How Goes the Fight?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12081, 9 August 1917, Page 2

How Goes the Fight?

HOTES ON THE WAR. THE POSITION ANALYSED, CHRTSTCHFRCH, August 9. The battle of Ypres has now definitely to he placed in the same category as the battle of Messines. It was not the beginning of a sustained offensive. but was virtuallv a one-day battle, fought obviously for the purpose of clearing the. Ypres salient, and establishing a regular front between the Lys and the Yser. But for the rain it might easily have developed on a still larger scale, because the atttack was delivered on a wide front and the preparation had been elaborate. Bui> General PJumer had clearly set himself to obtain certain results, and he obtained them, apparently at a small cost comparatively speaking It' the conditions of ground and weather had boon favourable the advance could have been continued along the whole front of the original attack, but as thoso conditions were extremely bad the British were content to consolidate their gains, to heat off counter-attacks and to make themselves Irasy in preparation for another advance when the proper time arrives. The Germans can now guess where the next blow will fall, because Sir Douglas Haig is plainly working on a scheme of smashattacks with objectives near at lvmd The capture of the Messines rid' r e su-gested that the Y?rcs front 1,-ould receive attention next. The concentration of guns and the accunnilation of shell , might suggest that the continuation will come on thin front nlw, I,'it the enemy cannot bo sure. The Ist Armv may take up the running or the third may bo thrown into tiho battle again.

The battlfl of Messincs has been referred to more than once as a, very fine example of a completely successful action for a impose. All the military cities sh,wer praise on General Plumer for his handling of the proposition. The military critic o •'Truth/' who is commonly regarded aB being closely in touch with Army opinion, gives some part,cularly illuminating comments. " Success was due in the first, place," he says, ' to_ the care and foresight of "the preparations, which have been fully described by the war correspondents at the front, and were in striking contrast with the haphazard organisation of the attacks of March 9 and September 25, 1915, as also of the opening operations in the Somme valley last year, when the want, of tactical co-ordination led to such a prodigious waste of man power without any corresponding results. Credit on this occasion must, fir&t of all, be given to General Plumer, under whose personal direction the attack was planned and initially started on it 9 course. From the clay when he was adjutant of the 65th Regiment in the early 'eighties to the present time, when he finds himself in command of an army, General Plumer has always been remarkable for his methodical habit of soldiering and for his infinite capacity of taking pains. He is not a cavalry general, but it is no slur on the professional character of the distinguished cavalry generals who are now fighting on the western front to say that he is none the worse for this. This is a. war of infantry and artillery, not of cavalry.

" Dash and thrust are impotent to win through to victory when troops are face to face with wired trenches and

machine-guns. Method and painstaking preparation are everything. Given this, as it was last Thursday, and tho troops are then launched on their way with the assurance that their services are being turned to tho best use, and that not a single life wTQ be wasted owinn to incompetent leadership. Tlie last' word will always'he said by the men and their brave young platoon leaders, but they will say it with unfailing success when they know that they aro sent over the parapet at the right time, and not before tho antecedent chances of victory are all in their favour. This is a soldiers' war, but it is also a generals' war, and from a close study of the operations which have taken placo it is possible to say that whenever we have won it is because the generals have given a right lead, and whenever we have lost a wrong one."

It is some months now since Sir Douglas Haig told M. Tudcsq, tho French correspondent, that he intended to hit the. enemy, not, as last year, at one point only, but at various points and all along the line. The statement attracted little attention at tho time, but clearly Sir Douglas oven then had in mind precisely the sort of attack that has been carried out this summer. There is no profit in speculating what might have happened if the Russians had remained at their old strength in tho field and if the Germans had not been able to concentrate so many divisions and so many guns in the western theatre. But apart from the Russian breakdown, the Germans wer fi hound to be stronger at any given point in tho west this year than they were last autumn, because their front has been greatly shortened, and in addition to th 0 saving thus effected they had tho levies trained in the winter to draw on. TIK-y have, the 1918 draft already in the firing line, of course, and, if need be, will use ihe 1919 draft, which is now in the depots.

Jfc is too early yet to be forecasting next year's developments, however, because. them are three or lour months of fighting this year in tho west. Dramatic developments arc not to be expected, at any rate in France. "Final victory is now all a question of previous preparation," says tho correspondent of "Truth," concluding his comments on the Messincs battle. "We have a numerical superiority of men and guns, and wo arc- steadily obtaining a, tactical superiority which will become more marked when our effort is even better co-ordin-ated than it now is. In a war of the present colossal dimensions strategical decisions cannot be obtained all at once Not armies, but whoio nations, are at war, and with the large number of men still at the disposal of tho Central Powers, a single local tactical decision, however pronounced, will not lead to a determining strategical issue. Our cours e is clear, namely, to continue our local attacks at every opportunity, and go on pounding away incessantly at the enemy, giving him no rest, wearing him out, tempting him to waste his strength in fruitless counter-attacks, increasing our gun-power, husbanding our men, and se-tting the best example w c can to ~,,. A"i--."