho pursuit, and it looks therefore as if General Maude was content to have cleared Kut, mid intended to halt there for the lime being.

. There ,'s only news of minor importance from France, but the correspondents say that the Germans nr:< established on the EssartF-Bncrjuoy-Achiet-Bois de Loupart-Blipaume line, along tho main ridge, and that the British are in contact with them. The communique mentions an advance on tho front between Essnrts and Puisteuc towards Bneqnoy, and also north of Waricncourt, towards Loupai't wood. It is stated i'urther that German attacks on Thilloy and east of GiiDudecourt were repr.lsed, which suggests that the enemy is anxious concerning the sector south of Bapaume. However, as the weather is ogam foggyvth© aviators will be hindered in their work of locating the new enemy positions precisely, and until the air clears there may be a pause in the operations. It is difficult to believe that the enemy's retreat has been completed even temporarily, and as soon as the British jmcceed in penetrating his lines at an important point tho withdrawal will have to be continued. Bucquoy, for instance, looks to be a dangerous advanced position, with the British pressing on from Puisioux, and Achiet lo Petit is already within the zone of attack. The enemy's plan, of course, may be to compel tho British to pay a sharp price for possession of the Bapaume ridge, but as the attackers ) depend mainly on the heavy concentration of artillery to preparo the way (for an advance, the balance of loss is ''quite likely to be on the side of the defence. t -,

Nothing has been heard of the Tanks the winter, but it is interest- | Jng to learn that they have been keepI ing in training against the return of ■fine weather and the drying of tho ground. Mr Philip Gibbs paid them a visit a few weeks ago in their own billets. " I spent Bome part of my N'ew Year's Eve,' he writes, " with those remarkable fighting machines of the British Army which caused men to laugh and put them in high spirits on a great day of battle, so that they went over tho top with less apprehension of the great ordeal, and followed the friendly lead with strange gaiety into Flers, into 'Gueudecourt. into Martinpuich, where death was busy. They were in a frolicgome mood this afternoon, doing their amazing tricks as though in shear light-heartedness of spirit, like elderly elephants which have heard the call of spring. These great monsters were sporting in fields pitted with shellcraters and criss-crossed by trenches. The ground beneath them was just a quagmire of mud and slime. I went into it ankle deep, and hardly believed that Brother Tank could move in it, because of his enormous weight. But he did more than move in it. He came in his curious, stealthy way, nosing . forward as on his first appearance, fchait fifteenth of September, hesitated a moment in front of a deep crater, then went down into it, sweeping the moist earth from his flanks, and crawled np on the other side, and made off ( rery steadily to some trenches, smashing through their parapets and straddling across in splendid style. Other Tanks came out from their lairs, bore flown through quick-set hedges, and olimbed up steep banks and manoeuvred for position, like land Dreadnoughts.

But the greatest achievement—at least, the most, spectacular "thing—done by one of these Things was when it climbed over a high breastwork of eandbngs. It was a rr.osfc fearsome and fantastic sight, and made me grow cold with a, sudden sense of terror, as though I were a German suddenly confronted by this monstrous apparition. It approached the breastwork slowly, halted! a moment, and then began to climb up. Its huge form lifted itself higher and higher, bearing forward and over the obstacle, as though the body of the beast were craning forward like a sea-elephant challenging a rival. Then suddenly it plunged down en the other side, with a. sudden swing and clang of its gun-turrets. These Tanks taking exercise were a comic sight, as a ludicrous nightmare from which one wakes laughing. But behind *Hetu Is a seao* of the horrible, because, of their power as machines of death. It is only by deliberate intention that one can realise tho human 'direction of them, and visualise those jciewa inside, whoss sEill and courage land grs.it endurance give them their :Me and purpose, as powerful aids to an infantry attack. These men comiing out of the monsters, keen fellows of the airmen type, belong to the promise of the New Year. They belong to the great company of that /Youth which I met every day upon jihe roads of war, the Youth of'all our race, in steel hats, in woolly coats, bearing their heavy packs lightly, and all the burden of this war, and looking forward to the future with the spirit of youth—hopeful, confident, ardent, undismayed by remembrance of past perils*" ... .-..'•-