Progress of the War.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16159, 13 March 1918, Page 6

Progress of the War.

On the Ypres front the Germans are continuing their policy of "probing ! "and testing," as a repent cable aptly put it. and Sir Douglas Haig's communique to-day records some sharp fighting on this sector. • The attacks, however, as in the case of the Germans' weeji-end efforts, failed to bring about any cliango in the situation, and resulted only in heavy losses being -nflietcd on the assailants. On the Frcnch front the enemy also launched heavy local attacks without gaining any advantage, and the efforts of his specially picked troops to push back the French from their positions north of Verdun appear to have resulted in disastrous failure. In Lorraine American troops successfully attacked tie German positions and inflicted casualties, in addition to destroying enemy organisations. Reports from Palestine and Mesopotamia indicate that the British forces are steadily advancing, aided by the effective co-operation of the aerial service. Apparently the Turks are now putting up a more determined resistance northward of Jerusalem, and this may delay General Allenby's advance somewhat, but ->h<? probability is that this recrudescence

of aggressiveness will not last, and that the war-weary Turkish forces will fall back steadily on Aleppo, the principal objective of the British campaign. The Salonica front figures in the war news to-day as the scene of local fighting, both British and Germans claiming to have carried out successful raids. A significant feature cf the Bulgarian communique is the ref-ar-enco to German storm troops. It is not likely that the Germans would employ these specially trained troops on a merely defensive front, and their presence on the Macedonian line lends colour to the recent rumours that a big enemy offensive might be expected in this arena of the war.