PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2448, 29 April 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

It is no longer open to doubt that the Germans are developing an attack in Belgium upon such a scale of immensity that its result must vitally affect the final outcome of the war. Definite news still relates mainly to the attempt to force the passage of the Yser Canal, north of Ypres, but there is word also of furious fighting further north, towards the coast. One correspondent declares that the British mine which blew up Hill 60 started a. conflagra> tion from Ypres to the sea, and

speaks of fierce fighting and the thunder of many guns right along the line. Even mow suggestive is the news that the Germans have closed the frontiers of Germany and Belgium, cutting off communication with Holland. No doubt they are massing still grcate.- forces 'than they have yet brought into action, and endeavouring to mask their preparations as _ far' as possible in secrecy, but in face of the fearless enterprise of the Allied ai:f scouts they arc likely to find secrecy difficult of attainment. Everything points to the likelihood that the hammor-stroke against the Ypres salient was the opening' move only in a vastly more ambitious effort — an effort upon which the Germans, more than probably, are prepared to state a very great part of their remaining offensive power.

Details of the later fighting on the main battle-front go to show that the tide has turned for the time being at least definitely in favour of the Allies. The British, who were checked in their north-eastern advance from Ypres and dislodged from St. Julien are again forcing their way towards that village. ,-ffhoy have also recaptured Het Sas, a village on the right bank of the canal, four and a half miles north of Ypres, which was occupied by the enemy. A report by the Germans that they still hold a bridgehead on the western bank of the Yser Canal, half a mile south of Het. Sas, is inconsistent with general reports of Franco-British progress north of Ypres, and meets definite contradiction in a message from Dunkirk, stating that no Germans remain on tile western banjc of the Canal. The broad effect of the Allied dispatches is to show that the British line where it runs north and south to the east of Ypres, and where it turns west to the Yser Canal (three miles north of Ypres), has been at one point slightly advanced and . else\vhere maintained. For a couple of miles immediately north of this section the Germans are still' pressing the attack very near to the Canal, but havo lost a little ground.

Reported developments in other sections of the-Western front-are favourable to the Allies. South-east of Verdun, opposite Lo'riaine, the destruction of German attacking columns appears to have become al.most a normal feature of the 1 conflict. It is mentioned that a thousand German dead were counted opposite one point alone. The onfy variation introduced to-day is the announcement that the Allies in this region have not only beaten off all German assaults, but have taken the offensive and made some slight gains !of ground. Better 'news ' still is given concerning Alsace. Yesterday ,it was reported that the French had lost the summit of Hartmannsweiler Kopf, a commanding hill position dominating a section of the Southern 'Alsatian Plain. To-day's newß is that they have not only regained the summit, but have driven the Germans a couplo of hundred yards down the eastern side towards the plain. So far as events have dc-/ veloped, therefore, the Allies are shown to be more than holding their own, aliko on the main battle-front in Flanders and at other sections of tho Western line.

As to the scale upon which the German offensive is likoly to develop in the immediate future evidence.is meagre, though there appears to be a general agreement both that very great and grave developments' are imminent and that the Allies aro in a position to await them with confidence. Sir John French is credited with, a breezy statement that: "The further they come this way the harder they'll get whipped!" which is said to have become a slogan with the soldiers who have_ bo gallantly stemmed the German living torrent. The military correspondent of The Times also speaks of a German onset in Flanders upon a maximum scale as a thing to be desired. The suggestion here is plain—that it will lighten the task of the Allies if the Germans expend in vain assaults the fighting force which might have been reserved for the defence of their fortified lines in Belgium and along the frontiers of the Rhine provinces. At the same timo it is .clear that the rising German torrent in Flanders is riot to be regarded in any but tho gravest light. ,The strength of the remaining German reserves and v the numbers of men ! can be transferred from the Eastern front are'secrets that have been well guarded, but the conditions of the conflict in Flanders demand that the assault should be made upon a scale of the first magnitude, and no doubt preparations have been, made accordingly. It. has been stated, though not officially, that .at a hundred thousand German soldiers were brought into the fighting line between ■ Boeainghe and Zuydßchoote, a section of the Yser front little mon than a mile and a half in length. Assuming that the attack develops elsewhere on . the same scale, it is quite possible that considerably moro than a million men may shortly be engaged m the effort to hammer a road to the coast.

■-#* * ' # That the Germans will confine their assault to the few miles of the Yser front which now constitute the main battle line is not to bo expected. The exact position of the contending armies in Northern Flanders has npt beea disclosed of late, but the Germans at_all events hold Dixmude, which stands on the east bank of the Yser Canal, about halfway from Yprcs to the sea; and possibly other positions which equally menace the Allied front. No doubt the assault north of Ypres will be supplemented, at Dixmude or elsewhere, as forces become available. The situation as it stands does not seem to lend, itself to niceties of strategy. Mighty armies are facing each other, across a ditch, in an area which consists for the most part of a dreary expanse of waterlogged i plains. The aim of the Germans is simply to bm'st the Allied line at one point or another—that of the Allies to maintain it intact. Present indications are that the tremendous conflict now developing in Flanders under these conditions will bo the greatest "soldiers' battle" that the world has ever witnessed.

# * * * A somewhat disconcerting contribution to estimates, of Allied, prospects is made by the military correspondent of the London Times, tho writer who is quoted in one message as saying that tho prospect of a Gorman onset in Flanders', is almost too good to be hoped for. In a later message he is credited with sharply criticising the Imperial Government for delay in transporting the new army to France.' England, he states, is literally crammed with troops at a moment when decisive operations a*e

imminent, and if the operations fail the blame must rest upon the Cabinet alone. It is as difficult to reconcile these utterances as it is to believe that the new a>rmy remains in England while such great events are developing in Flanders. Strong indicationk nave been afforded from time to time that tho transportation of the new army began months ago. In any case this is an occasion when a little quiet faith in the wisdom and efficiency of tho Imperial military authorities may advisedly bo set against the possibly mutilated strictures of a critic.

An optimistic account from Amsterdam of lata developments in the Yser battle declares that the Germans havo exhausted their reserves, while the Allies, 'having brought up thousands of fresh troops, are developing a flanking attack near Streenstraate, the northern limit of tho present main battle-front. .As describing a phase in the great conflict this may deserve attention, but it should not be taken to mean too much. The Allies' counter-offensive can hardly have progressed yet to the extent here suggested.

*. * / * * No important change is reported in the Carpathians, but.a Russian message states that the Germans have half a million men in that section of the Eastern theatre. Half of them, it is added, are assisting to hold the mountain line, while the remainder aj'o co-operating in tho attempt to turn the Russian flank in Eastern Galicia. If this is a correct estimate of the German strength in the Carpathians; it seems unlikely that any very great force can be transported from East to West. Apart from their armies in Western Galicia resisting the Russian advance on Cracow, the Germans have to maintain a front of nearly four hundred miles in Poland, and with half a million men in the Carpathians their available margin of strength would of necessity be, extremely limited.

Cheerful account's by the Turks of successful defence at the Dardanelles admit of a simple explanation and are not necessarily wholly based on imagination. Their claim that at some points they forced the Allied landing parties back to the coast is 'quite in keeping with British.i reports that the actual landings were accompanied by feints at other points involving operations in whicn the Turks would 'of course grasp the elusive shadow of victory and embellish it in approved Turkish fashion. At the same time the assertion of the Turks that they repelled .the French attack at Kum Kaleh, on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles entrance, is directly contradicted by an otneial report from Paris which states that the French have, occupied Kum Kaleh and taken 500 prisoners, The landing,on the Asiatic side is unexpected in view of the opinion' generally entertained that the Allies would confine their land operations to the Gallipoli Peninsula. It is still probable that the operations on the Asiatic side are subsidiary, and that the main attack will be concentrated on the peninsula.

' Presumably some wag is responsible for the story that the Sultan of Turkey has been asked by the "Council of Ministers" to accept the title of "Ghazi," or Conqueror; "Ghazi" as it has been employed in the past implies not merely conqueror, but one who goes into battle determined to conquer or die. For instance it was'applied to a band of Dervish cavaliers who charged a British square at Omdurman and persisted so gallantly that the last man was dropped at a distance of a oouple of hundred yards. - It is to be feared that no such heroic fate is reserved for the puppet Sultan who has played a feeble part in the midst of German usurpers and warring factions of' his own countrymen.