PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2905, 18 October 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A Press Bureau communication jublished to-day, though it deals argely with topography, throws nost interesting light upon -he progress of the AngloFrench offensive and the mportancc of what has been ichieved. It is impossible to read his authoritative statement of the josition without realising that the lilies arc well advanced in an enerpriso which makes for the overturning of a great part of the West:rn hue on which the Germans loped- to stand firm against assaults mtil weariness and exhaustion compelled their opponents to call a halt n the war. The geographical features of the area in which the offenive has thus far developed and of ;he_ country lying ahead are very plainly described. The nine-mile •ango of low hills which the Allies lave mastered, and beyond which 'hey are now advancing, is the main watershed in the whole system of lills stretching northward from the 3omme valley to the tract of low ground between Lens and the railray junction of Cambrai. The Allies have surmounted the most formidable barrier opposing a drive aorth-eastward, over rolling but generally descending country, into the dead-flat territory lying behind the German line in the region of Douai. We are told that the Germans in 1914 selected the line of hills they have now lost as a site for their line, because these hills are the highest ground between the French plain and the Belgian plain. The line thus chosen is backed by a splendid system of road and railway communications, and, as all now know, it was fortified to the highest pitoh tbat engineering art and an unsparing call upon material resources could compass. » # • .

In its details the position must be followed on the map, but the main fact is that the Allies have done a great deal to clear the way for a drive northeastward, between the German line running north -from the Somme region and the railway junction of Cambrai, which stands over twenty miles eastward of the enemy front. This does not cover _ the whole position, for the junction of St. Quentin, more than twenty miles south of Cambrai, is also threatened by the Allied offensive, but the Press Bureau message deals only with thet, possibilities of extended movement to tho north. So far as resistance to this movement is concerned, the Germans have beon thrown back from a lino of enormous strength to one which is relatively weak, and whatever the duration of the remaining chapters of the struggle may be they cannot hope to recover the advantages they formerly enjoyed in virtue of their carefully selected and elaborately fortified positions. How long the Allies will take to crown and complete their achievement is an open question, but they have conquered the most formidable obstacle that lay in their path, and have givon ample proof also of their power ,to carry on a sustained offensive. The situation of the enemy is already unenviable, and certainly another reason than confidence in tho outlook must explain tho fact that he has not yet sought to obtain relief by retreating and shortening his front.

The French penetration of the twin-village of Sailly-Saillisel, which is reported to-day, seems to be a rather important detail development in the Somme offensive. Further north, in tho Le Transloy region, the British are attacking the enemy positions on a low ridge immediately covering a section of-.main road south-east of' Bapaume. ( In this locality, as well as further west, the Germans are in some respects better placed than they were in a number of the positions they have recently lost. Over a great part of the front facing towards Bapaume, tho attackers have moved down a long gentle slope from the summit of the ridge captured at an earlier stage of the battle, and are now again confronted by rising ground, the northorn slope of the Ancre valley. So,far as the Le Transl.oy locality is conoerned, the position is modified to the advantage of the Allies by the fact that, they are attacking in flank, as well as by a direct frontal approach, the rising ground, on which the enemy is established. The penetration of Sailly-Saillisel is an extension of the flank movement against the ridge by which the British arc confronted in the vicinity of Le Transloy, and if tho French are able to push on from their present' success they will materially simplify the task of their Allies.

Official reports upon the operations in the Dobruja have been scanty during the last few days, but according to a Potrograd message, von Maokensen has withdrawn that section of his front which extends to the Black Sea coast towards Dobritch. This place is only ten miles north of the Bulgarian frontier. The enemy retirement involved points to a distinctly improving situation from the Rumanian standpoint. If the Rumanians are able to' push forward in the Dobruja, it must bo assumed that they are not meeting undue pressure in Transylvania, and are probably in a condition to co-operate effectively with their Allies in Macedonia, when tho latter undertake the forward movement which seems probable now at any time.