NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16154, 7 March 1918, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE CAMBRAI BATTLE,

It will bo admitted, we think, that Sir Douglas Haig, in his report on tho battlo of Cambrai,. or rather on tho circumstances under which the British troops were compelled to relinquish part of the ground they had. won, disposes of the criticisms to which the commanding officers had been subjected. He .gives good reasons why the attack was continued after the period at which it had been intended, to ceaso,

ancl also for the subsequent retire-

ment of our troops. J*he value ,of Bourlon Ridge, which dominated several of the positions we had captured, made it .most desirable that we should add it to our other'gains. Had the conflict ended with its capture, all would 1 have been well—success would have justified the extension of the attack. But, as it happened, wo had, for once, bitten off rather too laTge a mouthful, and the Germans, rallying in force from the panic into which the British advance, especially that of the tanks, had thrown them, eventually, after suffering tremendous losses, com-1 pelled our partial retirement. An experienced Uritish correspondent described this German effort as stupendous. It was not only made swiftly, and, in imitation of the British attack, without the announcing barrage, but troops were hurled in enormous nuir.bers against the somewhat awkward salient which .we held. Reuter's correspondent asserted that a quarter of a million Germans were employed to try to restore the broken Hindenburg line, of which, after it was all over, thfe British .had still behind them the throe woni&rful lines of reserve, support, and front-line trenches. A Pans paper declared that never had the Germans shown such stubbornness, resistance, tenacity, and scorn of death. They pressed forward fiercely and blindly. "After each hecatomb o:io might imagine that all the German reserves had been concentrated here. \ The Germans had been told that if they recaptured the Hmdenburg line peace was certain." ■I'he enemy's plan, referred to by sir Douglas Haig as a bold and ambitious one, had been worked out by General Ludendorff. . But it failed, in a gveat degree, owing/to the magnificent; resistance offered by the British troops.

S A GAS-SOAKED WOOD

It was unfor tunnto that we had to abandon Bourlon Wood, which would have been a valuable watch-tower foi us, as it is for the Germans. But there was no regret at leaving it on the part of the troops who were occupying it, for tho enemy had bombarded it with gas shells t/nd our men had suffered

considerable hardship in the gas-laden atmosphere. The poison lay heavy on the ground and driited sluggishly among the trees. After the silent withdrawal of our troops from the wood, an operation carried out at night with admirable discipline. the unsuspecting enemy, knowing nothing of the evacuation, shelled tne wood furiously, and then sent in his infantry in huge waves, only to find the place deserted and reeking with asphyxiating lumoa"Later on. as the enemy emerged fj""in the wood into tiie open, our artillery Minute them with a sudden and devastating fire.

FIGHTING IN A GASSED AREA. What it means to fight in a gassoaked area, 'such as .bourlon Wood was, iiab been graphically described by one of the col lespoiiilents at tne 1 r-oiu ' with the .British. 1 '■ Jji pockets of ground filled with gas,'' he writes, "men are sometimes una bio to eat and drink save when relieved. They dare not lift their m;:.-ks to speak. Orders may have to be conveyed from one hooded head to anotiier bv or pencilled scrawls oil scraps of paper. An overpowering feeling of oppression settles like a leaden weight on men who are iorced to live in these close-fitting helmets. They look out dimly on tne battlefield* through heavy panes of glass sunk in leaden sockets like the eve-pieces of a diver's dress. The nose is clutched tightly by a metal spring to prevent : breatning through the nostrils. The ; teeth grip—and never for a sec- ■ ond release —the hard rubber nozzle of a snake-like tube that vanishes in tho • square canvas bag slun»j high across ' tho chest. They inhale laboriously, and filtered air comes deviously through a hidden chamber in tlie bag. There is often a feeling of apprehension lest the tube should slip and a whiff of gas ooze through a crevice— although tho helmet is so well made and carefully tested that accidents arc very rare. Tho man who has a cough cannot relieve himself. He must choKe and gasp and make the best of it, for the alternative might be death. You who only read of poison gas and gasmasks will never know the utter joy of freely breathing God ? s fresh air uncraniped by this hateful covering, which brings to sensitive minds a maddening suggestion of being coffined alive." CR UISER-SUB.MAKINES. It is extremely probable tliat the British Admiralty knows a great deal ; more about German submarines than it will allow to bo made public, and could, I if it chose, tell us the exact truth about . | the "cruiser-submarines," of which a , good deal has been heard of late. The report of a day or two ago regarding tho value that Germany placed. upon Zeebruggc, whence so many of the U-boats . arc believed to sally lorth, mentioned that n smaller typo of submarine was now being, built. This, however, did not noccssarily mean that, none ol the reported cruiser-submarines had been, or wero being, constructed. It is quite obvious, as pointed out by one writer, that for operations in tho North Sea or the Channel the small submarine is rnoro dangerous than its big brother, since it can manoeuvre with greater agility, divo more rapidly, and requires less depth of water to submerge in. "Somo months ago," he continued, "Cyermany sent out a group of newlyouilt raiders which wero about half as large again as the earliest type. Thero is reason to believe that two-thirds of them failed to return from their maiden cruise, and after this disastrous experience no more of the intermediate type were bnilt. Realising that the U-boat campaign must collapse altogether unless it took on a wholly different character, the German naval authorities set to ivork to design a submarine which would bo capable of doing everything the Emden _ did, but with the added power of disappearing below the surface whenever pursuit waxed too hot." It was possibly to vessels of< this class that Mr Archibald Hurd was referring when, as cabled somo days ago, he spoke of certain German "cruiser-sub-marines that* had been sunk by British vessels. These submarines, he said, wero driven on the surface by steam, giving 18 knots, and were equipped with telescopic funnels, which disappeared into the hull before submersion. The statement that the vessels were driven by steam was a trifle, difficult to understand and believe, in view of their being submersible. But an Australian paper, in support of the contention that the thing is feasible, quotes an invention described some time ago by a French naval writer, which did away with one great objection to tho use of steam in a submarine, namely, that the heat of tho boiler and furnaces would roast the crew. This invention, he says, involved a sort of vacuum flask, or haybox cookery device, by which the water-tube boiler was surrounded with material (or it might be a vacuum) which prevented any but very slow and gradual escape of heat. On the surface, then, steam would be generated by oil fuel in some form, but as soon as the vessel submerged the flame would be shut off. The idea was that tho heat accumulated would be sufficient to keep steam up and the engines going for somo hours, while 'at tho same time, since very little heat would escape, the crew would continue to exist uncooked. The objection that Mr Hurd saw to the use of such submarines would be the time they took to submerge and the target they would offer to a ship's gun.

GAMES FOR FIJNESS. The newspaper proprietors and printers who recently visited Trenvnam are understoou to have been greatly struck with tlio amount of attention that was devoted to making the men physically lit by means or exercises or all sorts. Preparation for war seemed to be largely u matter of athletics. Mr Perry Kobinson, the well-known correspondent of the London "Times" on the Western front, has just described the use that is made there of athletic exercises, mostly in the way of games, to freshen up the men, physically and mentally, after a long period 111 the trenches. Ostensibly, he says, the new school of instruction is for bayonet and muskotry work, "but really it is for teaching the larger creed of physical and moral fitness, keenness, good fellowship, and camaraderie. ' Small time is given to drill, and smaller still to lectures, which are an entertaining, wholesome talk, full of humour and anecdote.

"Tho great thing is the games. All games teach a combination of selfreliance, quickncss of hand, foot, and eye. The games include fencing, boxing, basketball, football,, and tug-of-war. The instructors include world's champions. It is a delight to watch a hundred men in a great gymnasium, boxincr and wrestling, and hundreds outside on a wind-swept hill engaged at other sports. Nowhere else is there

such a scene of riotous exuberant life and physical fitness. A three weeks coursc sends the men hack bubbling with hc-alth and spirits, full of fine ideals and ready for good citizenship after the war."

They must bo in fine condition indeed if they are any better than the averago New Zealand soldier when he steps on board the transport. The war has emphasised, rather than diminished, the value of well-planned physical exercise and outdoor games.