The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-10-05
A WEEK OF THE WAR.

come with its position may not have
been entirely obnious. Its value may
not have been worth the men sacrificed
in the attempt to get it. But for four
months of almost continuous battle we
could follow each step, each bit OF
ground gained with reference to the
one great comprehensive objective.
In the present offensive on the Som
me this Is not the case The initial
great drive was apparently directed
against Peronne, and the line was ad.
vanced to within a mile Of that place
The correspondents ard experts at
once began to point cut its great value
as central point in the German system
of communications. But since the first
week or so of the offensive this Peronne
sector has been practically neglected
The English attack, particularly,
switched toward Bapaume. fifteen
miles to the north. The French have
| operated first on one side, then on the
other, making salients and then gradual
ly bringing the rest of their front up
into alignment with them. This, of
course, is the same strategy the Ger
mans pursued at Verdun. But in the
Verdun case the active front narrow ed
as the advance progressed, until in the
end all the fighting concentrated within
the short sector running from Fort
VauX past Fort Souvile to the Thiau-
mount farm that is directly at the gate
to Verdun. The present offensive, in
stead Of contracting, widens as it pro-
crosses.
The news dispatches gave great
prominence to the capture of Combles
and relatively little to that of Thlepval.
Yet Combles opens the way to no other
place of manifestly great strategical
Importance. It's defense held up the
allied advance, but there is no such
manifest single objective behind it as
Verdun behind Dead Man Hin, " for
instance, Thiepyal, on the other hand,
was the anchor by which the Germans
bound their new front along the line Of
the offensive with their original posi-
tons to the north. Like Combles. it is
only village. But its capture paves
the way to a considerable extension Of
the fighting front northward.
This seems to have been the really
important event of the past two weeks,
not only in Itself but as an indication of
the allies strategica plans. Between
Thiepval on the north and Vermando,
vilIers On the south, the practical limits
Of the offensive thus far, the allies
have made a great and fairly regular
bend in the German line, some seven
miles deep. The salients within it are
of minor and local character; and its
eXtremities are too far apart to render
progress in the center dangerous be-
cause of the risk of flank attacks. The
last two weeks seem to have shown
that in the center the Germans have
been pushed entirely out of their lines
of permanent Notifications, and that
the new ones, thrown up hastily, offer
far less obstacle to the allies advance.
The fact is indicated IN the greater dis
tances now covered regularly in the
allies attack when made in this section.
The wonder is. then, if the object is
simply to pierce the line, why we do
not see the fighting become more and
more restricted. Rather the idea
seems to be to broaden the pregnable
front so greatly, before this final drive
is made, that the English, particularly,
will have elbow room for the employ
ment of the hundreds OF thousands of
men who must as yet be kept behind
the lines. However intense the hight
/ ing there are limits to the numbers
one can throw against a breach only
eighteen miles wide. The broader the
front the more telling will be the at
tack, for where Germany, by concen-
| training her troops, might present a fair
resistance on an eighteen-mile front,
she certainly cannot have the men to
meet the same kind of an onslaught on
a front Of forty or fifty miles.
The allies, progress in the west
has been notable. In the east, what
ever there war councils may have
expected, events must have proved
keenly disappointing to the British
and French public. AS the season
progresses the immediate value of
Rumania as an ally grows more and
more predetermined. The Austrians
and Bulgarians seem able to take
care of her without serious injury to
the Macedonian defense and without
leaving Russia free to resume her
offensive in Galicia, Rumania her
self might, indeed, not have been ex-
pected to accomplish much; for this
is not war where 100000 men count
particularly, But the removal of the
obstacle the Cumanian frontier OPP
posed to a Russian advance south
ward has not been followed up; nor,
at the end of month, is there the
slightest Indication of preparation on