MEASURED BLOWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1917, Page 6

MEASURED BLOWS.

BRITISH ATTACKS IN WEST. ■ PROSPECTS OF THE CAMPAIGN THIS WINTER. (By Wellington Times' Correspondent). London, Sept. 27. Willi heavy measured blows Sir Douglas Haig continues to diive his wedge into the German positions oust of Ypres. For sheer fierceness and desperation the resistance put up by the enemy in the new battle, which began on Wednesday —only six days after the "push" which enabled us to penetrate a mile deep over an eight-mile front—was probably without parallel in the fighting witnessed in Flanders this summer. Nor is there anything surprising in this. Sir Douglas Haig is now far on his way to Roulers and to Menin. Unless the Germans can hold him up until the coming of winter rings down the curtain on the Western front, they know perfectly well that they must effect another of those "voluntary retirements" which they effected, with such an ill-grace on the Somme at the beginning of the year. Anyone who studies a war map and notes the deep saffent which we have now bitten into the German line east of Ypres will understand the o'bjetirs which Sir Douglas Haig is pursuing.' If we can penetrate as far' as Roulers before the weather breaks up, the German armies operating in Western Belgium will be cut off from the German armies operating in tiro south. It follows that before then the enemy would have to fall back and uncover Ostend. A retirement of this nature might well affect the entire German line from the sea to the Champagne.

The defensive system Hindenburg has built up is one of extraordinary strength. But it is one which must hang together as a whole or not at all. Immediately behind Ostcnd there are no positions of natural strength to which the Germans can retreat. The fall of Ostend, therefore, might carry with it consequences of the utmost strategical importance. And Menin is hardly less important to the Germans than Roulers. The fall of Menin would cut off Lille from the north in much the same way that the fall of Roulers would out off Ostend from the south.

THE OSTEND DEFENCES.

It will be gathered from this that the advance east of Ypres has been so managed as to enable Sir Douglas Haig to strike either separately or simultaneously in two directions. But the front is s comparatively narrow one, and it can be readily imagined that Hindenburg has massed enormous reserves to block further progress either along the road through Cheluvelt to Menin, or the road through Passc-hendaelo and over the Passchondaele Ridge to Roulers. The latter probably represents the more serious menaes to the Germans, who mayhope to keep a grip on Lille by reason of our disinclination, as at Lens, to raze that town to the ground 'by our artillery fire.

The question is sometimes asked why Sir Douglas Haig has not' attacked Os'tencl by the coast-instead of adopting this more indirect manner of forcing a retirement on the enemy. The reason is plain enough. The Germans have inundated practically the whole country from Nieuport to Dixmude. There is thus only a narrow gap left over the dunes for an attack along the coast. The gap is barely two miles broad, and on so narrow a front as this it is impossible to deploy any great number of troops. The positions in the dunes, moreover, are of very great natural strength, and though a frontal attack might be feasible, it could only be carried out at the expense of very heavycasualties.

There is certainly no parallel between the position in front of Ostend and the position in front of Riga, which the Germans themselves successfully negotiated a few weeks ago. Even the Riga defences would probably have been adequate to hold the enemy in check but for the defections of the Russian troops. Bilt so far as Ostend is concerned there can hardly be any doubt that the strategy Sir Douglas IJaig lias pursued is the strategy calculated to produce the" biggest results. The longest way round is often the nearest way home. *

THE PILL-BOXES. One satisfactory feature of the recent fighting has been the relative failure of "the enemy's new defensive measures. We had heard a great deal about the effectiveness of the famous pill-boxes, which the Germans had substituted on the Flanders front for the old trench system of warfare. The terrain here lies so low that deep dug-outs of the kind with which we (became familiar on the Somme front are an impossibility. Aerial reconnaissance, too, has been perfected to such an extent that trench systems are now very speedily Wotted out of existence by our artillery fire. The Germans had to devise some new methods, therefore, of holding up our advance. They hit upon the idea of these small concrete forts —tiny steel-cased contrivances capable of accommodating the handful of men necessary for working the machine-guns with which they are plentifully armed. To these new methods, however, we have applied new methods of our own, with results which have gone some way to reassure those who drew the most! gloomy pictures of the deadly effectiveness of the pill-boxes. This is not the only comforting lesson we are able to draw from the fighting which has taken place since Sir iDougla« Haig resumed the offensive on a big scale. -It is significant, to say the least, that such a large proportion of raw lads should have been captured amongst our last batch of prisoners. We have raw lads in our own army. But we do not put them by choice in positions Where they are" Jikeiy ito find themselves in the hottest .part of the fight. We let. them get seasoned before we do that. If we ever come to change this practice it will be from necessity and not from choice, and wc shall probably not be wrong in assuming that it is necessity which drives the Germans to this expedient. If that is so, it throws an illuminating light on the enemy's dwindling military strength. RUSSIA'S INFLUENCE ON THE WEST It is an ill wind which blows nobody any good. The Russian debacle has had one effect which hardly anyone foresaw. Its influence on the course of events in the Western theatre of the war lias eaten deep into the minds of our own people at Home. It must be admitted that the Allied offensive in France has not yet yielded all that was hoped of it when the campaign of 1017 opened. But there is certainly no disposition to criticise Sir Douglas Haig on this account.

The Man in the Street has quite made up Ibis mind that the Russian

trouble affords a sufficient explanation I of the slow progress {hat has been made. I Germany has been able to effect a concentration in the West and on the Italian front that would never have been possible if the Russians had been able Lo co-operate in the simultaneous ofl'cnsue on all fronts which was projected, 'those who have recently shown an inclination to grumble at the higher direction of the campaign on the Western front will do well to ponder this deeply. It is foreign to the British notions of fair play to scrap generals periodically and make scapegoats of them because the war happens to last longer than people expected. Besides, we all have a suspicion that Ibis scrapping of generals fends to encourage the enemy. If there is resentment it is directed against flic political rather than against the military direction of affairs. Never, probably, in the history of this country, have the politicians been in worse odour than they are to-day.