FIVE MONTHS’ BATTLE.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1917, Page 4

FIVE MONTHS’ BATTLE.

Greatest Military Feat in History. British Headquarters, Nov 28

November, the frith month of the buttle of thu Somme, draws to an end in fog and drizzling rain. For two months the earth has grown steadily more waterlogged, with never an irri tervnl of more than thrse or four fire dnyj at a rime ; and yet I am not su'O th.ib hifcny will not regard the achievement of the-m last two months as the most glorious of all the battle.

At tbe b; ginning of November the Germans openly boasted that our oftengive had finally spent itself and had become embedded in Iho mud. Our answer was the amazing triumph of the Ancre, with the taking of 7000 prisoners to sweeten the cup of Beaumont Hamel, Beaucourfc, and St Pierre Divion. So five months of continuous success was capped by what future critics may pronounce the most brilliant victory of all the battle. Twenty-five villages were taken, and with the villages there are fifty victories ; and there have been fifty more which are nameless only because they were fought and won around a stretch of trench, a fortified valley, a mile or two of sunken roar! tunnelled and furnished with dug-outs 'and concrete emplacements uuiil it was a veritable fortress in everything save name. If all these places had been scattered over a large area on the map the Army which had reduced them in succession, in one uninterrupted series of viotorien lasting for five month?, would be recognised as having performed the greatest military feat in history.

THE ANSWER OF THE MAP. And what have the Germans to sat against all this ? The answer is oo the map. In every ca-.e wheie they have temporarily forced ns back, we have ojme on again. They have paid a bitter cost for their brief success and we L .vehfld the ground. It cm never t-.gain ba said that Great Britain wina her wats without iviv winning victories. We have won victories enough here for a score of wars. Never in history has any Great Power suffered eo c.ntiuucua a series of reverses an the Germans have lufferbd here or been to m<;nife«tly exhibited to the world as the inferior to its opponent in the fighting power of its men.

Gervauy in* r ctntly put forwari “ estimate-! ” of -British aud French losses and I aw able to state with positive?:.ess that the total Briti h ind French lo ses tegaiher do not amount to the figure which ia given for »’ e British Army alone, ft might t r might not be to their credit if i£ was tree that they had lost fewer men than v e aid Brill their armies had given ground. Bat it is not- true. Ar.d t ey have lo t over 80,000 p:ieot6K—more than the fighting ttiengih of nice of their divisuu s. Doninewbo'e divisions surrender—whether piecemeal or enmassar-ia one continuous action is any cirecmstsnces thin those cf defeat p

GERMANS NEAR A BREAKDOWN, Tvrics, at least, we kno w—once in mid-July and once towards the end of

Septembsr—their whole military machine was perilously near to break-

ing down. We never expected fcerß, or sought, to break it down. Aud n aver has victory been more economical for ns and more costly to ths enemy than in this last month of November, when, with comparytiv&ly light less ourselves, we—tbe British alone—have taken cne of those nine divisions prisoner and have put out of action the eqniva’ent of four mere. The Army has talked of July 14th as having been the most brilliant of all tbe brilliant d&ys. lam net sure that historians of the war will not give precede. es to the captuia of Beaumont Hamel. Germany has been pulling new soldiers iu the field and 6000 of them have surrendered to oar own new armies in a single day.- Not 6000 nor half 6000 of all cur armies have been taken prisoner in all the five months of fighting. She put her Naval Division in its field. It fought for awhile and was broken in tha trenches and withdrawn. We brought our Naval Division in, and it swept the north bank of the Aucre aud captured Beauconrt.

Nothing could be fiasr than the record of the oversea troops on the Somme. You know also what Scots? men have done at Longueval at Baanmont Hanial and at other critical plaoes in the line. No fighting has been mora brilliant than that of the Irish Guards at Guillemot ; no heroism finer than that of tha Ulster men upon the Ancra on the Hi si day of the battle. The Welshmen showed their quality in as stubborn and determined a piecß of work as has been seen in all tha Somme fighting when they cleaned out Mametz Wood. Each makes, as it were, a gallant patch of color in tho splendid tapestry of this battle. It is impossible to mention each regiment in detail. From north to south and west to east* they have alike done excellently. He who belongs to one of the London divisions caD say so with pride. I have heard a neutral visitor complain—but complaining in a spirit of the utmost admiration—that ha had baen with the British Armie.3 for some three weeks and had never heard a word of command, and this ia true. It is the incomprehensible thing about this Army of oura that it saems to do its business automatically.