ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Taihape Daily Times, 11 October 1918, Page 6

ON THE WESTERN FRONT

FOCH FINDS WEAK SPOTS. LONDON, October 8. Mr Murdoch, writing on the 7th, says Prosty -nights, bleak days and bitter gnles remind the British armies that winter is approaching with its mud and slush of evil memory, but the men accept the addition of physical discomforts to the battle horrors with the same dogged spirit. The battlefields have a grim, dark setting under threatening clouds, yet the Allies strike, strike and strike again. It is not hammering old lines like Passchendaele and the Somme with recurring' blows on the same spot but swift movements in changing sectors whereupon the enemy has moved reserves. On the German side it has become a desperate game of dodging in the attempt to avoid a knock-out blow. They have rushed troops to Belgium, to meet the Franco-Belgian advance, which, sheer congestion of roads is delaying. The Allies next opened upon St. Quentin, whereupon the Germans brought troops from the Rheims district in order to stabilise there. The Allied strategy has never been unified over so wide an area and probably never in history has a Generalissimo had to swing armies in unison over a hundred miles of a single battlefield. The question of the possibility of a winter campaign is earnestly discussed. 'Costly experience has proved the impossibility of a winter battles on devastated areas and crater zones, like Passchendaele, where the battlefield becomes waterlogged, but we are now everywhere upon virgin green lands and approaching .the zones of undamaged villages and unbroken roads. No doubt if the Germans are given the winter in which ; to recuperate and build a new line ■they will be able to make a costly fight next spring. The sky is red with fire, iand great ■"ills of smoke overhang Douai, (Lens tfrSmbrai and Laoh. The Germans are aiot burning the villages in the Australian sector, doubtless because they would like to regain the Hindenburg Line or at least retake the Beaurevoir J system for the winter. There is not seen a single stock of furniture, left an a recaptured village. The Huns xansaek before departure and indulge an disorganised rapine when they re- : tire. In this they lack the old characteristic military sense. In poor organisation and confused mad bull efforts is the decline of the German Empire already seen. Prisoners are inaggardy (drawn-eyed, unshaven in, filthy trench systems. In mutinies, patchy morale, and dirt and stench in captured positions is visible rapid deterioration ,of German arms. The fine, young enthusiasm of the Americans and the steadiness of British Tommies' .spirits stand in contrast. .The Britishers are unchanged by varied fortunes. Commanders gain the same implicit obedience from officers and men as in the ,first flush of the war. Battalions advanced in the same undeviating way in frontal assauts. Some British battalions have been over the top more than scores of times during the war, but "hop the bags" again now ,vri.th equal steadiness."