THE WESTERN FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1917, Page 6

THE WESTERN FRONT.

GERMAN STRENGTH AND GUNPOWER. ■LESSONS OF RECENT FIGHTING. London, May 4. Writing from Northern France, /the military correspondent of The Times summarises the opinions which he has formed as a result of visiting the iSomme 'battlefields, and recognising the connection between the event of last year on that front and the fighting now in progress on the front of St. Quentin-Lens. It is necessary, he points out, that we should all realise the nature of the opposition which confronts us, and our French and Belgian Allies. "The Germans are still very strong," he writes. "In fact, stronger than they have ever been. It is not open to us to reckon that they have less than 4.500,000 men in the, field on both fronts, 500,000 on the line of communications, and 1,000,000 men in the depots of Germany. They have increased the number of their divisions in the West to 155, and of this number there are GS divisions between the sea and the Oise. The German strengths are also fairly well maintained, and the companies average 200 rifles. To 'be still confronted by 0,000,000 German fighters makes the later stages of the war a serious matter for all the Allies, and we have besides to reckon (With the 500,000 men of each successive German class as it is called up. The 1919 German class is already incorporated, and the 'KM9 class is in the depots. But there is a reverse to thus German medal. Combing-out Genioan industries is practically at an end. The only drafts available are the young class and the recovered wounded, and these will not (be enough, if the fighting continues on the old scale, to keep the ranks full." Tho Times military correspondent describes the moral of the German armies in our front a3 "still respectable," and he says: "i could take but,.little exception to the quality of the prisoners whom I saw."

GUN POWER. Continuing, -lie writes: "The Germans continue their practice of substituting machine-power for man-power as much as they can. witness the large use now being made of the new 08/15 machinegun, but- on the iwhole we are alble to beat them in machine-power, and our artillery is now not only superior to the German numerically, but also more effi'cient in many ways. The enemy tries continually to outrange us, as, for example, by increasing the percussion range of his field guns to 9000 yards, and by using pieces like the 24cm. naval gun, which ihas a range of nearly 28*000 yards. He knows the ranges of our guns to a yard, and places his own guns just outside these ranges whenever practicable . "My impressions of the Sonime were confirmed by what I saw of the Arras righting. I do not think that the Germans are short of shells, but I think they are short of guns, and for some reason or other are unable to make up their leaway. We smothered their guns on April 9, and later the German artillery was distinctly inferior to ours. Our counter-battery work, not above criticism on the Somme, has become deadly. In four months before Arras our aeroplanes reported 1559 direct hits on German guns, as well as some 200 important explosions, so that t'he German administration, which was already hard put to it to Tepair its guns, to create a reserve, and to provide artillery for the new divisions, must have had an anxious time. "A large number of German guns must have been placed out of action during the fighting in the Arras district, in addition to those which we captured. The German report that the guns lost had been destroyed before they were abandoned is quite untrue. I heard of no such destruction of the 150 guns captured bv General Allenby's Third Army, while of the <!4 or more guns captured by General Home's First Army only one was reported bulged biv a par-tially-successful attempt to blow it up. The proof is that nearly all these captured guns were used against the enemy. General Byng formed a Ist, 2nd, and 3rd Pan-Germanic out of his captured guns, and as some of these had 1000 rounds with them, and our guns could not bo brought up immediately owing to the state of the ground, we found the German guns quite useful. "I searched hard for the wire and the trenches of the main German line on the famous Hill M 5 on t'he Vimy Ridge, and could not fix it with accuracy amidst- a mass of shell craters and shattered fragments of barbed wire. Out of ten concreted machine-gun emplacements on one short section of ground attacked by one of General Allenby's divisions, nine -were completely demolished, and the .tenth had half its roofing knocked off. It is the same story with the concreted bombproofs of the German heavies. Our heavy howitzers play the very deuce with them, and in short, when we give our gunners and airmen the necessary time for preparation, and do not try to march to the Meuse in an afternoon, a German position is as good as taken before an assault. Onr gas is also most effective, and the Huns must curse the names of their chemists who added this new terror to war."