PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3091, 23 May 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

IiECBNT fighting on the Hindenburg line, south-east of Arras, has turned decidedly to the advantage of the British troops engaged. The latest report in hand is to the effect that the positions lately won northwest of Bullecourt have been firmly secured, and the enemy's counterattacks in this area appear for the time to have died away. If there is a lull it will not last long. The enemy is so placed that he is bound cither to persevere in his attacks or very shortly seek relief by retiring. This is best considered in relation to the general situation on the front east and south-east of Arras as it is epitomised to-day in a British official report. The report states that, with the exception of a sector of two thousand yards immediately west of Bullecourt, the British hold the whole of the Hindenburg line from a mile cast of Bullecourt to east of Arras.

This sounds complicated, but tho position may be easily picked out on the map. With the exception noted, the British have captured tho enemy's main defences on a front of between seven and eight miles, extending south from Roeux, about five miles east of Arras, it seems, and indeed is, extraordinary that the Germans should be able to hold a defensive sector of 2000 yards immediately west of Bullecourt, while the British are in position well to the east and north-east of that village. The line here runs in the shape of an S lying.horizontally. Tho Germans hold a salient with its apex west of Bullecourt, and the British hold an adjoining salient with its apex north-east of Bullecourt. Both salients are acute, and either, standing alone, would probably be untenable. As matters aro going, however, tho British salient is being widened, while tlie enemy salient is being, driven in on either side. The capture of ■ Bullecourt materially widened tho British salient and narrowed the adjoining enemy wedge, and the German garrison 1 holding the wedge is further menaced by the latest British advance between Bullecourt and Fontaine lez Croisilles, two miles further north. No attack seems to have been made on the southern part of this front, nearest to Bullecourt and at the apex of tho German wedge, nor does such an attack seem necessary. Driven home, the attack further north (immediately south of Fontaine lez Croisilles) will strike across the base of the German wedge and cut it off. With matters in this state, it is reasonable to assume that the Germans in tho immediate future will either ovacuate the fragment of the Hindenburg line they still hold between Arras and Bullecourt or resiime the costly counter-attacks in which they have been vainly attempting to stem tho British assault.

The Hindenburg line has been all but completely mastered over a distance of about eight miles. It has been invaded also further north and to some extent south of Bullecourt, in the vicinity of Queant. Realisation of what this means to the enemy is assisted by turning to what enemy writers had to -say about the Hindenburg line in the clays of the retreat from the Ancre. Writing in the middle of March the' military correspondent- of the Frankfurter Zeilung declared that Hindbkbuhq was able to order retreats which had the character of victorious marches, "and now ho is able to order the evacuation of our Ancre position, thereby yielding a step in space but in reality going a thousand steps forward on the road to victory/' The German people, he asserted, had taken as a- matter of course "tho withdrawal of.-the troops on both sidos of the Ancre into a mighty position, constructed for many months past with all the resources of permanent fortress architecture." It is in this mighty position that the British have now broken a breach nearly eight miles long. Ol'Tici.M, and other reports suggest that the enemy's losses in recent fighting on the British front have been 'not only heavy but disproportionate, and suggest also that the offensive is likely to be vigorously developed and extended in the near future. In this connection there is a significant stir of aerial activity, in conditions which clearly demonstrate British supremacy. Tho British airmen, apart from their ordinary activities of reconnaissance and artillery observation, are

raiding behind the enemy lines, and are even co-operating with the infantry by turning their machlncflins on the enemy front treches. et Sik Douglas Haicj reports that sixteen enemy machines ' were brought clown as against four British aeroplanes missing.

While the enemy's position is becoming increasingly precarious on the northern front, lie seems to bo no better placed on the Aisno front and in the Champagne. c Late reports dealing with these areas call for little comment, but they show that from the enemy's standpoint matters are going from bad to worse. A great counterattack on the Aisne plateau, for which the Germans are said to have made most extensive preparations, collapsed in all but total failure. The French admit the loss of some advanced elements north-east of Cerny, that is to say, on the descending slopes of the Chemin des Dames ridge on its northern side, but state that everywhere else their positions were maintained. At the same time they have profited by the enemy's preoccupation on the Aisne plateau and on the British front to' notably improve their' standing in the , Champagne. Mount Cornillet, _ on which they captured several lines of trenches, is one of the western heights of the Moronvillcrs hill 'group. It stands about ten miles east of Reims. In their attack the French took eight hundred prisoners, and they iound the German dugouts cumbered with dead. All the important observation points in the Moronvillcrs region, it is officially stated, are now hi French hands. This means that the enemy has all but lost the pronounced advantage of position he enjoyed until recently in this area, and the French achievement is a material contribution to that weakening of the enemy front which is a marked feature of the general situation in the Western theatre.

There is continued good news from the Italian front. Enemy attacks in the Southern Trentino and on the Isonzo front have been repulsed with heavy losses, and the Italians have gained further positions in the high country north of Govizia. The attacks made by the Austrians in the Trentino introduce a new feature. Whether the enemy contemplates an important diversion in this quarter is as yet uncertain, but up to the present he seems to have fared as badly in the Trentino as in his counter-attacks on the Italian main offensive front.

A communication on the subject of submarine warfare addressedto Germany by Spain suggests that Spanish patience is wearing thin. What precisely is implied in the breaking off of commercial relations pending Germany's reply to the Spanish demand for an indemnity and for an assurance that Spanish ships will not be torpedoed without warning in the safcy zone is not obvious. However, even this mild protest and moderate demand are significant, in view of the fact that the present Government is as little as possible inclined to take positive action against Germany. If it has been compelled by weight of public opinion to protest, the same influence mav compel it to go further, or may lead to the recall of Count Romanones, the late Prime Minister, who is prepared to go to war in protection of Spanish lives and interests.-

Directly, and as giving a lead to other neutral countries, a definite break between Germany and Spain would bo an event of very great importance in its bearing on the -submarine campaign. The opinion was expressed some time ago by Mr. Archibald Hurd, the well-known naval writer, that the terrorising of neutrals was 'one of the gravest features of the submarine menace. Given sufficient time, he remarked, tho Germans believe their submarine efforts will be successful—the belief, by the way, is one which must have been seriously shaken, if not completely overthrown, by recent events. On tlic other hand, Mr. Hurd added, they aro well aware that if Norway and Spain, not to mention Sweden and Holland, determine to declare war on Germany, the conditions of the blockade would bo changed at once. Submarines would no longer be able to slip with impunity into or out of the North boa along Norwegian territorial waters; and the favourable conditions to the south would cease to exist if Spain entered the war. The Allies would then possess both shores of the Worth Sea entrances, as they would the approaches to the Straits of Gibraltar, and it would then, Mr. Hurd remarks, become, possible to stop the movements of submarines.