PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 264, 27 July 1918, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

■ Some- of today's messages take a more optimistic view of tion in the Marne salient than is warranted by the oflibi.al reports. The battle is going so well from tho standpoint of the Allies that it. would be a great pity if unreasonable expectations were aroused by the . dissemination of unfounded rumours. It is necessary at -any time, and more especially at a time like the present, to draw a clear distinction between official reports: and t-iie dispatches of reliable correspondents and messages resting on no particular authority which reflect only the boundless optimism of their authors. The Germans undoubtedly are.in very.serious difficulties, but this does not nccessa'rily mean that thev are threatened with a debacle on the largest scale. An appreciable proportion of the enemy's total strength is dangerously placed in the slowly narrowing pocket between the Aisne and the Marne, ;tnd it is unlikcljr that he will succeed in withdrawing thef-x divisions without incurring further very heavy losses. But there is no : mmediate prospect of the pocket being closed by a movement from cither flank along the base line, which runs from Soissons to Reims This .is the development envisage/ in the rumours'whis;h allege a rapid British advance, towards ar important railway town and roar: centre standing -'approximately "'mid way between Soissons and Reims n? the direct road and railway routconnecting these cities. The latcs' authentic, news available, at time o' writing indicates that where the Allied! troops have made their nearest. approach toFismes (on the front, west of Reims) they are separated from tlw town by a distance of Iktween ten and eleven miles. From a point south of Soi;:sons to the front west of Reims, that is to say, practically at its base, the. pocket from which the enemy is endeavouring to escape is twenty-Seven miles broad.

* * * « It is decidedly tile most encouraging -feature of th? situation ?.s it i:<..outlined to-day that the enemy is-still clinging desperately to his new contracted, front on the north bank uf the Manic, that is to say, at tN.i apex of the salient. The latest "French' fiimiinini'iiir in. hand mentions a powerful enemy eounteraltack which temporarily gained ground in the region of liormans (a fawn which stands on the Manic eleven miles east of Chateau Thierry) and north-west of that place. Apparently ihc enemy is holding positions yn the north hank of- the river in the region of- Dormans and farther west, despite the fact that the continuity of Ur.':-o positions is broken at, short intervals bv at least two Allied bridge'••yjds. As evidence that the enemy is contending against extraordinary difficulties in his retreat, th~y tenacious defence of a limited and broken front on the north hank of the Manic is conclusive. It means obviously that he finds it absolutely necessary to gain time and delay his -retreat even in the area which would be first evacuated if he had reasonably open and unimncded .cummuiii-cat-icns behind him. This, of course, assumes that it is the enemy's main object for the true being to draw back to a safe front, but thciassumption seems'to be in every way warranted. The Marnc, salient, as it has been altered and invaded since the Allies opened their counter-offensive, cannot by any

stretch of imagination be regarded as a good or even' practicable jump-ing-ulf place for a renewal of the German offensive towards Paris. Tin; enemy's dogged stand on the north bank' of the Manic cannot well be taken to mean anything else than that his communications into and out of the salient are in a serious degree inadequate to meet the demands now made upon them. The tremendous tax imposed upon - this limited range of roads and railways is, of ..course, due to the fact that in order to withdraw his armiesto a better front the enemy must maintain such a resistance as will prevent the salient being driven in. Ho has to find means_ of continuously passing forward reinforcements and an enormous body'of'supplies, and present indications are that in ■fulfilling this essential requirement of thy situation he is making very little progress towards solving his problem of retreat. If he wero once clear .of the forward area of the salient without losing more ground on the flanks his problem would be greatly .simplified and his general position much improved. .His failure to proceed, with the retreat- on these lines raises at least the possibility that the congestion of his communications may presently become so 'acuto as to lay him even more dangerously open to attack than be is at present.

Generally speaking, the situation owes its promise rather to the enemy's failure thus far t to appreciably "modify the conditions-, of a battle in which hs is'fighting at a heavy disadvantage than to the actual progress made by the Allies in the latest fighting, or to any likelihood of their heavily intensifying and exnanding their present attacks. ' It is not impossible that the battle may culminate in • a great Allied drive into one or both'flanks of the German salient, but it cannot be overlooked that an effort on these lines might easily entail such a concentration of Allied strength south of the Aisne as wouldenable the enemy to attack on sections of the front v;here lie is now safely held. With the enemy condemned in any ease to an exhausting and profitless struggle, and with three hundred thousand American t-ol-r)icvs entering Franco every month. General Forh is under no very obvious temptation to take risks of this character.

A late official message brings news which meafls that the evacuation by the Germans of th'e southern area of the Marnc salient cannot be much longer delayed. The FrancoAmericans have Ville, a midway.point on the Sok-soris-Chatcau Thierry highroad, and are pushing forward rapidly in the country south-cast of Oulchy, towards the Ma-rne. An unofficial message, which states, that the Allies are within three miles of Fere-en-Tardenois, is not confirmed at time of writing, but the advance officially reported has brought them within four miles of that place. The advancc on Ferc-on-Tarclenois, if it is continued, will all but completely outflank the remaining German positions on the north bank of the Marnc. It threatens all the enemy forces in the southern area- of the salient with envelopment. Fere-cn-Tardenois stands six and a .half miles due cast of Oulchy-la-Ville. close to the railway connecting that place with Reims, and is the centre from which nearly all' the roads serving the southern area- of the salient, as ..well as a number running north,- radiate. - retention, and protection, from close bombardment are therefore vital to the Germans so long as they occupy territory between it and the Marnc. If the.-Franco-American advance continues, the"-enemy must either execute a speedy retreat from his southern positions or incur heavy losses of men and material. News is lacking.'at the moment of writing of the progress, made by the British in their attack west of Reims—ail enterprise which, if it develops, will have even more important results than the Allied ad vancc on Fere-en-Tardenok.