PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 158, 23 March 1918, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

• After a long run of theories and counter-theories regarding the enemy's intentions, it is announced to-day that a German offensive has opened on the West front. At time of writing little more than the bare fact is cabled, and such reports as havo come through are unofficial/ Apparently the Allies have imposed a closo censorship on. news, but this, need not be ,read an an unfavourable augury. An obvious motivo for acting-on these lines appears in the necessity of concealing the dis-. positions which have been prepared and aro being developed to meet the enemy's ■•blow. Assmiiing that the enemy has taken the offensive on a great scale, it does not necessarily follow' that ho is committed to tho policy of attempting to force a decision on the' West front, or that he has abandoned the idea of aggressive action in other theatres. Whether or not. the Allies, as they aver, are committed ■■ temporarily to a generally defensive policy in Franco and • Flanders, aud irrespective of' the designs the enemy may harbour in regard to other theatres, tremendous conflicts are to be expected this year on the Western front. Whatever he may attempt, besides, the enemy is bound to mako vigorous efforts at least to hamper and dislocate the ever-increasing Allied concentration in the principal theatre. Tho Allies, on their' part, even though for the time being they definitely limit the scope of their activities, will naturally do all they can to harass and pin down the enemy armies, and hinder or prevent the transfer of German units to other theatres.. Some definite.light should be cast upon these and other questions in the near future.

Reports indicate that the German preliminary bombardment, though powerful and widely extended, was of brief duration. Presumably, therefore, a surprise was attempted, but in view of the overwhelming defeats they have lately inflicted on the enemy in the air the Allies were and arc manifestly well placed to penetrate his designs and anticipate his actions. It is likely, however, that the enemy selected a period of bad weather for his attack in order to as far as possible mitigate the handicap of aerial inferiority. Ho remained inactive during a long spell of fine weather, but reports received during the last day or two indicate that the wcaithcr recently broke. The only detail particulars _ available at the moment are contained in a message by way of New York and another from London, which agree in stating that the enemy is attacking west of Cambvai. The London message speaks of enenjy infantry attacks ■ in the neighbourhood of Lagnicourt, a village eleven miles west of Cambrai. Lagnicourt, standing about half a mile behind the British front, and a mile and a half south-west of the strong German bastion of Queant, _ roughly marks the northern extremity of tho lino on which the British launched their offensive towards Cambrai in November last, The British gained, and still hold, six or seven miles of tho Hindenbnrg line, extending south-cast from Lagnicourt,though much of tho ground occupied fur-

ther east was subsequently lost. The position is one upon which the Germans are naturally anxious to improve even upon • purely defensive grounds. The captured section of the Hindenburg line represents from the British side the first big step towards Oambrai, or, at all events, towards the strategically important Bourlon hill, commanding Oambrai, which was temporarily in British hands during last year's offensive. The enemy is not unlikely to attack in this region, in the hope of widening the dangerously narrowed margin by which he holds a vital junction.

The general conditions in which the Germans have- opened their offensive are fairly familiar. As coinpared with the conditions which have hitherto obtained, the Allied armies are elaborately prepared to meet the enemy's attack. "Pick and spade," the military correspondent of the London Times' wrote some time, ago, "arc busy.all along the Franco-British front, and barbed wire is being extensively employed. It is never any harm to be well protected by stout defences against adverse -fortune, so long as the offensive spirit of an army" is not thereby prejudiced. We must admit that when we stand on-the, defensive the enemy, having the initiative, may be able to mass troops and guns and crash in, as we have so often done. Therefore, second, third, and other lines, or groups of support, are organised, so that the defence may be prolonged and time allowed for tine local and general reserves to intervene. Our object is to make the enemy pay dearly for every advance and to prevent him, in any case, from gaining more than a tactical success." Again emphasising the importance of barbed wire, the correspondent continues: "Machineguns come next in importance,' arid we ai'e now well provided with them and with other weapons and devices suited for trench warfare. Thirdly, there come the trenches themselves, and the development of them that experience has suggested. A few pom-poms with armour-pierc-ing shells , would, not come, amiss in case the enemy produces tanks one day; but the use of our own tanks to meet an attack is also not inconceivable." The correspondent also indicates as an essential feature in the Allied preparations such an organisation as will permit the concentration of the greatest possible reserves to be thrown in at any point attacked, and points out that a generally defensive policy by no means excludes the continuation of "those limited offensives of which 1917 -contained _so many brilliant examples." This. - brief and partial survey serves to suggest some of the factors with which the Germans must reckon' when they assail, the Allied'lines. As to balance .of strength they,. enjoy,. of course, no such advantage to-day' as they did in earlier stages of the war. . ; , ■