PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3050, 11 April 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A battle has opened on the West front which may ultimately rank as the greatest of the war. The British Army is attacking on sections of a front of more than forty miles, from south of Lens to St. Quentin, but the main weight of the attack has fallen on a front of twelve miles,' from Givenchy-en-Gohelle, south of Lens, to Henin-sur-Cojeul, a. few miles south of Arras. Over the greater part of. this distance of twclvc'niiles the attack was made upon the' , powerful fortifications of the original German line, and the advance of from. two to three miles, reported at time of writing, shows in the' clearest fashion that the offensive in its opening stages has been, splendidly successful. -An early report stated that after being.' dislodged from his forward defences on the Lens-Arras sector, including' the famous Vimy, ridge, the enemy was fighting desperately in strong rearguard defences, but already there is official news that these defences havo been mastered on a wide front. The fact is clearly attested that the enemy has been thrown out of vital positions by an attack of overwhelming power,'and prospects are to be measured accordingly. .

Between Lens and 'Arras the Bri,fcish have captured-at a stroke the high positions dominating the Douai plain, in which the Germans successfully resisted attacks in September, 1915. Tho principal element in :the enemy defences in this area was the Vimy ridge, a flaktopped elevation about 400 feet high, extending in the shape of a half-moon from Givenchy-en-Gohelle to Thehis, a distance of three miles. The ridge overlooks Vimy station, the railway between Arras and Lens, and the rolling country towards Douai on the east.- In September the defences of the ridge included-great subterranean shelters, aU of,them connected by underground passages, and it may be taTcen for granted that the Germans have, since done their utmost to make it'impregnable. It ■fell-to Canadian troops to conquer one of the most formidable strongholds in- the whole German lirrfe. While the northern attack has to a great extent cleared the way for a drive, into the plain south of Lille, with its network of important railways, considerable headway has also been made further south, on the approaches to Cambrai and St. Quentin. On a front of several miles south from the Bapaume-Cambrai Road, tho attacking troops have pushed forward in places for a mile or more and on the line of the highroad; as reports stand, thoy are within about nine miles of Cambrai. Notable progress has also been made north-west of St. Qucntin. Like- the junction of Lens in the north, St. Quentin is in a fair way to be encircled, and the threat to Cambrai is developing.

The commanding feature of the situation is that the Germans are involved in a battle- ou a vast scale which they had hoped and planned to avoid. Since early in March they have been engaged in a retirement which is only intelligible on' the assumption that they had decided upon a -policy of. retreating by. stages, and as far as possible, refusing battle until they had reached a short front on which they would be best able to withstand the strain of attack. It is stated to-day by Mh. PhililP Gibbs that the enemy hoped to continue his retreat, in the south before tho British wore ready to attack on the northern front, and that his plana have been frustrated by the speed and effect of. the blow struck on Easter Monday. On the" facts disclosed this looks like a sound judgment. There is no doubt that the Germans had planned a gradual retreat and.that the aotioa of the Allies has already gone far to wreck this plan. The enemy has only slightly shortened his front and it is decidedly more vulnerable now than before the retreat began. Instead of retiring at case- and outdistancing effective Allied pursuit he is either heavily engaged or is liable to he at any moment in a series of vital sectors — tho Douai plain, the approaches to Cambrai, tho St. Quontin area and th.e front between the Oise and the Aisnc —where' the complete penetra-' tion of his lino would be likely to entail disaster. These are certainly conditions as different as possible fromi she enemy, hoped to ath

tain and on present appearances it should not bo long bofore the situation is further changed to his detriment.

The great events reported to-day on tho northern front strengthen instead of diminishing tho prospect of an extension of the Allied offensive to the. Champagne. It is not in the least likely that the-Allies will confine their attacks to that part of his front on which tho enemy is facing west. The penetration of his line at any one c£ a number of points between tho const of Flanders and. , the Aisne woiud lay him open to tho envelopment and loss of a section of his forces, but the way would bo cleared for a much niore damaging turning movement if tho Germaa front \> r ero breached in the Champagne. Tho French have yet to take the offensive on a scale corresponding to' that of the great thrust which is now under way on tho northern front, but it will assuredly not bo long before they are co-operating in full vigour with their Allies. Meantime it may bo worth while; to re.rnember that,in the offensive ol September, 1915, the attacks inade upon the enemy position in Artois were subsidiary to the greater op'erations simultaneously under-' taken in the Champagne, and that the reasons dictating this pol-: icy have not lost their force. The , British Army will certainly play a big pai"t in the offensivo in M'hich it has made the first important movo and undertake its full snaro of whatever fighting lies ahead, but this does not necessarily mean that the Allies are more anxious to break through the German line in Flanders, Artois, or Picardy than to turn, it further east, towards the frontier. It is clear, at all events, that the great massing of German forces on the northern, front made inevitable by existing circumstances will create, opportunities on the eastern sections of tho front which are not likely to.' ho neglected. :

Whatever line of development the; Allied offensive may. take it.is tol-' , erably certain that the French and "British" Armies are in all respects ready.and prepared to put forth a maximum effort for decisive /'ictory.. There is not the slightest reason to suppose- that a ■. premature start has oeen made. or less unsettled conditions existing in Russia, and the reverse lately suffered by the Russians on the Stochod, may suggest the need of a diversion, but there is ample evidence that the- Western Allies were only, awaiting the return of better weather to set. their offensive in motion. Before the Somme offensive camo to a halt last year, they had evolved a system of tactics which, enabled them to turn the balance of josses materially against the enemy, in spite of the advantages he derived from his elaborately_ fortified positions. The dispatch. in which Sik Douglas Haig. reviewed last year's offensive made it clear that but for the arrival of bad weather, uhe enemy line would have been broken. Witt another winter of preparation behind, them the Allies' ate resuming the , offensive with excellent prospects.-