PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3033, 21 March 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

. Although we , are not. able to measure the grand advance of the Allied Army from Monchy—ten miles south of Arras—to. the Noyon plateau—one hundred miles distant— 'it grows increasingly clear that the enemy'B retirement has been carried out on a. tresgndous scale. The line on' which the' Germans by their trench defences and fortifications had. compelled us to settle down, until we gathered power has been forced back, and on a line of one hundred miles we have advanced in places up to thirty miles, lb is a great stride forward, but it is no more than Sib Douglas Haig at the close of the first stage of the greai>eet, longest; fiercest battle in history, the Somme Push, declared to be possible. Then the Oommander-t in-Chief wrote':'"Theenomy'spower nas not yet been broken; nor is it possible to form an estimate of the

time the war may last before the objects for which tho Allies are fighting have been attainod. But the Sommo battle has placed beyond doubt tho ability of the Allies to gain those objects. Neither victors nor vanquished will forget this [the fact that half the total German

force was defeated] ; and though bad weather has given tho enemy a res J pite, there will undoubtedly be many thousands- in his ranks who will begin the new campaign with little confidence in their ability to resist our assaults or to overcome our defence." Sie Douglas Haig's forecast has ■ been fulfilled.

The general advance in the region already indicated ' is as yet unabated. Tho lino on which the enemy will be able to pull up is unknown. What we do know is that

.with moral broken by overwhelming I force, the Germans are falling back before our successful armies,,, and the pursuit still continues. The faofc that wo aro in possession of the railway and astride tho high road between Arras and Bapaume has teon_ allowed to come through. The British cavalry has pursued the enemy far beyond tho range of our bombardment. The French armies have been none the less successful,

and from Royo. to Soissons there has been a forward movement. Any resistance from the enemy has been overcome, and the whole of the French people will bo . heartened and strengthened by the gratifying progress made. Our Ally's foroea had taken the moasuro of thoir foes both in the air and on the land, and they, too, havo seized the favourable opportunity to press their advantages home. - *- . Y * a The' diabolically complete and .scientific nature of the, defences tho Germans had prepared along this front, at a cost of millions of money by millions of men, have been utterly destrovod. The enemy calculated that flesh and blood and all tho forces of artillery that might be created could not prevail against his elaborato and intricate lines, cased in steel and wire and concrete, and served from profound burrows in the earth which the Germans fondly _ imagined British artillery and British Dayonets could not penetrate. They nave been mistaken. Von Hindenburq admits the inefficiency of deep undergrpund shelters in advanced trenches. As they proved man-traps they arc forbidden.' The. loss of German moral is noted, and the military idol of Germany would revive the warlike spirit of his old infantry. That is a confession of weakness. The best of Germany's troops havo been destroyed, and veterans in arms cannot be mado out of youths or old men after six months' training. Even von HrNDENßusa'a j massed formations, to which he still adheres, cannot restore the German army's moral. The completeness of his defences when, once destroyed rather intensified the German soldiers' conviction that nothing could be invented by their - military oxports that could save or adequately protect them from the men and artillory arrayed' against them. Tho latest von Hindenbueq deliverance 'is a great compliment to the prowess and gallantry of our ' arms.

Along the Verdun front the enemy has attempted another attaok, apparently in some force. Probably it is not .unconnected with the retreat further to tho west and nofth-west, being designed to afford Bome relief to their comrades who are falling back before the French to the north and east of Soissons. In any case tho attack appears to hava beon 'developed on formidable lines, and our Ally has been fully occupied over a- short length of line in tho region of Dead Man's Hill.' 'The enemy advance was in most cases brokcD by _ artillery and machine-gun fire, with heavy losses to the assailants, but at on'o point a footing in the French ferenohes was obtained. Hot_ bayonet work wssulted in the ejection of the Germans from the greater part of tho trench, but when the camo message was dispatched the cnemv still held a short length of the linn. The livening up along the Verdun sector which has recently been noted (

is no doubii in harmony with events north,' and the revival of enemy attacks hero apparently have no special significance.

Although very little nc-ws has come through there would seem, to be a good deal of fighting going on in Southern Serbia, and along the Macedonian front generally. The .French have made a further advance north of Monastir, and it is plain that tho campaign in this region is beginning to assume important dimensions. News from Russia continues to be satisfactory, though the settling down process following on the revolution is bound to take time._ The chief concern at the moment is that all are agreed that the armies i'n the field inutt be kopt well supplied, and this is being done.