The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1918. THE ALLIED RETURN BLOW

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 277, 12 August 1918, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1918. THE ALLIED RETURN BLOW

On its present showing the attack ' opened by the Allies on Thursday east and south-east of Amiens promises to rank as one of the most effective of the war. The immediate elfecb upon the Germans has been overwhelming. An enemy army which.lately held positions in which it closely threatened Amiens has been swept back not merely in defeat, but in rout. All reports agree that the enemy's 10-.scs in men have been out of all proportion heavier than those of the Allies, and he has lost, and is .'losing, also ,\ vast amount of material. When the battle was well advanced o:: Thursday the number of German wisoncrs taken by tho British exceeded British casualties by more than nffcy per cent. There is little doubt that to tho latest stage the enemy's losses under all heads have been several times greater than those of tho attacking armies, and succeeding reports tell of.rapidly increasing captures of prisoners, guns, and material. Many details, of which the capture of a heavy gun on a railway mounting may be mentioned as a conspicuous exampje, bear' plain witness to the frightful confusion into which the enemy was fc . h .i'?™ by tie brilliantly-organised Allied attack. The position disclosed at tho monrait of writing is one which obviously is likely to undergo rapid change The Allies Urc developing their attack against tpc northern flank of the Montdidler salient, which, though broader and more extensive, bears some general resemblance to the salient south of the Aisno and Veslo from which the Germans lately effected a difficult and costly retreat. The enemy front north of Montdidier has been driven in over a distance of about twenty miles, and the- Allied front from a point some three miles north of the Sommo to about six miles north of Montdidier now forms a broad salient with a ilat'toncd forward face. The foremost Allied troops have- closely approached, it they have not reached and occupied, tho vo'ad and railway junction of Chaulnes. An official report shows that our troops havo reached Lihons, little more than a mile west of Chaulnes and twelve miles or more cast of the front on which the battle opened. Chaulnes, which is situated a mile or two cast of the line on which the Allies stood prior to- tho Somme olfonsive last year, is the centre from which most of the roads and ™lways serving thp forward area o the Montdidier salient radiato. Its capture would therefore comp-sl tho Germans to speedily evacuate a considerable part of the salient, including much of the.ground gain-' ed in their Montdidier-JJoyon offenSl /V n ?£ m ; A ]ate development ot the Allied offensive is a .French attack from positions south-east of Montdidier. Here, as in the region of the mam offensive, rapid headway has been made, and the French, as reports stand at time of writin" have reached Faverolles, about two miles east of Montdidier. A message just received states that Montdidier has been captured, but this is only a beginning. In «ie_ present battle, as in their retreat from the Marne, thcbermans arc defending a salient seriously menaced in flank and with a nvcr behind thorn, in this case the Somme, to impede tho retreat which seems not less inevitable now than in the earlier battle. Tho principal difference on this occasion is that the Allies arc attacking apparent y with much heavier forces ' than they omployed' against tho ■ Marne salient. This applies to aerial squadrons as well as to ■ armies on land. It Jg ev i- ' dent, from tho dispatches al- ?»? h • that in this ! Dattle the Allied airmen are surpas- | sing their own past achievements. and are making a splendid contribu- ' tiou to victory, not only in cease- ' lessly attacking the enemy's troops ' and communications, including his ' bridges over tho Somme, but in ' notably assisting the advance of the ! Allied armies. ;

To what -extent this brilliant stroke of battle is destined to influence the general course of the campaign will not at once becomo apparent, but thero seems at present every likelihood not only that the German offensive has been finally dcfcated, but that the Allies hencetortn will be ablo to maintain an unceasing pressure of attack while weather conditions make active "W'{""...Possible. Tho opinion is still held in some quarters that tho enemy may attempt to' retrieve his defeats and recover the initiative by resuming his drive- towards the Channel ports, but grounds for such an opinion aro manifestly tendinr to disappear. In any case, the commanding fact at tho present stage '» that Marshai, Foch lias succeeded in doing what tho Germans failed to do. He is developing an offensive which gives the enemy no respite and tells with cumulative effect as jt develops. The attack on the Alamo salient was brilliantly conceived and led to impressive results, but it is already overshadowed by the present onslaught which lias followed so swiftly upon the cncrayls retreat to tho'Aisiio and \csle.lf the course of events since t-lic Allies made their thvivt at Soissons can be taken as indicating tho policy Id which their Generalissimo is prepared and determined to adhere, there is little doubt that the enemy has finally lost tho initiative and will fight henceforth with no larger prospect before him than that ot delaying or modifying defeat. At the same time it would bo easy to base undue expectations so far as the immediate future is concerned, upon such events as are reported to-day. A statement by General March, the United States Chief of btair, though it necessarily contains an element of prediction, commends itself as probably a reasonable estimate of the existing situation. Fncu," he says, "intends to keep on hitting. Any suggestion that the end of the war is near is unfounded, but the time has come to keep the enemy running. The passage of the. initiative to the Allies at this stage is all-important." Tho successful development of the Allied offensive will have political and moral as well as military effects, and possibly its political and moral ellects may darken the enemy's prospects in a degree more than proportionate to his defeats in the held. But it is no doubt wise to count only upon such results as arc made certain, as far as anything can be certain in human affairs, bv a W , «. ,i and ri ™g effect of the Allied military power in comparison with that of the enemy, and

to recognise that the road to victory pay still 1m long. But In the position now readied there is an assurance that the sacrifices of ih e heroic armies which stemmed the German onset were not made in vain. The splendid counter-effort of the Allies is at the same time a convincing vindication of the policy under which they have made their armiesa tingle united organisation, and of _ the judgment which was shown in entrusting the supreme command to Marshal Foch.