Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-02
On a Broad Front.

|
new fact in the trench warfare. 1t has
demonstrated that. all things consider
ed. the attack upon a broad front is the
most successful method of piercing the
trench lines of an opponent. 1t stands
in direct contrast to the relative failure
of all save one of the attacks upon
narrow front, which have become the
classic form of attempting to change
war of position into a war of movement.
| At Loos the British attacked on
front of some ten miles. at Neuve Cha
pelle on a front of FIVE. In Champagne
the French attacked in the spring OF
l1915 on a front of less than twelve
miles. and in the autumn on a front OF
less than twenty miles. The German
attack upon Ypres In the same spring
and present attack upon Verdun noth
have been made upon fronts very cir
cumscribed. All Of these attacks have
gained ground; all Of them have result
ed in large captures of men and mate
rial; but in no case has there been a
permanent piercing of the line. al
though there have been temporary
punctures. notably by the Germans at
Ypres, the British at Loos and the
French in the second Champagne battle.
Success Scored by Germans. -
An absolute success flowing from the
attack upon a narrow front was scored
by the Germans more than a year ago
at the Dunajec. Here they massed
huge amount of artillery on front OF
little more than ten miles, annihilated
the Russian trenches. opened gap in
| the Russian line and poured through.
This was in the first days or May. IL
was September before the Russian re-
treat had stopped. and it had covered
several hundred miles.
| Rut precisely the same tactics, Joined
with an even greater concentration OF
artillery in front of Verdun, have won
| for the Germans in over four months
net gain of little more than six miles on
| a front of less than ten. To make this
gain they have sacrificed large numbers
of men (their losses are certainly much
higher than the French)' they nave
used vast quantities of ammunition ana
used up very large numbers or heavy
| runs. for the life of a heavy gun is
ridiculously short.
| Thus we hive clearly demonstrated
! the percentag.yoff failures, as compared
with successes. which mas oeen scored
! row front after tremendous artillery
concentration and hitherto unprece-
dented bombardment. AS result
| there has been a very marked treno
| toward the attack on broad front IN
| the minds of those who make and dis
| cuss plans of campaign.
British Sectors Considered.
Turning now to the British sectors
| of the western front, the actual situa-
ton is this: From the User to the
somme the British hold something less
| than ninety miles of trenches: south
of the somme and to the Disc the
French under Foch hold perhaps thirty
| Dat ha q M
sea the French and the Belgians hold
rather more than fifteen miles. Allow
| ing for the curves. the whole line may
cover $50 miles between Noyon and
Newport.
Roughly speaking. the portions of
the line held by the British completely
cover the sectors from which an Of
fensive may be expected to move. The
region occupied by the Belgians. sup
ported by the French, is swamp, after
two years of inundation. The sector
in front of Foch is too strong to hold
out much hope for successful drive.
Resting, as the German tanks here do.
on the fortress of Peronne and the
Sonnme marshes at the north and the
Noyon hills on the south, 1t is an ex-
ceedingly difficult front to break.
Looking backward, we see that the
Belgian sector and the Foch sector.
those about the User and west of Roye.
have been in the main inactive since
the weeks Immediately following the
Marine and the battle of Flanders. The
Germans after the Marine made great
effort to move west from the Disc upon
Amiens and turn the French flank;
they failed in a battle little known to
the war readers, but one of the most
desperate of the western operations.
More familiar is the German thrust at
Calais. which was checked at the User.
when the sluices were opened and the
country flooded.
Subsequently the British made their
at Neuve Chapelle. Here they almost
reached the Aubers ridge, which is the
key to Lille. A few months later they
attacked from trenches to the south of
La Bassee and reached Loos. This
time they almost succeeded in turning
the Germans out Of both La Bassee and
Lens. Finally. the French in June,
1915. made a terrific assault upon the
German front south of Lens and north
east of Arras. In this struggle the
French took the Lorette heights. the
villages west of the Vimy ridge. in
tluding Souchez; they also took foot on
the Vimy ridge, but could not progress.
Where English Must Attack.
1t is clear from the past then that
the allied strategy has disclosed the
points at which a successful attack
can be hoped for We are fairly safe
in believing that when the British at
tack they will attack moving east out
Of Bethune. and out of Arras. which
is now in their keeping. They are
equally certain to strike east from AL
bert, north of the Somme, and prob
ably from Ypres. where their move
ment will be north. not east. Roughly
speaking the detectives will be Lille,
La Eassee, Lens and Bapaume, which
lie in their immediate front, and then
Douai, Cambria, and lie Cateau, which
lie behind these places and are on the
railroad lines essential to German mil
itary existence in northern France.
We have here then a front of some |
thing less than a hundred miles, as
compared with the 200 on which the
Russians made their great and so far |
successful advance of a month ago
Lille at the north and Peronne at the |
south of the German front here recall |
the Austrian strongholds of Lutsk and |
Czernowitz. Douai is about in the same |
relation to Lille that Dubno is to Lutsk. |
Cambria recalls the German position |
facing Tarnopol in the center of the |
Austro-German front from ,Pripet to |
Rumania.
There is. however. one essential differ
ence between the eastern and western sit 1
.uations. In the east the main railroads |
follow an east and west direction. The
Russians. therefore, having broken the |
Austro- German lines. marched westward I
along the railroads. But in France the
railroads run north and south-that is,