PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 178, 17 April 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

To-day's reports from the Western theatre sum up as the story of a magnificent achievement ' by' the British Army in stemming the second great thrust of the German Western offensive. The fate of the battle is far from being decided— according to the latest available reports the enemy is persisting desperately in his efforts to break into the Allied , communications with the coast—but the definite character of the- British achievement is attested to-day _ in various ways, and (he view is gaining ground that the German High Command will be compelled presently to seek still another point of attack. In the northern battle area, as in his drive towards Amiens, the enemy finds himself compelled to fight an almost stationary battle while still considerably short of his final objective —iii this case the road and railway centre of Hazebrouck, which constitutes an_ extremely important link in the railways extending to the Channel ports, and therefore in the vital lateral communications behind the Allied front. Official and other reports show that with the exception of the capture of Neuve Eglise, which is now announced, the enemy has made no progress worth mentioning for several clays past. He

is (irmly held west of Hnzcbrouck, at a distance of about live miles from that centre, and the same is true of the front to tlie south and south-east. Only at Ncuvc Eglisc have his massed attacks and the ruthless sacrifices they entail enabled him to prevail for the time over the devoted valour of the defending troops. Ncuvo Eglise had previously changed hands, and though it cannot be regarded as of trivial importance there is no present reason to suppose that the loss of the village necessitates any serious modification of the opinion which seems to be warranted by the general course of the battle that the German drive has been effectively stemmed.

Neuve Eqlise stands a little more than three miles south-west of the village of Messincs. Placed as it is, on a moderate elevation, it should he of some tactical importance, but a correspondent declares that it was evacuated as being not worth the sacrifice involved in hold-ing-it. In the attacks which have thus far given them Neuvo Eglise, the Germans arc making unsparing efforts to gain a footing on rising ground on the northern "(lank of the salient they have driven into the British line. The}; are concentrating strong forces in attacks upon the high ground which runs west from Ncuvc Eglise towards Bailleu!, but seem to have made no headway. The position on the east of Neuve Eglise, towards the Messines Ridge, is a little uncertain. The Germans assert in a report cabled to-day that they captured British lines north-east of Wulverghem. The latter village lies in a hollow between Neuve Egliso- and Messines. The enemy report, if it is to bo accepted, implies that messages which indicated a day or two ago that Messincs village had passed to the enemy were well fonnded. If this is so, it is hardly likely that Wulverghem, lying in a hollow dominated on two sides, can still be included in the British line. In any case the enemy has gained at most a very limited foothold on the high ground on the northern flank of his advance. An extension of his thrust northwards would, of course, involve serious results. It would threaten the stability of the Allied line in Flanders. But at present all reports agree that the enemy's prospects of successfully extending his offensive in its present area arc diminishing day by clay. It is particularly noteworthy and of good promise that this state of affairs is due solely to the British troops, who are enduring one of the grimmest tests of the war with unflinching heroism. We are told to-day that the French reinforcements mentioned in Sin Douglas Haio's special Order of the Day duly arrived, but that it was not found necessary to. send them into the battle.

As to Ihe general course ol the Western campaign, comparatively little can be known meantime. One correspondent observes to-day that tho enemy's northern offensivo is a, confession that his southern drive was a failure. It seems highly probable that the Germans will add a second failure to their first. The suggestion may occur that it is their plan to first weaken tho Allied line by successive thrusts at selected points in the hope of being able ultimately to drive through with depisivD results. If the Allies wero limited of Necessity to a purely defensive policy the present development of the offensive would place them in deadly clanger, but it as fairly plain that they are not. The enemy is using something like twothirds of his effective strength in attempts, thus far abortive, to break the British Army, and in these attempts is meeting a steadily hardening resistance. Meantime the French Army, which is approximately equal in strength to the' British, is practically standing, in reserve. It has played a comparatively small part in dealingwith the enemy offensive, and is manifestly biding its time. If the situation is critical for the Allies it is equally clear that it holds serious and increasing perils for the enemy.