PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 179, 18 April 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The Messines "Ridge and the place it occupies in the Flanders battleterrain were made familiar to New Zoalandcrs by the gallant achievements of our soldiers in tho June offensive of last year, and the extent to which the outlook in the. battle now under way is altered by the loss of this commanding elevation will be readily appreciated. Though it rises in gentle slopes to no more than two hundred feet above the adjacent low country, possession of the ridge givos highlyimportant advantages of artillery observation. In the present battle it represented to tho Allies a strong vantage point on the northorn flank of the enemy's advance. Its loss weakens the whole Flanders front, though to what extent this sacrifice is warranted by the plans of the Allied High Command is, of course, for the future to show.

The Germans had failed, in repeated attempts to carry tho ridge by frontal assault, and it is likely that they would havo fared as badly in their latest attacks but for tho fact that they had contrived to outflank it on the south. Before their ■attack on Wytschacte was driven home they had gained the llavetsberg Ridge, extending from near Bailluel to Neuve Eglise. Baillcul, which also stands on high ground, is likewise in their hands. Tho Gormans thus came into possession of a range of, high ground on the northern face of the salient they have driven into the British line and almost due west of the Messines llidgc at its southern end. Today's reports make no mention of Messines village, and so tend to confirm _ recent reports that Messines villago and therefore the southern end of the- ridge had passed into the enemy's hands before the latest stago of the battle opened.

AccOKDitoG to one message, the British still Hold the western slopes of the ridge, but at Spanbrook Farm, a mile south-west of Wytschaetc, our troops are back on the. lino they occupied prior to the Battle of Messines in June last year. Tho enemy, that is to say, has returned'to his old positions on the southern side of what used to ho tho Ypres saliont, but tho salient has not been reconstituted since from cast of Ypres the British line now strikes north-east along the Passchendaele llidgc. The British front now runs in an approximately straighfc'line from Bailluel, about eight miles west-south-west of Messines, to Passchendaele. Along this front tho British forces are established on a chain of heights. On the Passchendaele Ridge they overlook the Flanders -plain, and north of Bailluel and Neuve Eglise they hold heights superior to the Ravctsberg Ridge, betweon these villages, whiich has now passed to the enemy. A formidable barrier is therefore still opposed to the enemy's further advance northward, hut his gains are, nevertheless, important. He has already been enabled to push westward from Bailluel to Jleteren, a village six miles east of Hazebrouck. The Germans aro only five miles distant from this junction a little further south, hut their occupation of Mcteren means that thev have been enabled, as a result of their occupation of the high ground at Bailluel, to widen the front on which tb,ey are attempting to break tli-ough to Hazebrouck. As reports stand their advance is being strenuously resisted at Mcteren and also in the Forest of Niopr.e. This name is evidently applied to a law, wood which extends to a point about six miles south-east of-Hazc-brouck, and has no reference to the villago of Nicppe, a couple of miles north-west of Armcntiercs.