The Washington herald., 1917-11-05
Lines on British Map Show
Important Gains overEnemy
Dramatic Scene in War Office When Gen
Maurice Displays Secret Drawings to
Correspondents.

as the battle of the Menin Road and
the battle of the Pillboxes.
The green line for the Menin Road
fight the yellow line for the Pill
box battle, Gen. Maurice had shown
us at the time. 1t was not necessary
to alter them. after the battles, to
show where the troops had failed to
take the obtectives assigned them.
They took them all. In August, and
on July 81, some of the objectives
were not taken; and the map faith
fully records where the advances fell
short Of the desired halting places.
Map is Significant.
That map, to me, has come to
have a symbolical significance. These
colored lines seem to surge forward
across the opposing red barriers with
remorseless and certain strength, and
to attempt to stop the next colored
line from its appointed place beyond
the purple one drawn for the latest
battle seems as hopeless as to arrest
the advance of the tide
Just as when the tide Is rising,
the waves Iun up on the beach, each
one little higher than its prede-
CCssors, 30 the waves OF British SOL
diery are overrunning the German
barrier in Flanders and a chart Of
a sea beach, with a crooked colored
limo showing the high-water mark
attained by every wave. would look
ike that map OF the Imperial gen.
eral staff, with the objectives of each
offensive set down before, and not
after, the attack.
The Somme offensives. in the sum-
mer of 1916, represent, taken together,
successful operation. They forced
the enemy to retreat this spring; they
destroyed some of his best fighting
material. Doubtless q map exists,
in the archives of the staff, showing
the oJjecGves OF each attack made
on the Somme. But that map has
not been shown to foreign cores
pOndents Last year, the capture of
all the assigned objectives of a great
attack. in the course of the MORN
ing. was rot the rule. 1t happened.
at Ginch, in September. but that was
an exception.
Shows Progress Made.
The difference between the lines on
that hypothetical map. which 1 have
not seen, and those remorseless, re-
ltHlltSS tdGh llllie up
the beach, on the Flanders map, which
have followed since returning from
the front in the middle of the CAM
paign. represent the progress made by
the British army in the art Of war
during one year. Or. IL the Germans
object to that statement. it may be
reversed. Let US say that the lines
represent the decline in the fighting
strength of the German army since
the summer of 1916. The first way of
putting 1t, am certain, would be the
fairest.
The lines on Gen. Maurice's map, as
he shows week after week. prove one
fact up to the hilt. The Germans are
lying when they persistently report,
after each offensive. that the British
made trifling gains of a kilometer or
two ''ln the crater field" but that
they failed to take their objectives. -
The German communique. on the day
following the great victory which Sc
cured for England observation over
half Belgium, referred with assumed
scorn to the enemy's doubtless far
distant objectives," which he did not
reach. My little ancdote of the scene
| in the war office when Gen. Maurice
showed us the purple line, before )
o'clock on the day of the attack,
should afford a measure of the candor
of Gen. Ludendorf's bulletins