THE CRITICAL PERIOD

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1918, Page 5

THE CRITICAL PERIOD

A RACE AGAINST TIME. SITUATION HOPEFUL, BUT EXCEEDINGLY GRAVE. Rc.'-'ived March 27, 11.55 p.m. London, March 27. The latest news reveals the danger point has been shifted j from the north to the south, between. Arras and Noyon. The situation is more hopeful, but still it is, excedingly grave. The northern advance is held. The southern is clearly a race against time. Everything depends upon the next few hours. Wednesday and Thursday will be highly critical days. WITHDRAWAL CONTINUES. ENEMY FIGHTING DESPERATELY. BRITISH GUNNERS' SUPREME TIME. SPLENDID WORK BY AIRMEN. Reuter Service. Received March 27, 8.15 p.m. London, March 20. Reutcr's correspondent at British headquarters, in a report dated March 20, says: Very slowly, and exacting the ■heaviest possible toll for every foot of ground, our line continues to witlulraw before tho pressure of the German masses. Over a large portion of the battle zone the retirement is voluntary, and is being condui ted so as to maintain an unbroken front. The weather remains fine, the ground being hard and dry, favoring the enemy bringing forward guns. Even so, tho prisoners say tile advance is much behind the timetable, the tenacity exceeding anything they deemed possible. Prisoners complain of great privations, owing to lacK of supplies, and say that extreme weariness is telling heavily. This is doubtless true of the prisoners taken, but, thanks to his dense masses of supports, the enemy is able to constantly replenish the forward lines with fresh units. He is fighting desperately hard Against time. We now know that in the first days of the fighting the enemy's reserve was reduced to 52 divisions, and by the second day to 40 divisions from the reserves which were thrown in.

Yesterday \vnß tlm supreme time for our gunners, the, advance being held up nearly everywhere by the ceaaless intensity of our artillery Arc. The enemy's massed waves received dreadful punishment' The work of our airmen surpasses praise. Yesternight tlioy made a veritable pandemonium at every centre of concentration and on the traffic behind the German front tenn of thousands of rounds 'being fired into ,cm?ny formations, whose density offered a perfect target. German observation is .so restricted by day that they never can do more than peep and run. On the other hand our fliers are fulfilling, with deadly effectiveness, their role of being the eyes of the artillery. In this connection the weather is undoubtedly favoring us.