LULL BEFORE STORM

Taihape Daily Times, 23 April 1918, Page 5

LULL BEFORE STORM

BRITISH IMPROVE POSITIONS Ludendorff's Cardinal Blunder In not Striking at Amiens Again ■ ' ■ K, Threatening Conditions in Ireland Thousands Taking Pledge of Resistance

GERMAN REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVING. MAINLY OF YOUTHS OF 19. I ■ Received 9.5 a.m. LONDON, April 22. Mr. Hamilton Fyfe says German reinforcements are still pouring in, consisting largely of youths of 19, hefty, good, material. The remainder consist mainly of combed out workers. The 1920 class has been warned, but not yet called up. GERMANS BOTTLED UP. LUDENDORFF'S CARDINAL BLUNDER. IS NOT STRIKING AT AMIENS. Received 9.5 a.m. LONDON, April 22. . The Morning Post's Paris correspondent says the German masses by their very* numbers are now bottled in a harrow stret.ch of country where they are unable to go forward or properly provision themselves. Experts are of opinion that Liidendorff's cardinal blunder was in" not throwing the whole of the reserves of Montdidier, where he might have brought about a war of movement. Possibly Petain's aeroplanes spread disorder among the German reserves and prevented this, the triangle bounded by Hazebrouck, There are no v.- 1.000,000 Germans in the triangle, bounded by Hazebruck, Amiens and Noyon. Ludendorff's troops in the Amiens, Hazebrouck, and Noyon triangle were thrown into the' battle with a week's provisions and were now marking time in a country as sterile as the surface of the moon and i nearly as difficult to revictual. The ground was constantly under British and French guns and aeroplanes. No vital point on the Anglo-French front had been reached, and the; liason between the Allies was complete. The past month has cost the enemy onethird of his forces, while the-Anglo-French forces had grown greater. Accordingly' the Allies were content to bide their time. BRITISH POSITIONS SLIGHTLY IMPROVED. i . Received 10 a.m. LONDON, April 22. At 12.20 p.m. Sir D. Haig reports: A strong local attack, accompanied by heavy shelling, took place last night against our positions in the neighbourhood of Mesnil and northward of Albert. After sharp fighting, during A'hich the enemy captured an advanced post, the attack was repulsed. We improved our positions slightly during the night in Villers Bretonneux, Albert and Robecq sectors. We made various raids southward and northward of Lens. There is considerable mutual artillery activity in different sectors. The enemy's fire is chiefly directed on our positions astride the Somme and Ancre Rivers, also in the neighbourhood of Festubert and Nieppe Forest. FIENDISH TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. ROTTERDAM, April 21. Incapacitated British officers returned from relate terrible "rnoltv to German doctors '-ft the. dressing of an officer's leg "or three spelts. Gangrene resulted and the log had to be amputated four times, and finally cut off at the hip. Prisoners were sent to the salt mines, and returned incurable with running sores and permanently mentally impaired. The majority of operations were performed without an anaesthetic, causing awful torture Prisoners say the Germans expect the war to end in victory or defeat this year. '

LUDENDORFF'S RECKLESS METHODS. LONDON, April 21 Reuter's Headquarters correspondent reviewing German methods, says: No leader of a democratic army would flare gamble away man-power as Ludendorff is doing. No general of any other nation would dare set one and a half-million lives as the price for the Channel ports. At the present ratio of casualties to progress, I question if twice li millions would achieve the result. GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORT; LONDON, April 21. Wireless German official: Reciprocal reconnaissances on Prince Rupprecht and the Crown Prince's ' battle-fronts led to violeDt infantry engagements. We attacked tho, AnSericans near Seichoprey and penetrated two kilometres, returning at night time to our original, lines, The American losses were high. We took 183 prisoners. FIRE AND SHELLS WORK HAVOC LONDON, Apri| 21. ', The Daily Chronicle's correspondent on the French front says: The Rheims conflagration has nearly exhausted it- i self. Probably not a house in the city is intact from fire or shells. The rich centre of the city has been gutted and famous public buildings, warehouses, mansions and bazaars .are heaps of smoking ruins. BRITISH IMPROVE POSITIONS. LONDON, April 21. At 9.40 this evening Sir Douglas ' Haig reported: Local fighting ended to our- advantage this morning in the neighbourhood of Robecq. We 'ejected the enemy from some advanced posts There was considerable activity by hostile artillery in this area. NOTED GERMAN AIRMAN KILLED Received 11.25 a.m. ..■.-.•■ r;;, LONDON, April :22.1 ~ Baron Richthoven, the- famous 'Ger-' man aviator, who claims:! to have downed eighty Allied aeroplane's, 'haV been killed near-the oßritiani lines.- i FOCH'S RESERVE; ARMY! OF i < . 1,000,0Q0/ Received 10.25 a.m. NEW YORK, April 22.

According to an American Army of. ficer who has arriyed at an Atlantic port from France, General Foch's reserve army is 1,000,000. • The officer adds that French gallantry "prevented the Germans pouring through the temporary gap of.Gongh's. and Byng's armies. ...

WESTERN FRONT.

I OFFENSIVE MAY LAST* SEVERAL j MONTHS. OTTAWA, April 19. Sir Eobert Borden, in moving the calling of further men to the colours said the. battle on the Western front was likely to continue for months. It would probably decide the war's fate. In the spring of 1917, Germany had increased her armies by over two millions. The annual additional youths coming of a*ge was under half a million. Germany has enslaved the Belgians and Serbians and probably now the conquered areas of Bussia. Thus she was able to make the fullest use of her own man-power. Before the offensive Germany added 1.60,0,u06 to her troops on the West front, and probably mere were coming. It was therefore" imperative 'that' the overseas Dominions should increase their \ contribiit'ibri. "'AiisTralia i!^anfl 7 Zealand 1 so''* far ; exceeded' Canada's' conlMbut'ions.! '"Canada/ 'i$ R &Ss n-fSßssi-had 'despatched overseas*'SeOivdu' troops •As the Canadian's Were'aDou'fc for be involved in'the great r battle'," it -was esr sential to send every'pbssibiemaii.''. L- ?.■: fibst^qtjiet-bAy.'^ : - SINCE THE OFFENSIVE-BEGAN. HEEOIO BESISTAN'CE •OFFEBED. •■>. ■■■ ,i .;liGNDON\«iApril Mr, Philip Gibbs. writes:;..Since the enemy's offensive began,-, a month .ago, in, ..an attempt to,-destroy the. British armies and divide us from, the French, Saturday was the first day --.0n,, which' there was no attack against us. The . front quietened down to desultory shelling. We may honestly and thankfully claim that this was due to the most determined resistance; of our baltalions in the line from Wytschaete and Kemmel to the Ancre and the Somme, against fresh storm troops, far outnumbering them. They beat off v every attempt to break through and hurled the enemy back with ghastly losses. Our, men lying in Flanders ditches, with Freniih troops intermingled with them, repulsed all attacks beyond Thursday and Friday, What the Germans have reaped in the preliminary attacks, beyond Eoboeq and Givenchy, is a harvest of bleeding men now garnered in the field hospitals behind their lines.

Another blow to them was the bloody repulse by the Belgians on Wednesday The enemy had prepared an attack in force between in the Ypres-Staden railway and Kippe. He hoped to surprise and annihilate the Belgian resistance by the weight and quickness of the attack. The Belgiane were waiting, standing in swampy fields which they held for three years and a half, always shelled, always paying a daily toll, and not getting much glory because the great battles were fought elsewhere. The attackers had not a great artillery concentration behind them, and prisoners curse bitterly because they were expected to get through easily. The enemy's main pressure was directed along the Bixschoote Eoad. The Belgians delivered a quick counter-attack, and owing to their perfect knowledge of the country drove the enemy towards a swamp, where many sank to the neck in icy water, seven hundred surrendering. The German casualties grow apace, but this docs not interfere with Ludendorff's policy of bringing up all possible weight of men and guns. Possibly in a few days he will make another greater attempt to capture Kemmel. "

The ; inactivity on the Somine does n op mean the enemy ' 3 abandonment of the idra of seizing the high ground beyond Albert. Ludendorff is biding his time.