Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-09-06

~ sNb"S VA b1N ~ IAIlos "a
gain OF nearly five miles at one point,
and of more than Jour on a wide front,
the capture OF Nimy ridge and the high
ground at Monchy were equally i'm
portant.
YET is proved impossible to stretch
this to an actual piercing, a breaking
through. When the British had got on
four miles their heavy guns were of
much less value to them and it became
a problem of getting them forward
over ground devastated by the fighting
OF three years, torn and scanned by shell
fire and by trench operations. In the
end the fighting died down here. after
great German counter attacks. which
were excessively expensive to the Ger
mans, but served to hold the British.
That the British expected at the out
set to break the line at Arras seems
quite unlikely. That was not the view /
found when l was with the British
army less thar two months before the
battle occurred. | suspect that the
extent of the victory of the first day
may have led them To the view that it
might be possible, but there is precious
little belief in the British army that
the break through can come while the
are still in such force as they
still maintain on the western 'front.'.
No Decision in 1917.
Eh'' with u SIlV " tuC GalCIG Oh
A.rras and the failure of the French
before Lton and i'm front of Rheims.
the western campaign took on a differ
ent aspect The Russian collapse had
released many German troops and,
what was more important. reserves that
had been marked for use in the east.
The chance of a decision in 1871 went
glmmerin2. 1t became a question of
the utmost pressure upon the
ornlAn eyactinU tho Inruacf pncciINla
casualty lists. while losing as few men
as possible. and for this form of war
fare it WAS recognized that Petain's old
method in his two Verdun offensives of
last year. was the best possible form
of tactics.
This method called for AN intensive
artillery preparation on II relatively
marrow front, then Il swift and sudden
blow. an advance of carefully restricted
extent hardly more than a mile in most
cases. the capture of high ground, a viii
lase. some objective of Importance but
not of great area. Superior artillery
produced the destruction of the defend
ing force, and this superior artillery,
since the advance was restricted, was
just as useful in beating down counter
attacks. when they came.
Such tactics in Verdun i'm October
and December last year enabled the.
FRENCH first to retake Douamont and
Naux and then a wide area of country
in Il circle from Vachereauville to
BeZonvaux, together with $4,000 pris-
oners and many guns.
At Nerdun Petain used relatively
small forces. yet so successful was his
December attack that the German lines
were abolished for n considerable ex-
But despite German disorganiza-
ton his troops carefully limited their
to the ground that could be
easily held and from which they could
punish severely my counter attack.
The result was there were no counter
attacks. At the Messines or "White
did exactly the same thing, and so com
plete was their artillery preparation
there was no German counter attack
FOR 40 hours, n then 1t was easily
snuffed out.
New German Defenses.
In addition. this intense artillery
preparation demonstrated that the gun
was again getting the better of the de-
fensive. Concrete works were churned
and h barrage was so effective
IN keeping troops in deep dugouts while
the advance was getting forward. COW
cred by a creeping barrage, that the
Germans were driven back upon
Petain's method in the defense of Yer
dun a method very largely born Of
necessity. Then, with their trenches
destroyed by the hitherto unprece-
denied artillery fire OF the Germans,
the French hung on in she'll holes, con-
ceaiing machine guns in these exca-
vations and maintaining a line. not
continuous but still sufficing to hold
back the German sweep. This is what
the Germans are now doing in con.
siderable measure both before the Brit
fsh at Ypres and Lens.
We see then clearly that the British
the French have laid aside any
real thought of breaking through this
year. 1t is not possible, because the
Germans still have the men and guns
them because the Russian collapse has
released reserves from the east. Since
1t is not possible to break through, as
the French experiment in April demon
strated. the present effort Is confined
to inflicting disproportionate losses and
attaining important local detectives.
1t will be seen that both in the first
second attacks BEFORE Ypres re-
Gently h advance has been for some
thing like a mile in each case, and this
been followed by the announcement
h objective sought has been at
tanned. Then there zones the pause, q
new artillery preparation and q new at
tack. still directed at a nearby OBJ
The Germans on their part
nave 4ulte Cleverly SET 0pOut 10 dis
count the effect on the world Of sue
advances by declaring that the
British and the French undertook their
operation with a distant objective in
view and failed to attain it. Thus In
the first attack at Ypres. on August /.
the Germans saw an effort to sweep
them Immediately from the Belgian
seacOast. When the Canadians at
tackled and took Fill 20 the other day
the German official statement talked
about . failure to reach Vendin-le Wei.
two miles further to the east and wholly
outside Of Canadian calculations.