Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-04-22

and by Tuesday had cleared the west
bank of the Cojeul river.
First Phase Of the Battle.
This was the first phase of the battle
Of Arras. In 1t the British took some
$50 guns. manG Of them heavy pieces:
a vast amount of material and at least
10000 prisoners. The single failure up
to this moment had been in the effort
to get control of the northern end of
the Vimy ridge, but to balance this the
British had reached the village of
Monchy, six miles east of Arras, and
dominating the whole plain toward
Douai.
After fcrty-eight hours the Germans
began to react. The next two days
saw a desperate effort to regain the
the right flank of the British lines
southwark between Cojeul and the
Sense. Bear in mind that at this point
the British had crossed the linden
the old trench line and had, in fact.
to use the figure Of the door. cut the
hinges Of the northernmost door.
By Thursday the Germans recognized
that their defeat was absolute. that
Vimy ridge could not be retaken-they
had already lost Hill No. 140-and
general retreat was ordered. Mean
time. while the ARMY of Gen. Allenby
had been winning the battle of Arras,
the army of Gen. Horne. to the north,
extending from the suburbs of Lens to
La Bassee, suddenly became active
and began to move east and south In
an enveloping movement around the
city of Lens. This operation accent
uated itself on Friday, and very
promptly the Germans began to draw
out of Lens itself, and the evacuation
of all the lines between Lens and
Croisilles was foreshadowed. BY this
to-
was better known. and 200 pieces of
artillery and $4,000 prisoners were the
proofs of the success.
Question Not Yet Solved.
The question that was now raised
remains unsolved as these lines are
being written. The British victory had
already passed any victory in western
trench warfare There had been a COM
plete piercing of all the first system Of
German works, and the sole problem
was whether, between La Bassee and
Cambria the Germans had constructed
a rearward line which would serve to
withhold the British flood now pour
ing through the broken dixie. This
remains still a problem. That such a
line does exist, extending from behind
Lens to the outskirts of Cambria, and
ish reports had told u.s. AS to its Ca
pacity for resisting we do not know.
The three phases of trench attack are
illustrated by three great trench bat
ties. In Champa gne. In 1915. the French
penetrated the first line of the German
defenSeS and were checked at the sec
ond. AS a piercing operation it was a
failure and came to an abrupt end. The
second phase is illustrated by the bat
tie of Brussiloff. in Galicia. last year.
when, having penetrated the eastern
trench lines on wide front. he was,
after number of weeks. held by Ger
man attacks before he had effected
such a breach in the eastern front of
the central allies that the whole front
had to be withdrawn The third phase
is illustrated by Mackensen's attack IN
Galicia in 1915, when, at Gorice, ne
broke the whole Russian trench system,
and. penetrating behind the Russian
line, dislocated the whole Russian front
from the Baltic to Rumania and COM
nelled the ultimate evacuation OF Ga
licia and the loss of Poland
Present Problem.
At present the problem in the battle
of Arras is whether it will terminate
in the second phase, which it has now
entered as did Brussiloff's attack. or II
it will be successful. as was Macken-
sens, and compel the German retire.
ment out of France. These two posi-
bilities are to be borne in mind for the
next few days and weeks. We may see
the British stopped permanently on a
new German line between La Bassee
and Cambria. or we may see the British
advance go pounding forward through
Douai, and thus compel general Ger
man retirement to the line of the Mouse
and thence westward to the city OF
Lille.
1t is too early to say that we are
seeing the end of trench warfare. but
the sudden success of the British In
sweeping through four or five miles OF
German trenches on front of twelve
miles must at least suggest that heavy
artillery has found an answer to the
trench warfare and that we are seeing
the approach of open fighting again. 1t
Is clear, too, that the British already
have accomplished at Arras what the
Germans wholly failed to accomplish
at verdun, and have won the greatest
success in western trench warfare.
So much for the British attack. Now.
one week later. after another intense
bombardment, the French are begin
ming to attack between Rheims and
Scissors And the position they are
attacking answers exactly to the de-
scription of the hinge of the other
door The key of the position is the
Craonne plateau, wholly comparable