PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 278, 13 August 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

To-day's reports show that tho Allied offensive is still developing with excellent prospects, Over a considerable part of tho front south of the. Somme the Allies are for the moment at a stand in or little beyond tho positions they were reported to have reached yesterday, but in the southern part of the battle area the French are closing in rapidly upon the Lassigny massif, which is highly important as a strong posi-. tion covering the junction of Noyon and tho approaches to more vital centres in the enemy's communications. The French, according to their latest available communique, have pushed . forward several miles irom the line they were showri to have reached yesterday, and are little more than two miles distant from Lassigny on the west-north-west, where they have reached the outskirts of Canny-su'r-Matz. Though the enemy is advantageously posted in this locality on high ground, the developments of the battle have given him a comparatively small and awkward salient to defend, and he is no doubt under tho necessity of straightening his line at a considerable sacrifice of valuable territory.

Further north, along the front which extends to north of the Somme, the Allies, as has been said, are, 1 now being stoutly opposed and lin places, notably immediately west and north-west of Chaulnes, havo had to cope with formidable' counterattacks. It is suspected, however, that the enemy is fighting only to gain time for further retreat. A report that Chaulnes has been captured lacks official confirmation at time of writing. The-latest British communiqi\e in hand speaks of the defeat oS enemy counter-attacks at Lihons, about a mile west of Chaulnes. Some of yesterday's reports conveyed the impression that the Allies.had very closely approached Roye, but it now appears that they aro still between three and four miles distant from, that place on the west. They are in position due north of Roye, however, at a distance of less-than three miles.

• Particulars were given yesterday of a flight in which two British airmen in an ordinary scrvice machine covered a distance of two thousand miles between England and Egypt, descending only once or twice for petrol. Other remarkable flights were catalogued by the London Times a few weeks ago on an occasion when two Italian pilots flew five hundred miles to Friedrichs■liafen and back. This flight, the Times' observed, ' ranked amongst the longest non-stop flights made sincc the war for offensive purposes. "The pride of place," it added, "is still held by Second-Lieutenant Marchal, the French airman, who. in June, 1910, left France for Russia, and actually reached within 60 miles of the frontier when' he was obliged, owing to engine trouble, to land. He was capturcd by the Germans and interned in the I I camp at Belzcrbach. In this flight. ihiriDg which he passed over Bcr-, 1 V't\ a\u\ fooppcA, oomVjs, Wb leaflets, Lieutenant Maucual travelled about 811 miles, mostly in night Hying. French airmen, Oap-| tain eg Bstuciuirps and Sergeant i (as he then was) Gaiiois, have also to their credit the flights which I rank next to Lieutenant Marchal's in the distance covered. Both these a'rmctv—Cavtmk tSEMjcu.vues in September, 1910, and Sekqeaxt Gal- | ,1,013 on My 6-7, 1917 —flew to and' dropped bombs on Essen, the (lis-j Uuwi cwoTcd cm. the, dm\Ue being- given officially as 500 raiJes, 1 while tho first-named officcr also flew to Munich on a reprisal raid' on November 16, 1916, and afterwards landed at Santa Dona di Fiave, near Vicenza, Italy, after tho Aljis. The distance covered in this flight was 437 i miles. The record air journey made for a hostile purpose is, of course, tho flight of 2000 miles from London to Constantinople, which was made by Comjlvnder Savory on a Handlcy Pago biplane in December last, but this was 1 not a non-stop flight. Of the (lights which had 110 warlike objective made, however, sincc the outbreak of hostilities, two of the most remarkable are those accomplished ' by Captain Marquess Gjueih Laujibati, of the Italian Air Service, who, in August, 1917, (low from Turin tu Naples and back, about 920 miles (which is stated to be the world's "record" for a'nonstop flight), and in September, 1917, for the first time in the history of aeronautics, completed the journey from Italy, to England (Turin to

Hounslow), a distance of 65GJ miles, in less than seven hours and a half." '