PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3072, 7 May 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Geeatee apparent progress has I often been made in a given time than the British have mado.thus far in the terrible battle that is' being fought on the Arras front, but correspondents who describe it aro agreed that the war lias seen no harder fighting, and that tho Germans are fighting as they never have before. The. situation is to bo. gauged on its merits By sotting the magnitude of the enemy's losses against, tho fact that he is fitrhting with a purely defensive object in viow. On Thursday last the British broke deeply into the enemy line on both wings of the front selected for attack. At the northern end of the attacking front they captured the village of Fresnoy, nearly four miles east of tho Vimy Ridge, and a ' section of the hsavily-fortified Oppy trench. A dozen miles away to the south they broke into the Hindenburg line west, of the village of Qucant, which stands some ton miles west of Cambrai'. Important intervening positions were also captured, including the village of Cherisy, south of the Arras-Cam-brai :Road. Tho importance attached by the enemv to these positions is indicated in the nature of his efforts to recover them. The counter-attacks in which, since Thursday, he has . been hurling masses of men to their death have given rise to what wems destined to rank as the most furiously contested battle of the war, and it is evident that the sacrifice of life involved has been colossal. .

It will be some time before the | battle appeal's in clear perspective, but several m'aterial facts are already established. The. chief of these is that the. Germans have up to the present made their unprecedented and terrible sacrifices in vain. On some parts of the front there hss been give and take in a death grapple of infantry fighting, but in'essentials the positions 'which the British captured on Thursday havo been maintained against all assaults. In the matter of relative losses evidence is, of course, less definite, but there does not seem to be any room for doubt that the ba.la.nce turns heavily against the enemy. In comparison with following events, the British attack which gained a foothold on the Hindenbnrg line was swiftly driven home. From tho British standpoint the subsenuent course of the battle Ims been almost solely a matter of breaking the counter-attacks which the enemy has pressed, as one correspondent puts it, as if fighting for life, knowing that lie must now win or. die. Numbers of these attacks were broken under artillery fire, which means rlrsnnratc loss to the eneniv with little to set against it. The Germans are massing additional guns | as well as spending masses of men in defence of their menaced line, but indications are that the British retain a marked superiority in tho factor of artillery, and that they are also deriving important advantages from aerial observation which are largely denied to tho enemy. Mit. Philip Gibes mentions that the accurate work of the British aeroplanes in spotting the enemy's new artillery positions has alreadv resulted in a number of (runs being knocked out. by direct hits. Another indication of the trend of the aerial contest is snnnlied by Sin Douglas Haig in his latest report in hand at time, of writing. He states that on Thursday eleven enemy machines were sent to earth as against two British machines missing.

The grim struggle in pro'gress on the Arras front, with its tremendous drain upon the enemy's resources, has its obvious bearing upon events further south. North and south of the- Aisne the French have at several points captured important positions, in a battle which, as reports, stand, appears to be still extending. Tho occupation of Craonne, at the eastern end of the plateau of the same name, is a big step towards the complete conquest of the Ladies' lload (Chemin des Dames) which extends to the westward along the main ridge of the plateau. This ridge was the backbone of the German defence in the area immediately north of the Aisne, but in their recent offensive the 'French carried the crest of the ridge along a part of its length, though apparently nowhere within a dozen or fifteen miles of Craonne. Holding Craonne the French are in a fair way to' dislodge the enemy from his remaining positions on the ridge and from his line further east, towards the Aisne at Berry-au-Bac. Successful attacks have been made also on a front between the Aisne and Brimont, a height which buttresses the German lino midway between the Aisne and Reims. A stir of battle and some progress by the French' aro reported in the hill groups east of Reims, as far cast iif Moronvillers. With matters in their .present state on the Arras front it seems not unlikely that events north of the Aisno and in the Champagne may develop rapidly.