PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 22, 21 October 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Onb of to-day's messages' states that the Germans in the Western theatre arc retiring of. their ownvolition—that they prefer to cut their losses and use their remaining reserves in defending a new line rather than attempt to bolster up an untenable longer line. This is in several respects a distorted and misleading account of the situation. It is true that along a considerable part of the front the enemy is falling back without hold his ground, and that in this sense his retirement is voluntary. In the circumstances, however, this is a very .limited sense. The enemy had no.thought of retiring this year from the Hindenburg line until it was fatally breached by British attacks. He has been retiring under compulsion ever since the Allies opened their offensive on July 21, a.nd his retirement is nowhere voluntary except to the extent that in some cases the pressure which compels it is indirect, and not direct. This apart-, the message quoted no doubt indicates correctly enough the plan the enemy is attemoting to carry out, but nothing could be further from being true than that the Germans are making safe and assured progress towards the short defensivo line which has now become the goal of their hopes. On the contrary, with every day that passes under , reigning conditions they stand in deadlier peril.

The success of the Allied armies and their Generalissimo appear?, most conspicuously not in their having compelled the enemy-to retreat, but in the fact that he is retreating under the worst possible conditions and in circumstances of increasing danger. In forcing a re- > treat they broke tho enemy's will and overcame his utmost efforts in battles in which he had all the advantages conferred by elaborate defences prepared at leisure, but they have so Duilt iroon this initial achievement thaftlie enemy has been almost totally denied the relief he no doubt expected to gain by retreat. It is fairly certain that hia armies in France and Belgium were never more critically placed than they arc to-day. Current news is impressive as an account of rapid progress by the Allies, but still more so as showing how successfully they have maintained contact with the retreating German armies and what havoc they have made of the enemy's plans of retreat. The course of events to the present stage definitely bears out the observation made some time ago by an American commentator. Marshal Fooh's essential aim, he said, was not the driving back of the Germans to another line of defence, but the crurh-

ing of their power to hold any lino of defence.

* # a * At the moment the'arresting feature of the situation is wie rapid development of the Allied attack on a front east of Le Cateau and south of that place to the Oise. British. French, and American troops are contributing to what one correspondent declares is the culminating stroke of- the Allied offensive this year. Whether this opinion is justified or not, -it is plain that the attack formidably threatens the enemy, IETc is reported to be resisting stubbornly and in. strong force, and certainly has the most compelling motive to do so. Any considerable advance by the Allies on the front on which they are attacking would be very likely to turn his general retreat into a rout. The attack represents a powerful thrust against a vital section of his main communications, and it has already penetrated deeply. As reports stand the Allies are two miles east of Lo Cateau, which is the pivot of the advance, but further south they have advanced seven miles or more.

The enemy's problem is still that of withdrawing his armies between Flanders and the Meuso from two great salients, both of them threatened on either flank. Under pressure of Allied attacks on tho Le Cateau-Oise front and elsewhere the enemy is now evacuating tho forward ardii/ of both salients. In the north he has retired beyond Eoubaix and Tourcoing, and is moving castward on a long front extenefing to the region.north-west of Lc Catcau. In tho south tho Germans arc falling back from the apex of the-ex-traordinarily acute salibnE they have lately been defending between the rivers Oiso and Serrc. But the Allied flanking movements also aro developing apace. In Northern Flandsrs the Belgians have reached the Bruges-Zcebrugge canal and passed it in places. As _ reports stand at the moment of writing the Germans still hold portions of both Zeebrugge and Ostcnd. The enemy forces remaining at Zeebrugge and along tho canal for a distance to the'south are likely to be trapped. They must retreat, if at all, through a narrow corridor of about twelve miles of country between the canal and tho Dutch frontier, and this corridor is being narrowed l by the Belgian advance cast of tho canal. Somo of to-day's unofficial reports relating to Flanders run obviously ahead of events, but now that he has lost the coast the enemy has no incentive to stop short of the Antwerp line, and may indee.d continue his retreat to tho still shorter line which runs south from tho southern extremity of the Dutch frontier.

On the Lo Cateau-Oisc front the Allies are thrusting; into the area between tho two sahonts foTmed by the enemy lino and towards the railways by which they arc supplied. An immediate obstacle to Allied progress appears in the Sambre Canal, mentioned in one of to-day's messages. It extends north from the Oiso north-west of Guise, and may be stoutly defended, but the Allies in recent battles havo swiftly overcome many similar obstacles. Tho German position is further weakened and endangered by a French movement across the Aisne in the region. of Vouziers. This development not only threatens the enemy salient to the north, but has an important place in the operations Hesigned to overthrow the vital pivot of the German line—the defences north of Verdun and fur'ifier west.