ALLIES' "SINGLE FRONT"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2920, 4 November 1916, Page 6

ALLIES' "SINGLE FRONT"

HOLDING THE GERMANS IN THE WEST (From Mr. H. Warner Allen, Special correspondent of tbo British Press with l.lio French Armies.) The main pivot of tbo Battlo of the Mimio was tho defence of Nancy. The issue of the wholo battle depended on the French holding their ground in their positions round the Grand Couronnc. .The main pivot of tho present battle, which is being fought on a vastly larger scalo on the French, British, Italian, and Russian fronts, is to bo found on tho left or Western, wing. The main object of our armios and those of the French is to hold so great a force of tho enemy as to mako tho operations of otir ALlies in tho centre and on the right irresistible. 10-day tho Germans have on the Western front 0110 hundred and twentyono infantry divisions and one cavalry division, whilo of thoso no fewer than fifty-nino aro activo divisions; that is to say, tlio French aiul British have in front of thorn nearly two-thirds of the German Army in tho field, and many of these troops are the pick of the enemy's available forces. On the Eastern front tho German forces consist of fifty-three infantry divisions and ten cavalry divisions, and of theso only eighteen aro activo divisions. To this force must be added tho Austro-Hun-garian troops, which aro cortainly of iuferior fighting value. They consist of forty-seven infantry divisions and' cloven cavalrv divisions.

The effective pressure of tbo British and French combined armies against tho German forces in tho West is proved by the difficulty aud hesitation with which the enemy has attempted to reinforco his Eastern front against the great Russian offonsivo At the moment of the first shock 011 the East he ventured to withdraw four divisions and since that time lio has sent a singlo division, tlia 121 st, from the West to the East. This division was withdrawn, from tlio Somme,

where it had suffered very heavy losses —three thousand five hundred men in prisoners alono, and_ a large quantity of artillery. As lilungs are at present the Germans cannot spare a single man from this front. Verdun and tho Somme each of them require the presence of soma twenty German divisions

in the first line, and it is clear that tho steady methodicaj advance of tho French and British wTU necessitate the maintenance of every man available on this front.

The Allies' Main Principle. M. Briand's doctrine of the unity of front has been fully realised. On March 27 last he laid down at the Conference of Paris the following main principle on which the Allies must conduct the war against tho Central Empires: "A single cause served by a single army figliting on a single front against a single enemy under one single control?' To-day it is possible to regard all fields of operation as forming part of a single whole. Germany did her utmost to anticipate and prevent the co-operation of the Allies by her wild assault on Verdun. At Verdun France held and defeated the German plan, with the result that M. Briand's system is beginning to prove slowly and surely that it must be successful. Not only have tho French held, and, indeed, gained, ground at Verdun, but in co-operation with the British they iiave pushed back the Germans. Tho Russians and Italians ha.ve made tho most of the opportunities the situation, and the courage and brilliant generalship have brought about a decisive advance. When the day of final victory arrives tho effort'of France and that admirable co-ordina-j tion of tho Allied Jinnies, so largely due to the genius of M. Briand, will j be realised and appreciated by all those who have fought on tho side of civilisa- | tion.