PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2954, 18 December 1916, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The; French Verdun army has reformed a splendid answer to the German peace proposal. To-day's reports tell of a smashing [assault, on a front of half-a-dozen miles east of the Meuse, in which the enemy was swept back over half the distance'separating Fort Douaumont from the line on which he opened his disastrous Verdun offensive ten months ago. An overwhelming defeat and the loss of nine thousand prisoners and 81 guns will no doubt make the Germans more than ever inclined -for peace, but should tend to correct any. misapprehension they may labour under as to the likelihood of getting it on their own terms. From every point of view the latest battle at Verdun is a big event in the war. Above all, it makes an end of whatever hopes the enemy may have of a respite in the Western theatre during the winter months. Since the Allies are able to defy the weather of December, it. may be taken for granted that winter conditions will not prevent the continued development of tbeir, offensive. The offensive will not, of course, gather full head until better weather has/ returned, but a continuing scries of such battles as have been witnessed since the end of October last, apart from the immediate loss and damage to the enemy, .will potently influence the general war situation to the advantage of. the. Allies. .■ * • # #

At the end of October the .French in a brilliant assault regained Fort Douaumont and a swathe of the Verdun territory . which the Germans in their offensive spent two months in conquering. In'tbS Battle of the Ancre, in mid-Novem-ber, the British mastered the extensive Beauoolrt salient and captured seven , thousand prisoners. At about the same time the Germans were crushingly defeated on the French section of the Somme front, and lost St. Pierre Vaast Wood. Now, in the middle of December, at a time when action on a really big scale might have been deemed impossible, they have 1 suffered the greatest defeat of all. The enemy certainly cannot afford to meet such blows as the Allies have struck during -the last seven weeks in anything less than , his maximum available ■strength. We do not know how far Hindenburg is prepared to set dofeat and loss on the West 'front against freedom of action in the Eastern theatres. But the policy of the Western Allies—a policy of striking increasingly heavy and powerful blows as the winter develops—imposes, in any case, definite limits upon the enemy's transfer of force from West to East. It is not at all unlikely that as the outcome of the latest battle Hindenburg will find himself compelled to immediately stiffen the West front at some sacrifice where his Eastern operations are concerned. That the Allies will persevere in their present policy may be confidently assumed. In the great battles since October French and British in turn have taken the leading role, It is now again the British turn, and no doubt the British blow will fall in due course. *'* * # As has been noted, the splendidly effective assault _ reported to-day is the most damaging. blow struck by the Allies since the continuous pressure of tbo Sommo offensive gave place to isolated and sharply-dc-fincd battles on the Sommo and at Verdun. The number of prisoners is tbo largest taken in any single battle since the Allied offensive opened. According to an official report,_ tho attack was made by four divisions (another report says fivo divisions), and tiic losses suffered by the attackers wero not high. That the enemy suffered heavily, apart from his loss of nine thousand in prisoners, may be inferred frofli the fact that prisoners were taken from every regiment in the live German divisions engaged.

Tnii attack was launched on a front of half-a-dozen miles, extending cast from the Mcusc in tho neighbourhood of Vacherauvillo, one of the villages captured, and on this front the French advanced nearly two miles. In places they arc now less than two miles distant from the line on which-tho Germans ppened their offensive on February 1 21. Positions have been gained in I this battle which were captured by the Germans on February 25, the fifth day of infantry attacks in the great offensive. Vacherauvillo is on the right bank of tho Mouse, four miles north of the town of Verdun, and from Vacherauvillo tho French advanced nearly two miles north-north-east along tho Vacher-auville-Bcaumonl. Boad. On' the other flank of the attacking front they reached and captured the village of Bczonvaux, rather more than a mile and a half north-east of Fort Douaumont. Other place-names mentioned in the reports belong mostly lo villages, farms, and woods in tho area between the VachcrauvillcBeaumont Road and Bczonvaux Louvemont villago is two miles north-cast of Vacheranville, and Chambrettes Farm, a high position is about a mile north-east of Louvemont. Tho Bois des Fosses stands mjrth of Chambrettes Farm. Hardaumont Wood is south of Bczonvaux. Ike attack at all points traversed rolling hill country of which the Germans have now a;

limited occupation. One' peculiarity of the position is that the French advauco along the Vaehcrauvillcl3oattmont Itbad leaves the Germans awkwardly placed in a deep elbow of tho Meuse, west of the positions which the FreHch now hold. Probably tho enemy wilt have to speedily evacuate the area cncloscd in this bend of the river. No doubt the French forward movement will affcct tho position west of tho Meuse, hub tbo earlier stages of tho Verdun struggle showed that operations on opposite sides of the river are not as closely interdependent as might have been supposed.

News from Mesopotamia tells of tho resumption of the British offensive in the near neighbourhood of Kut-el-Amara, where General Townshend and his division capitulated to the Turks after a heroic defonco ex-tending over fivo months. Today's reports hold out a fairly definite promise that the misfortunes of the last adva-ricc on Bagdad are at length about to bo retrieved. It. is now evident that during the months in which a curtain has been dropped upon the campaign the British forces maintained the positions gained at the height of _the abortivo attempt to relievo General Townshend at. Kut-el-Amava. The relieving force made its maximum advance oti the south bank of the Tigris, where_ it captured portion of the Es Sinn position, seven miles below Kut. The curtain lifts to show the British in contact with the enemy at_ Sannaiyat, about ten miles down river from Kut, oh the north bank, but the chief development reported is a movement which aims at turning the'enemy defences on this soction of the Tigris, and raises the possibility of a. new investment of Kut-el-Amara with, a Turkish garrison standing siege. The new development has taken shape, not on the Tigris itself, but on the Shatt-cl-H-ai, which strikes south from Kut and connects tho Tigris and the Euphrates.

, Reachikc the Shatt-el-Hai, .apparently by an overland march and not by a northward movement from Ehe Euphrates, the British have gained command of bpth banks and are moving north. The latest official report in hand states that an outpost has been established within three-quarters of a mile of the Tigris at Kut-el-Amara. All going well tho Turks will have to speedily choose between evacuating Kut-el-Amara or standing a siege. Pressed in sufficient force,_ the movement up the Shatt-el-Hai will, of course, equally determine the fate of the Turkish positions at Sannaiyat and other places on either bank of the Tigris south of Kut. It is mentioned in the reports that the transport and other deficiencies which formerly hampered the invading army have been rectified. Railways have been built, the air service improved, and the medical and commissariat departments made efficient. Railway transport, will in some vital particulars be an immense improvement upon the carriage of supplies by river, and-tho problems of the invasion should as a result .be materially simplified. In Mesopotamia it is the winter season that .best lends itself to active operations, and as a whole tho current news'from this thoatre ib distinctly promising.

The enemy offensive in Wallachia, which lately seemed to be declining, is again being actively pressed. Today's reports show'that the Germans flave captured Buzeu, and that the Rumanians arc falling back .from the Buzeu lino and from t.Hc Rivov Jalomitza, which runs south-east to the Danube. . As matters are going the onemy is in a fair way to occupy the whole of Wallachia and extend his hold upon the Danube ; towards the sea. It is at least doubtful, however, whether he will be able to persevere much longer in his Rumanian offensive, or to take the offensive in the Southern Balkans, m view of late developments in the Western theatre. With, presumably, an increasing tide of reinforcements. from Russia, the Rumanians have reasonably good prospects of winning back their evacuated territory at no very distant date.