PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9790, 13 October 1917, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The enemy reports intense artillery activity on the coast and betv. een the B’.ankart Hake and Poelcapelle. It is a fact that the enemy did note all the preliminary bombardments before the big. British infantry attacks of recent days, from before Messiues. It is on tho cards that he is again reporting a big preliminary bombardment. That opens up a wide horizon. Tho Blankart Lake is at the edge of tho area which was flooded hy tbe Yser when tho gates were opened in 1914, and has remained an impassable barrier against the Gormans ever since. The Allies hold their line from tho coast to this flooded area, and on from that ■area pafit Poelcapelle, as we are familiar with if from the reports of the recent fighting. A bombardment, therefore, on tho coast and from Lako Blaukart to Poelcapelle means a bombardment alohg the whole of tho Allied line, from the Downs, where the British suffered that loss a couple of months ago, to the junction of the French line with the British at Poelcapell©.

If this is really a preliminary bombardment, then we may expect tlia-t the whole of the Allied left, or northern section, is about to be thrown forward, menacing (Intend, the muchbombarded, Zeebrugge, the muchbombed, and the whole plain of Westora Flanders. It is, of course, patent that the three first phases of tno Third Battle of Ypres advanced the British well on the great ridges of Ypres and Passchsndaelo. The advance of tho French on the loft in the fourth phase of the battle (between Lake Blaukart and'. Poelcapelle practically, if wo adopt tie German description. of tho bombardment) showed that in the opinion of the commanding general the complete command of, tho ■ridges is, now a matter of such speedy acquisition that it is time to throw forward his left -for the sweep round ‘the coast country. When the enemy is in full retreat before that sweep, tho British on the ridges—at that time in. full oommaad —will be able to make' most deadly thrusts at his men moving over the open. If the artillery fire of the enemy’s report is the big bombardment before a great assault, we may expeot some great doings presently.

The French have already began to move in sympathy towards tho western flank of the big Houthoulst Wood It is an advance of which the success will free the pressure which now holds back the British in the swampy country between the Stadon railway and tho Gravenstafel ridge. That means that in all probability the .enemy will lose the big wood, the end of the Passohenda/ele ridge, and the whole country between in the next “drive.” By that time the sweep of the coast ought bo have brought the British, and perhaps some Belgian troops, a long way towards Ostend, well into the hinterland of that coast in touch with the French emerging past the flooded area. One cannot speculate much on the chances at this distance. So much depends on the weather and the condition of the ground. The recent accounts do not encourage speculation to be bold, depicting, as they do, the Flanders mud and ooze which so sadly impeded our brave men in the fourth phase of the battle, limited their objectives, hindered reinforcements, and even compelled a short retirement.

But the fact that the French have since the battle of the fourth phase of Ypres 111. been ordered to move forward against the western flank of the big wood, does, with their vigorous shelling of the wood, prove that the High Command does not consider that the weather is likely to make the country impossible to work in. If the artillery work reported by the enemy really is a preliminary bombardment, then the question is settled, for that would be an indication of the belief that the state of the country will not, under any circumstances, make it impossible to drive the enemy out of Flanders.

It is a further indication of the probability of this northern “drive” that our naval and other airplanes are keeping so spitefully busy behind the enemy’s lines, breaking up and disorganising his work, connections, - and all his belongings. The enemy has issued a clumsy fabrication reporting that he brought down many hundreds of airplanes during the month of September, to say nothing of quite a phenomenal number of captive balloons. As there is no doubt that we have the command of the air, it follows from the beautiful, regularlycompiled figures of the German bulletin that tho more aeroplanes one loses the greater the command of the air one requires. ...

It really would be cheaper to have no aeioplanes at all, for then nobody challenging our command of tho air would he able to destroy a single aeroplane. m a

Marshal Haig’s report confirms the idea suggested by the enemy’s bulletin of a heavy bombardment. He says that a big bombardment is goin<r on of the enemy’s positions and of = his communication and his back areas. He a<jds that the hostile artillery is less active, that the atmosphere affords good visibility, that his airmen are bombing the enemy’s heavy gun positions. No*w, if we bear in mind the fact that the recent victories havo put the Allies into commanding positions, we can realise that with good visibility the fire of our guns, both direct and directed by the airmen, must b© superior, And if we add the fact that our airmen are bombing over the enemy’s big gun positions we can readily realise the tmth of the Marshal’s statement that the hostile artillery fire is less active. It is plain, as a matter of fact, that a great bomby-rdment is in progress and tint it has got the better of the enemy’s artillery resistance already. The Marshal and the French reports both say there has been no infantry action —of course not. Tbe enemy's infantry has finished, its counter-at-tacking work, and can not do any attacking against a bombardment that is breaking down the efforts of its own- 3 * artillery, and the Allied infantry hawing done consolidating its new positions is waiting for the bombarding to clear the way for its next advance. Our reports will soon add that infantry advance to its chronicle of artillery work.

The Russian news does not chronicle any disaster. It is therefore good

news., On the Rig?, front the Russians admir that the enemy has made some slight progress, but as the enemy is silent, the progress must have been very small. He has a good many hundred miles of opportunity for progress, between Riga and the Danube, wnero that stubbornly-held Roumanian nno joins the great river. He would give a great deal to make progress, and he would like it phenomenal. But h* remains nailed to the ground. itveu the great Mackeusen, who was going, as it were, to pick up all Roumama and fling the whole lump into the Black Sea, has been silent for weeks. Moreover, all the great expeditions, naval co-operations, instant marches on Potrograd and Moscow, having duly suffered the death of false prediction, havo not reappeared. The very pessimists and worshippers of the monstrous Hindenburg, who kept the world in a state of perpetual startle with their speculations of what the great and only general in the world, commanding the only army worthy of the name, the man not to be hindered by toes and to he worshipped for evet by all pessimists, pacifists, Pecksniffs, and other paltry scum, would do — oven these havo given up telling us of German progress, past, present, future, possible and impossible, probable and improbable. Could you wish for more convincing proof of the inability of the German Colossus and his Austrian Familiar to lift a finger against the paralysed Government of the Russian Revolution?

Neverthelas there is further proof to-day, in the statement from Amsterdam, culled from the German press reports, that the mutinous spirit is rif© throughout the Gorman High Sea Fleet, and that it prevented the use of the battleships against the_ Russian Fleet in the Baltic. At the time when the disaffection in the Russian Fleet was being allayed by the Provisional Government and was allayed without drastic disciplinary measures, _ the German Fleet was sO' rotten with disaffection that the High Command was afraid to use it. Some one even rvent so far the other day in the Reichstag as to say that the mutineers were prepared: to hand the fleet over to the enemy, Tbe Russians, it turns out, were not the only arms paralyzed by internal troubles. This does _ not, however, cover the whole position. There is yet another cause for the Gorman inability to take advantage of the Russian paralysis. % Whv this failure to seize the ripe plums? Why this deadly calm in fetid trenches before the breezy, fertile plains of Russia waiting to be conquered? The Allies have got hold of the Colossus and his Familiar, and they are pinning him down to the work he can’t do. Though he puts his last man into the Western lines and the Italian lines, he is unable to rely on keeping his illgotten territories. Ho has got all his force on these two fronts, which he cannot hold, and all he can do on the Eastern front is to pray that the Russians may not recover sufficient strength to drive in the troops he has to maintain to hold back invasion. The Colossus, under Hindentrarg, who refuses to leave the main post of danger for the tangled web of German diplomacy in the East, is sweating hard in the fruitless effort to stop the Allies, and his Familiar having lost a million men, is crying for German troops, declaring that the real imminent danger is against Vienna, not Berlin, This is the moment chosen by the Pan-Gormans to consolidate Pan-Ger-manism with the old cries of annexation, indemnities, world dominance, and lies of the provocation which bas turned the German lamb into the most ferocious wild beast known in history. It is a complete answer to any possible peace proposals, of course. At the eleventh hour the Gorman Fleet mutinied, and the Colossus rias paralysed, in the very attitude of denouncing the "offensive” forced on by England, etc. Pan-Germanism bas triumphed over the political factions. But the interesting question is of what may triumph over Pan-Germanism before the Allies have knocked the breath out of its loathsome body. Between internal disaffection and outside battering, it may be a close race for German disaster.

The Prime Minister of Britain has also chosen his time for speaking, and the ox-Prime Minister has done the same. Both have taken the opportunity given them by the German Foreign Minister’s declaration that the French provinces will never be restored. That Minister’s declaration has caused the Pan-Germanists, now. in possession of the. Reichstag, to take advantage of their political victory by insisting on his being made Chancellor vice Michaelis to be dismissed. In this moment of the unmasking of the Gorman war policy, Mr Lloyd George and Mr Asquith have united in reassuring our French Ally with a declaration that nothing will induce the British. Umpire to think of peace till these provinces are restored. It is a timely, valuable service.

General Maurice’s contribution winds up the war news of the dav very effectively. He begins by confuting the fabrication of the German military expert about our losing half a million of men since September 20th, with the simple statement that we did not have so many troops engaged on that front in all the recent battles. He goes on to toll tha.t our losses on all the theatres of war since January did not exceed half a million. These statements being in reply to Major Mcraht—whose writings used to be quoted to us by cable a great deal, but have been neglected for some time —enable us to see the basis of that queer German report which informed the world the other day of the awful losses of the Anzac troop fi in the recent battles, and tbe discouraging effect thereof. Also we can realise how much more easily Fritz destroys our men on paper than in battle.

•General Maurice, after testifying to the very satisfactory results of the recent victories, ends with a most suggestive reference to the transport provision behind onr armies. The submarines have not delayed us a single hour. We are using munitions at tTie rate of 17,289 tons a month (24 tons an hour), getting them up as fast as they are wanted. It is a wonderful feat of organisation, and it shows ns the vastness of modern war. And what a thing is memory! On this very battlefield of Tpres it was that Marshal French sent forth, that terrible cry for “Munitions, munitions, and more munitions,” what time the experts told Lord Kitchener that the quantity then named —far less than is now in regular use —could not he mode in lees thin eight vear!. And it is on this very battlefield that we are pelting the enemy with 17.CHX) tons of munitions a month and keening the supply going as easily as shelling peas. The General winds up with the statement that all the railway and canal transport has been enormously improv-

ed. Thus can we realise another thing. When the enemy retreated on the Somme we could not spring upon him because our transport choked. When he retreats from the Yser our transport will not choke. The energy of our engineers supplied us on tho Somme with new railways in time to let us overtake the enemy and hit him hard before he got into bis new lines. This time their whole energy will bo devoted to mending the broken roads ho leaves behind him.