PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2932, 18 November 1916, Page 8

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The great struggle north south of the Ancre in which' the British Army struck such a splendidly effective blow is now .apparently at an end for the time being, but it leaves in its wake a condition of affairs with which the enemy'has as little reason as rjossiblo to h& satisfied, and its effects aro likely to reach far. The .Germans do not know, when the next blow, will fall—indeed, as will be .seen from an official report to-day, they have already suffered another heavy defeatin battle- with the French at St. Pierre Vaast Wood—and the general situation existing. on the Western front is obviously calculated, amongst other things, to seriously weaken and impede the enemy in his offensive and defensive efforts in other 'theatres. Late events on the Somme front havo manifestly an important bearing upon the position iir the Eastern theatre and in Rumania, and they have a, bearing also upon the threat of a new attempt by the_ Austrians to break into the Venetian plain from the Trentino. We-cannot'off-hand dismiss_ this threat as mere bluff, but it is possible to say very confidently that the enemy's prospers of gaining even temporary advantage in such enterprises are declining, and that the risks he takes in embarking upon them aro increasing. It is putting the case moderately to. say that. the recent battles on the Somme, and particularly the brilliant British stroke north-west of Thiepval,.. have very greatly (brightened the immediate outlook, and strengthened the promise that the Allies will emerge from the winter campaign in a position of pronounced advantage. • These battles on the main' front in mid-November heavily discredit the view that there is likely to be a comparative lull in the AVcstern theatre during the winter. Some time ago we had an authority like Colonel Repington asserting that operations on the grand scale would cease on the Somme front at the end of October, and there is no doubt that he expressed an opinion which was widely held. It' has, nevertheless, been falsified by events. One big lesson of the Ancrc victory is that the Germans cannot reckon upon immunity even when conditions aro most unfavourable to active operations. The significance of the event from this standpoint is,, of course, all the ercater on account of the fact that it involved no immoderate sacrifice on the part of the attacking army. Handicapped', as thev were by_ conditions of ground and weather in driving home their splendid assault, the British troops, as evidence' stands, inflicted much heavier loss than they suffered. Sir Douglas Haig has stated that the British losses, considering what was achieved, were not high".' No doubt the division mentioned in his report as advancing over a .mile and taking a thousand prisoners, at the cost of 450 casualties, was exceptionally fortunate, but since the Germans lost 5600 prisoners, irrespective of killed and wounded, it cannot be doubted that their total losses were very much greater than those of the British. On every ground it must be considered that apart from its tactical importance as..a. step towards the conquest of Bapaume, the Ancrc battle and .related .events'of the-offensive are-of the-.higliest,im-portance and significance. Showing in the first place that the Allies are ' able to develop their offensive in conditions which might have been ! supposed to make progress impos- I sible, they convey also a positive ' insurance that the enemy will pay a \ maximum price for any attempt" to ' further develop his policy of draw- ; ing troops from the Western theatre , for operations elsewhere.*' ( : , j While a lull has succeeded for ! the moment to • the late tornado of battle in the Ancrc valley, big svents are astir about a dozen miles away to the east and south. •" * It is I reported ' to-day tha*t the ; ' French' ■ have captured _ St. Pierre Vaast 1 Wood, and this is a! big achievement < in itself,, and the bigger.on account -i )f immediately 'preceding events. St. 1 Pierre Vaast is an extensive, wood. ' ocatcd eastward of the -Bapaume- '< Pcronne high road, approximately r nichvay between these towns. This 1 s the area in which the - German 'j front has been • most deeply penes ;rated—Combles, formerly a. vital C dement in the German third'line s ics two miles west of the western t nttskirts of St. Pierre Vaasfc Wood t -but . the wood is a formidable, s itronghold, and has been most ten- c iciously defended. Yesterday's re- e wrts told of a tremendous counter- c ittack by the Germans on a front o if half a dozen miles extending r. lorth and north-east, and south, of d 3t. Pierre Vaast Wood. The effort t corns to have been almost the most a unbitious of its kind made by the d Germans since the Allied, offensive e ipencd, and it gave rise to a-furious c

i battle, but the success gained by th ' enemy, oven in the first momcntur i of his assault, was poor. In earlie operations the French had gaine s portion of St. Pjcrro Vaast Wooc which they evidently aimed at mas • tering, chiefly by an encirclin, • movement on north and south. Th ■ Germans in their assault swept foi ■ ward to the' western and norther edges of the wood, which meant tha ■ practically the whole of its area, wa ■ again in their hands. Elsewher their attacks collapsecl. The Frenc ,haye now struck, a. return bloi which_ has gained the whole wooc ; This involves a further deep .penc tration of the enemy/ front to point nearly a mile and a half eas of the Bapaunie-Peronnc road.- I is a 6ig achievement, and a glance a the map will show that it is also a: important development in the turn ing movement against Peronne o: the north. * . ■ *.-■*. The actual inter-relation of lat events on the Somme"front is no by any means clearly disclosed a reports stand at the moment. A an immediate viow it may seem tha i the Germans laid themselves ope! to the "British attack' north am south of. the Ancre by'their conce'n tration' for "a big effort to restore and strengthen their line in the St Pierre Vaast locality, and for th counter-attack which was launche.i simultaneously south of the Somme There is, of course, no particula.: reason to doubt that their concen tration upon these enterprises in volved sotne weakening of the Ger man forces north and south of thi Ancre, but it is impossible to holt that the Germans laid themselvei open in this fashion unwittingly and that they were unaware of th< blow that was about to fall in thi Ancre ."locality. -It is by this tim< quite clear that" the element of sur prise can have related to little mor< than the moment of launching th< great British assault, and that th< long artillery preparation whicl preceded- the assault-r-according 'tt one Gorman, newspaper .it.. laste'c for twelve days—must have given th< enemy extended notice of what wa-i coming. • This suggests that if th( Germans weakened their lint in the Ancre valley in order to concentrate force in their counter-attack.' further east and south, they musl have done so in that thcs< attacks would anticipate and dislo cate offensive.action by the Allies. This conjecture gains support frorr the fact that the enemy counter-at-tack, . though it fell mainly on the French section of the line, extended _ to, or somewhat beyond,- the point of junction between the French and British armies. The village of Lesboeufs, which marks the northwestern extremity of the front on which tho Gcrnjans attacked,, was captured, and is held by British troops. The circumstances suggest that the enemy based high hopes upon his powerful counter-stroke, and the magnitude of his defeat at the hands of both French and British is emphasised accordingly. Taken at their face value, ;to-day's reports from Macedonia mean that the Allies .may at any time now capture Monastir, the railhead town in Serbian Macedonia ".which has been the objective of the Serbians and other sections of the .Allied army in long-continued and desperate battles on tho mountainous Serbo-Greek frontier. The significance of the latest reports is not in their intimation that the Allies .are within less than four miles of Monastir','but in th'c'statemcrit that they have fully mastered the heights which' flank on either hand the gan of eight miles through which the Monastir railway runs. An advance through the gap was, of course, impossible while the enemy' held tho flanking heights, but now that he has lost ihera,_ the way should be clear. Monastir is only about half a dozen miles distant from the nearest point on the frontier in a direct line, and twelve miles beyond the frontier by rail, but its capture will carry important consequences. Gaining the plain on which Monastir is situated, the Allies will have overcome the'first and probably the strongest obstacle' protecting .the Vardar valley, which carries the main transport line north through the Balkans, • against . attack in flank. Pushing, forward from Monastir to the Vardar, the Allies would compel the Bulgar-Germans to evacuate their present.. front in Macedonia, but it remains to be seen whether such.an advance is deemed practicable or advisable in the weather conditions' which have now set in. .. Tho latest battles were fought in rain and snow, and a winter campaign in the Balkans is not an adventure to bo lightly undertaken. It may be noted time that an Allied 'advance from' Monastir .would still be'confronted by mountain positions covering the Vardar line, notably the range in which the famous Babuna Pass is situated. It lias been reported, hoW3ver, that roads which have been xmstructcd by the Bulgars along th* C'er'na valley will materially assist tho -Allies in ■ turning' the defences sf the Babuna range. ■' Along with the news of import :ant developments in Western-Mace-louia, .it is announced that the British have resumed the .offensive m.the Struma.- A farther move has icon madc.aronnd the northern end )f Lake Tahinos, and a village has )eon wrested from the Bulgars, who lave been compelled to retire in .the' ire;ij'soiith-west of Seres; The Brit: sh'advance is another, step towards raining command, of the. Struma 'alley on the approach to Bulgarian errifcory,and cutting off the-enemy wees in Eastern Macedonia from convenient contact with their main >ody. >■- The threat of another attempt by he Austrians to invade northern .taly and so gain relief from the iressurc under which their "defences in the Carso plateau arc threatenng to giVc'way calls nicantinfe for. ittlc rcmark'.'..lt. is evidently .on a iitmber.of 'kro.u'nds unlikely that-the-.tterapt will be made. After events lade it abundantly plain that the ast Austrian- offensive.- from the h'entino imposed no really serious train upon Italian resources. Its lefeat _was followed closely by the plendid offensive stroke in which lie Italian gained Gorizia.. Ausria- is vdry much weaker now than be wgs in May, and it is to be , onsidcred also that the Trentino is isentially a theatre in which winter - Jnditions- heavily hamper, offensive : peraiions.' Only the fact'that the ( osit'ibn on the Garso plateau borers on the- desperate from the Austrian standpoint makes it conceiv- '■ ble that the attempt which broke ' own five months agomay'be-renew-3-in the very much less favourable ■ ircumstances which now exist.