New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-18


offensive enabled them, in company with
the French, to regain all that was lost IN
April and May, 1915.
Looking eastward to the sector along the
Menin Road, where the present offensive
has. so far, been less successful, the names
and the recollections go back to the first
battle of Ypres. To-day the detectives of
the British are Grafenstafel, Zonnebeke,
Gheluvelt and Zandevorde the villages and
the high ground where the most desperate
fighting of October and November, 1914,
took place. Most of this ground was held
then and abandoned only when the German
attack of April, 1915, broke down the
Langemarck- Bixschoote flank and COM
PEELED readjustment.
Since that date the Germans have fortl-
fed every inch of this ground. Now it IS
their last hold upon the high ground along
all the front from Vimy to the User, save
for certain elevations in the La Bassee
position, already threatened on both sides.
II was here that the first British attack
was recently checked; it is here that the
British must progress to restore the condi-
tons of October, 1914, when their offence
ended under the avalanche Of German
troops hurried up and thrown in under the
eye of the Kaiser to hack their way mach
Calais"
Before there can be great achievement
between the User and the sea the British
must regain the whole of the Zandevorde
Ridge. They have taken the Pilkem Ridge,
to the west of Langemarck; they have
taken st. Julien and portion Of the high
ground of the Grafenstafel Ridge to the
east. To the south they have retaken all
of the Messines or White Sheet Ridge.
They have thus reestablished and more
than reestablished both their tanks as they
stood nearly three years ago When they
have retaken the ground between Zonne-
beke and Zandevorde, then the first stage
will be over. They will then be able to
resume the task that had to be abandoned
in 1914, because men and guns were lack
ing. This is why the Germans are making
such desperate and such sustained efforts
to hold on efforts that, so far, have been
in the main successful.
1t is worth noting, however, that there
is a plain change in battle tactics on both
sides. The great German losses in prison
ers and guns at Arras, more than 200
cannon and nearly 10000 prisoners, have
brought the Germans to the point Of adopt
ing the French method employed az
Verdun and recently along the Chemin-des-
Danes, the method which calls for holding
the front lines lightly and relying upon
supports and counter-attacks to maintain
the main position. On the other hand, the
British are restricting their detectives to
less than two miles, in the main to a single
mile, increasing their artillery preparation,
advancing only this shorter distance, con-
solidating their gains and then beginning
a new preparation. This lesson, perhaps,
is derived from the French experience in
their spring attack along the Aisne, where
too much was sought in a single leap and
great losses were incurred without the
attainment of any but modest results.
And in this connection it is amusing to
note the response of the German official
statements. The other day the British
fixed Hill 70 as their objective and the
Canadians took it. The Germans, ignoring
Hill 20, selected Vendin-le-Viel, a village
more than two miles behind the front, as
the British objective, and then congratu-
lated their troops on having prevented the
British attainment of the aim, foisted upon
the British by German high command.
Lord Salisbury once said that the true way
to repulse an invasion approaching your
capital was to use larger scale map each
day that the enemy advanced. In this way
the foe would still for a long time seem
just as far away as ever. Evidently the
Germans, who do not invent but apply,
have borrowed the idea of former British
| Prime Minister.
Unless all signs fail we have now great
offensive approaching its second stage, an
/ offensive on a front from the User to
/ Deule, from Ypres to Lens. On this front