The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1917. ON THE ROAD TO MONS.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 November 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1917. ON THE ROAD TO MONS.

(With which is incorporated The Tai hapo Post and Waimarino News).

Fighting of a very desperate character still continues before Cambrai as the result of Britain's disregard of the "Hun's misplaced . confidence lin their Hindenburg line. There is some probability that Hindenburg himself feels just about as badly smashed as the line he devised and had named after him. Enemy newspapers try to hide German fear of the nature of this lino-smashing by saying that it will not divert attention from the Passchendaele Ridge, but the German High Command realises that Britain has taken a short cut through the Hindenburg line for the easiest and most direct route to that part of Belgium that will compel their line to leave contact with the Belgian coast. Sir Douglas Haig has taken, possession, at the most advantageous point, of the valley by which the British made their historic, glorious retreat from jMons, a military movement of which there is nothing finer in history; and Germany knows too well that little short of superhuman effort will be needed to stem that British move, that retracing of British steps along the valley of the Sanibre or what is known in German strategy as the valley of the Scheldt, for this valley has its outlet to the sea in the Scheldt, on the north frontier of Belgium. This valley is the scene of Britain's greatest retreat before an enemy and Britain is going to regain her prestige, and her place in history by chasing her enemy back over the same ground. There is no point in Belgium or France so essential to Germany's hold of the coast of Belgium as that valley the British have now a footing in, and no better proof of this is needed than the desperation with which Germany defended it in that Battle Of the Somme, in July, 1916. Nothing Ger-

many has done in defence of the YpresKoulers salient more than commences to equal the bloody intensity of thenstruggle at Pozieres, and at some other places by which they rendered ti*( British thrust for that they have now attained, for the time abortive. Our men are now fighting three miles from Cambrai, to retain the ground won; they have been pushed back by the huge waves of men sent against them; they lost Bourlon Wood and Fontaine Notre Dame, but only temporarily, for they are now in possession of both Bourlon Wood and Bourlon Village, and also Fontaine Notre Dame. These places constitute the positions on a dominating ridge from whence the death blow to Cambrai must be directed. Germans are not, despite the desperation of their bloody appeals, to be allowed to retain a foot of this high ground, and the German High Command literally quakes with fear. The real extent of conquered territory has not yet been made known to us, and probably will not until that before Cambrai is consolidated and rendered safe. We may feel assured, however, that this breaking of 'the Hindenburg line is only the commencement of big and sensational military actions. British advance further east and south of Cambrai contributes largely to this view; the southern end of;the German line at St. Quentin will be held, while Britain's main force will 'turn to the north east retracing the memorable road from Mons; it takes in the Mouse valley, which also is a part of the Siegfried Scheldt line, and leads on to Liege, where German territory is within striking distance, and which constitutes the chief gateway by which the German millions in Flanders must go home, unless in their desperation and hurry they "scrap" their obligations to Holland. Cambrai is very close to the German Solar Plexus and Britain's determination to deliver a knock-out blow in that"" region now seems obvious. Germans, in face of what their newspapers may say, were never so near disaster as they arc at this moment. Their boasted line has been overrun on a wide front, an opening has been made through which thousands of British cavalry can pass, and continue to operate; it is a break through that is pregnant with great possibilities. Germany sougnc to save herself from this disaster by a campaign against Italy, and the massing of an army on the Swiss frontier in readiness to assist the army that was to be successful in the Trentino, and which was then to turn its face to the Italian-French frontier, and cut off, or hamper communications between Italy and France, but they have undershot the mark; they have sent a punitive force to do an invading-army's work, and they have addcu another mistake to their' already huge stock of miscalculations. What is the result? They have failed in Italy, they are being driven back off the PasschcnuaeTe Sidge; their Hindenburg line has burst and a flood of British soldiers, of all arms, is rushing into the Valley of the Scheldt, on its victorious return to Mons, to Liege, and on to Berlin. The Central Powers are being driven out of Palestine, out of Mesopotamia, in fact, they are, indeed, cutting an ignominious figure on all fronts, not excepting that against Eussia, where they are practicing everything that is most humiliating and detestable to brave and honourable people. When definite news of what Britain has actually accomplished on the Somme, before Cambrai, we shall, from all present indications, find that very much more than Sir Douglas Haig set out to take has been con quered or captured, and by the time this news comes to us, Britain's victorious soldiers will be hammering at the door of Cambrai, or will have masked it, and be following up the way to Mons. The British General cannot allow such a splendid opportunity to pass unexploited. We may be sure his transport army have rails laid right up to where the next spring is to be made from, and that Tanks and artillery in force major are already prepared for further action. It is notable that in the early period of the war when General French called for "munitions and still more munitions," Britain had to pit men against German machine-guns, to-day the tables arc turned, for she now meets wave after wave of German infantry, not with British infantry, but with British machine guns. The Allies have now a superiority in numbers of men, munitions, ordnance, aeroplanes, and such other accessories under which category the great land dreadnoughts come. The Kaiser has called a momentous gathering of his war lords, such a gathering as he has not found it essential to call since that memor able time in the dying days of July, 1014. All are to be present except those who have been sacrificed to Hohenzollern lust. This" great, unprecedented Council of War is ostensibly to evolve plans for turning the irrepressible Briton, with his gun, out of Palestine, but the real, the practical work of this Council is to endeavour to discover a way of averting the calamity to German arms, .the writing of which this modern Belshazzar sees so plainly on the wall. The German com-

mand is surprised in Palestine, in j Mesopotamia, in Italy, and now the cruel crowning surprise comes again from the hated British, before Cambrai. The great Hindenburg looks small in German eyes to-day, he is beaten, his invulnerable line is positively smashed. This War Council is j to determine how Hindenburg prestige is to be restored, with the proviso, if it can. Germans must have some War god, some Shibboleth, some name to conjure with, that of the TvafsTir'and his gott, have long ago given place to that of Hindenburg and now those rascally British have uebased the name of Hindenburg. The Kaiser's War Council is to fill the gap if it can. J Meanwhile British soldiers will go on i forcing the road back to Mons and Liege, because they know that (nothing short of the supernatural can ; save German millions from having to get back from the Belgian coast as best they can. What a holocaust will be experienced when only German rearguards have to face the Allied millions in Flanders. The time for sensational happenings is at hand, and one can predict what Germany may try to do in her desperation.