PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3106, 9 June 1917, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A GREAT British attack has opened in Flanders, and the results already attained, as one correspondent remarks, return a' fitting answer to the Kaiser's bombast about tho collapse of tho Anglo-French offensive. Official reports in hand at the. moment of writing only deal with the opening events of the infantry /battle, but correspondents, in reports- which' may ho doubt be accepted as accurate, carry matters to a somewhat later stage, Tho attacking front extends from the southern side of tho Ypres salient to tho region of Armentiorcs, just south of

the Franco-Belgian border. If the British, as reports state, are in possession of Messines and have surrounded Wytschaete, they_ Have flattened out" a German salient which lay between tho Ypres salient and the larger British salient turning round Armentieres. As' tho front

ran when L the battle opened, the British were about half a milo distant from the village of Wytschaete, four miles south of Ypres, and at a slightly greater distance from Messines, which stands two miles south and'slightly east of Wytschaete. According to a United Press correspondent, the British have captured tho Messines _ ridge, which he describes as dominating the whole northern end of their line. This does not exaggerate the importance of the achievement. The line from which the Germans have been dislodged represents one of the few advantageous artillery positions in an otherwise almost unbroken expanse of plain. "Eidge" is not a very accurate term as applied to the positions over which the British, attack has swept. East of Ypres and south of that placo the Flanders plain is interrupted by a series of undulations, rising at a maximum a hundred feet or a littlo more above the general level of the plain. These rolling swells hardly deserve the name of hills, but in a country as flat as Flanders, and tho plain of the Scheldt and its tributaries generally, they possess importance as affording observation points and cover for artillery. Losing the Messines ridge the Germans have lost their commanding positions in this area of rolling country and aro in a fair way to be brought to battle on even terms on the plain.

It may be taken for granted that the enemy was prepared to incur almost any sacrifice to avert the defeat lie has suffered in Southern .Flanders. For reasons which have been touched upon the positions out of which lie has been literally blasted between t,ho Ypres salient and the-border were invaluable, and their loss irreparably weakens bis line. Tbcro can bo no question as to the magnitude, of the attack or the power with which the British stroke is being driven home. Not content with a preliminary bom-

bardment of appalling intensity, the British mined the- enemy positions on a. scale parallel in war. The eruption of a million pounds

of high expliJßivcs has ohangcd the geography of the district in which the attack took shape. It is mentioned also that many tanks were used, with great success. The mission 'of the tanks is only beginning. In the level plains of Flanders they will find an excellent manoeuvring ground—somewhat broken it is true by such obstacles as canals—and in view of the superior power of the British artillery and aircraft should be able to perform extremely useful service as the offensive develops.

Time only will show exactly what place is allotted to the Flanders offensive in the general plans of the Allies, but available particulars all go to show that it is an operation of supremo magnitude and importance, and suggest that it will be developed on the very greatest scale. The fuller reports which are how coming through, including a dispatch from Mb. Philip Giisbs, indicate that no more awe-inspiring demonstration of British offensive power has ever been given than in the terrible battle which is now under way in Flanders. The Ihun-dor-stroko loosed on the German strongholds seems to have operated with the irresistible force and effect of some frightful _ convulsion of Nature, but there is already . much to suggest that the tremendous forces employed wore splendidly organised and controlled. It will be seen from Mr.- Gibus's dispatch that tho New. Zealand Division is again fighting at tho storm centre of a. great battle. Australians andNew Zcalanders captured the village of Mcssines, a vital elemgnt in tho German defences on the riclgo to which it gives its name.

Flanders is only one of a number of areas in tho Western theatre in which tho enemy is vulnerable to attack, and some of the fruits of the latest British offensive may be reaped on widely distant sections of .the front. Even at. an immediate view, however, tho. offensive opens up the largest possibilities. An official report just received shows that the British are not only . in complete possession of Messines a,nd Wytschaeto and tho strongly-organ-ised defensive system in which they were embodied on a front of more than nine miles, but have mastered the enemy's rearward defences, about a mile and a half cast of Wytschaote, on a front of five miles.

• Broadly, the position reached is that tho salient formerly held by tho enemy between the Ypres and Arroentieres salients has been driven in. The British line now runs generally in a. bold forward curve from north of Ypres to south of Armentieres, though the faco of the curve is indented by one small enemy salient north-east' of Wytschaetc', and by another in the region of the Franco-Belgian border. In the conditions prevailing, the enemy's tenure of these narrow wedges striking into the British line is likely to be brief. Tho essential point, of course, is that tho enemy's defence has been overthrown in, an area where he enjoyed advantages which he cannot hope to reproduce. The Germans had every reason to exhaust tho possibilities of fortification on the Mcssines ridge. Tho prospect, now before them is that of meeting the full weight of the British assault on a plain, where they will enjoy no advantage of position. Tho threat to the enemy's northern flank —a threat which has been dormant since 1014—is now again_visible and imminent. His defence in Flanders lias been shattered and overthrown where it was strongest. . Failurolo maintain that defence as a whole means, even if he escapes worse disasters, a general retreat of indefinite extent. In tho new conditions created there is, of course, an immediate threat to Lille, tho great depot at the head (so far_ as tho area in Gorman occupation is concerned) of tho main railway fro.m Germany through Belgium which is the backbone of the enemy's communications. Tho importance of Lille to the enemy can hardly bo over-estimated. It is the junction of six railway lines, and a. great network of roads, and extensive fortifications havebeen constructed to protect _ these communications and the military depots established by the Germans at Lille and in adjacent cities and towns. To tho enemy the loss cf Lille would bo a disaster modified only by the measure of his success in executing a; retreat. Tho threat to Lille had already taken positiyo shape in the country to tho south. It is heavily intensified by the success of the new British offensive.

The latest reports in hand at time of writing indicate that tho offensive is developing with complete success. The only counter-attack by tho enemy as yet reported was crushed by the British artillery. The battle opened early on Thursday morning, and by 5.30 p.m. over five thousand prisoners had been counted, and others were- coming in. The total will no doubt bo greatly increased, though this is evidently a battle in which the enemy's losses in killed and wounded will be in abnormal proportion to his losses in prisoners. There have also been heavy captures of artillery, and the enemy has.been decisively worsted in the air.