Norwich bulletin., 1917-11-26

l
 tune ever to hear was that of last Sat- | urdax night, when Ian Hay Beith, the noted author and lecturer and military officer. spoke in Slater hall, before a crowded house on Carrying On. under the auspices of the Norwich Art Stu dents association As introduced by Henry A. Tirrell Major Ian Hay Beith of the Argyll and Sutherland High landers, 9uthore of the First Hundre1 Thousand, Getting Together and All | In It, as well as other books of less | war-hke character, is too we'll known | to need any special introduction and his personal experience in war service | both in the trenches and in 1nveStigat- | ing and getting into close touch with l the development of the war, stamp his | words with an authority beyond ques- | tion.. He has been aided in every way | by t1ec British Foreign Office under | whose auspices he appears in Ameri- | ca Major Beith has an inimitable Scotch humor- in speaking and much | of the grimness and horrors of the war as related by him was frightened 1 and made . bearab1e by this touch of l dryness.
 The pictures shown lent an added | clearness to his story of the progress of the war and the advances and gains of our allies.
 His Regiment Practically Wiped Out. Major Beith has but recently re- turned to this country after a four | months expedition to the British and French battle-fronts- Since leaving his regiment it has been practically wiped out, there being not a single of ficer and only fifty men remaining as the result of having passed through three great battles within two years. Not all have been killed, but they have reached the limit of endurance. Although in this war the losses have been grievous, there is something to l show for them. Great advances have been made. The very landscape has session of which hundreds of British soldiers gave their lives is a hill no | longer, but a hole and the land all about it>is in British and Franch hands. The salient of Ypres no longer exists. The battlefield of Somme. on which the battle begun July 1, 1916, ragged for many months, is now a peaceful grassy field, dotted with pop pies. over which fiutter myriads of | butterflies and not a sound of human | life is to be heard. The Somme was hone of the most critical battles of the war in that just as the Marne was the many's power, the Somme was the def | mite setting in of the ebb tide of Ger | man victory and prestige. It was critical from the military standpoint as well. It was a question whether these amateur armies, made up of clerks, farmers, store-keepers, every known trade and occupation, were a match for the grim machine of Ger many's ary. The answer was given by the English boys when they storm ed the enemy's position, capturing 07,- 900 prisoners, restoring 1000 square miles of French territory, and smash ed the. German fostered fable of the invincibility of their army.
 The recent smash of the Hindenberg line was a surprise attack. It may be asked why this was not attempted be- fore? The principle reason is the pro- lection before the trenches afforded by a barrier of barbed wire thirty feet thick which cannot be seen through, which must be broken by continuous artillery fire for several weeSs. After this prolonged time the Germans fre- quently suspect something and the at tack may be said to lack the element of surprise. Through these barriers, in the recent attacks one hundred tanks, each nine feet wide and weigh ing thirty tons, ploughed, cutting the wire like pack-thread. The ground thus gained during the past week was greater than that taken during the first four months battling on the Somme. Germany has protested against the use or these tanks on the ground that they are brutal and uncivilized! The last knoll captured is most important as it compands the view for miles.
 Belgium The Storm Center.
 Since the beginning of the war the center of interest is confined always to one point in the line. The storm cen- ter today is undoubtedly Belgium. There the flower >of the German and English armies are locked together in combat. From Nieuport to Ostend ex- tends the strip of coast so neces- sary to Germany for her submarine existence. The Russian paralysis has set free Germa-.y's troops to be rush. ed to the Belgian front but that is not disadvantage to the other side. n fCaM is rof -fv~1f f0rrsa land gained is of no object The only way to win this war is for one army to destroy enough of the eEemy's army to make it impossible for him to go on. in a saucer live formation of land with the English in the saucer and the Ger mans on the rim. A very deep and muddy saucer it has been with the English striving desperately to climb its slippery sides which they have fi- nally succeeded in doing. chasing the Germans from their rim.
 Held 8o,ooo Germans.
 The slanderous statement that France is doing all the work and Eng land is allowing her to take all the casualties is utterly without basis as Eigland is combating about seventy per cent. of the enemy's forces oi one fourth of the western battle front and both British and French armies are under the. command of the French
 
 One touching incident of the first battle of Ypres was the holding of the German forces of 0,000 men by the is. .nDD, English soldiers The east line finally. placed in front of what was left Of the artillery was composed of the cooks and drivers. groomss and labor CTS, who heroically, held and finally drove back the enemy. This saved the invasion of the shores of the English channel which would have been al crushing and unspeakably disasterous blow to the entente allies
 The ordinary infantry warfare is now completely changed. Formerly the men went forward behind bar rage fire but it was not calculated and often they found themselves detached and helpless when the artillery ceased. Now a definite battle plan is made of what the artillery is going to do and the infantry movement Is arranged to suit that. The artillery harrage is timed exactly and the infantry ad- vance between the curtains of fire in exact time and remain at precisely