Evening star., 1917-03-11

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History Of somme Fighting.
Going backward now to trace the
history of the progress upon the
Somme front, in which the Ancre is a
detail. 1t will be recalled that on July
the British attacked upon q very wide
front, at least fifteen miles long. from
Comm ecourt. the westernmost German
point in France, to the Somme east OF
Bray On the southern half Of this
front they made immediate progress,
and this progress was continued over
number of months until the bad
weather of an early autumn abruptly
ended the battle.
But to the north, from Gommecourt
down to the Ancre, and even across
the Ancre to Thiepval the British were
stopped at once and were unable TO
make any substantial progress 1t was
only after many weeks that they hnaliy
took Thiepval, and when the autumn
rains came they had only begun to
make progress in the brilliant attack
at -Hamel. Serre and Com
mecourt held out steadily. Serre was
attacked not less than eleven times,
five miles of front must have cost not
less than hundred thousand British
casualties.
But in the meantime the British front
from July l onward. continued to creep
north toward Bapaume along the Ba-
paume-Albert road. East of this road
too, the British made progress. The re-
suit of this push was that Serre and
Gommecourt, together with Grandcourt
and Miraumont. which were behind the
front lines in the early fighting. were
gradually incloSed in semicircle OF Brit
ish fire. Not only was salient created
httft he narrowed
Germans Held On.
During the rainy months of autumn
and the bad weather of early winter the
Germans held on. safe from any great
attack, but losing heavily because of the
artillery bombardments which cut their
lines of communication and made the
munitioning and reinforcing of the troops
within the salient more and more difficult
and dangerous.
II seems clear that the Germans must
have early recognized that they would
ultimately have to leave this little salient.
but for moral effect they chose to hold
on. at some cost but at little real danger.
until the coming spring: And it is equally
true that by thus holding on they were
able to construct elaborate lines behind
the salient to which they could retire
when they chose.
BY chance 1 happened to be the
Somme front and actually at the head
quarters of corps commander whose
troops were in front Of the Grandcourt
Serre-Gommecourt salient on the day
when this German retirement began. The
weather while intensely cold, was clear.
and the ground was frozen solidly. TAX
ing advantage of this. the British had be-
gun to exert pressure on the north bank
of the Ancre due north of Grandcourt.
Their pressure tended to insert
wedge between Grandcourt and Serre-
that is to split the salient itself. In
the first days of February they pushed
east to Baillescourt farm, and Grand
court was almost surrounded. while the
German troops in Serre were threat
ened from the rear.
Serre itself had proven one of the
most difficult of all positions because
the ground before the village slopes
down to the British front in gentle
sween. and the Germans had erected
trenches in tiers. Thus, the British,
who often penetrated the first and sec
ond lines, were subjected to mur-
derous fire from third and fourth line
trenches, and were never able to dig
in 1t should be recalled that at Serre
the British were still before the orig
inal German front line. on which the
Germans had worked for two years.
Retirement Is Begun.
On February 6, the weather being
good and the Germans suffering from
gradually increasing British can
nonade it seems clear that the German
commander suspected that British at
tack was coming, and in the afternoon
hours of the day began to draw his
troops out of Grsndcourt.. L was at
the headquarters of Gen. Cough, who
commands this part of the British
front, late in the afternoon. when the
first report of the evacuation came in.
yiSif
Sir Douglas Haig at his headquarters,
and by this time the evacuation of
Grandcourt was complete and the COM
mander in chief showed me on his
maps the extent of the withdrawal,
remarking that year earlier such a
retrogression on the part of the Ger
mans so considerable an advance on
the part of the British, would have
created much comment. but British ad-
vance on the Somme had now become
an accepted fact.
The fall of Grandcourt narrowed the
Serre-Gommecourt salient materially
push up the hill behind Serre This
insured the ultimate isolation of the
Germans in Serre. if they hung on,
Just as the isolation of the Germans in
they withdrew at this point. Such was
the situation when l left the British
'front.' and there was general con-
viction that by February Is there
Dc interesting developments, In
point of fact the British hoped that
the Germans would hang on. and the
retreat must have proven great dis
appointment.
Whit happened afterward seems clear
The weather turned bad, unfavorabIe
for military operations, and after
few days a thaw began, the herald
of the spring. which turns all the roads
and fields in this portion of France into
hopeless swamps. Then the Germans
brought up along the railroad some
heavy naval guns. whose shells had
fallen along the road south of Albert
in the days when I was on the Somme
front, giving evidence of accurate
shooting from a distance of not less
than ten miles. These guns are brought
up along the railroad tracks on trucks
and can be moved at will
Withdrew With Ease.
Using these guns to cover their
withdrawal taking advantage of the