New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-11
Ooly a Minor, Local Re-
s,,lt of Last ears British
Progress Viii There Be
New GermanD Drive
in the West?
Rv FRANK H. SIMONDS,
,.,ho, Of "The Great War;" They Shall
Not Pass"
con,right 1sl7-The Tribune Association

While e recent German withdrawal
.,orc the mere is the most considerable
change in tie German line made without
Immediate pessure since the Battle of the
Marine. il w.uld be foolish to attempt to
-svnifv it tito any significant or decisive
incident. Cmceivably the Germans will
continue to withdraw. Conceivably they
will pause only when they have fattened
IN. the Whole of the Arras salient. 1t is
TOO early to forecast such development
INIT ever this would not be any material
change in the situation.
To take parallel, after the famous gas
attack in April, 1915, the Allied line about
Yprs was turned into a very dangerous
salient. The Germans, breaking up
F-ench unit westward of the British, pene-
rated deeply into the Allied lines, and 1t
Gas soon patent that it would not be pos
Gbe to dislodge them. In consequence,
The British were compelled to draw back
ever wide front about Ypres to avoid
an enflading fire. The French were in
the same fashion compelled to make sew
sral similar retirements about Verdun,
that from the Woevre villages actually
Involving a greater loss of territory than
The present German retirement.
Going backward now to trace the his
Tory Of the progress upon the Somme
front. in which the Ancre is a detail, 1t
wrl be recalled that on July the Brit
kh attacked upon a very wide front, at
last fifteen miles long, from Gommecourt,
The vesternmost German point in France,
10 the Somme east of Bray. On the south
an half of this front they made imme-
dis,s progress, and this progress was
continued over a number of months until
The bad weather of an early autumn alb
rubtly ended the battle.
When the British Attack Failed
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 sub
santial progress. It was only after many
weeks that they finally took Thiepva1,
and when the autumn rains came they
had only begun to make progress IN the
brilliant attack at Beaumont-H amel. Serre
and Gommecourt held out steadily. Serre
was attacked not less than eleven times,
and the abortive operations on this hve
miles of front must have cost not less than
shundred thousand British casualties.
But in the mean time the British front
from July ! onward continued to creep !
forth toward Bapaume along the Ba-
raume-Albert road. East of this road,
loo, the British made progress. The re-
suit Of this push was that Serre and
Commecourt. together with Grandcourt
and Miraumont, which we're behind the
front lines in the early fighting, were
gradually inclosed in a semicircle OF Brit
ISL fire. Not only was a salient created
but the salient was steadily narrowed.
During the rainy months of autumn
and the bad weather Of early winter the
Germans held on, safe from any great at
tack, but losing heavily because OF the
artillery bombardments, which cut their
Ines Of communication and made the mu-
ritioning and reinforcing Of the troops
within the salient more and more difficult
and dangerous.
It seems clear that the Germans must
have early recognized that they would ul-
tnately have TO leave this little salient,
tut for moral effect they chose to hold
on, at some cost but at little real danger
until the coming spring. And 1T Is
equally true that by thus holding on they
we're able 20 construct elaborate lines be-
hind the salient, 20 which they could re-
ire when they chose
Splitting the Salient
By chance happened 10 be on the
somme front and actually at the head
quarters Of a corps commander whose
roops were in front Of the Grandcourt-
serre-Gommecourt salient on the day
when this German retirement began. The
'eatner, while intensely cold, was clear'
and the ground was frozen solidly. TAX
ihg advantage Of this, the British had be-
g1n TO exert pressure on the north bank
" the Ancre, due north Of Grandcourt.
Their pressure tended TO insert wedge
'Etwesn Crandcourt and Serre-that IS,
split the salient Itself. In the first days
" February they pushed east TO Bailles-
curt Farm and Grandcourt was almost
surrounded, while the German troops IN
S'rre were threatened from the rear.
serre itself had proven one OF the most
uncut Of all positions because the ground
fi're the village slopes down 70 the BRIT
~ front in gentle sweep, and the Ger
msns bad erected trenches in tiers. Thus,
80. 81