The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1917-02-23
BRITISH ADVANCE ON BAPAUME

| II the recent gains maze Oy ndlR
against the German line in the direc-
ton of Bapaume had come in single
rush instead of driblets they would
be seen to constitute the most pow
erful purely British operation con-
ducUed since the war began. The
army that failed to advance beyond
the first costly rush at La Bassee in
March, 1915; at Neuve Chapelle in
April, 1915; that defended Ypres
with difficulty later in the same
month, that gained only few square
miles at Loos and failed to reach
Lens in cooperation with the French
in September, 1915, and who carried
on the Somme offensive of 1916 only
on a half-and-half basis with the
French, is now at last pressing stead
lily onward under its own unassisted
power.
In the past three weeks the Brit
ish have carried the villages Of
Beaucourt, Beaumont, Baillescourt,
Grandcourt, and the outskirts of
Serre, with many other positions
which were possibly as strong, but,
lacking a place on the map, go I'M
recognized. They have occupied sew
eral square miles of territory after
wrestling it from the Germans, and
have yet to suffer the loss of any
position once thus taken. Through
the action of February Is they now
stand before the village of Mirau-
mont, west of Bapaume and the near
est point in the approach toward the
town via the Ancre valley from the
west.
The gains are a development of
the Somme offensive of last summer.
They do, indeed, take a different d.
rection from the course Of the
earlier operation. which pressed east
ward past and to the south of Ba-
paume. An interval of TWO months
of winter inactivity also separates
the present gains from the former.
None the less they occur IN the same
region; they amplify the earlier gains
which made them possible, and they
are carried out against the same
forces by the same means.
If the present prolongation may
be counted as one with the Somme
offensive of 1916, we behold the
longest-sustained effort made by any
party in the war at any one point
and with any one objective. The
Somme operation has lasted longer
than the German Verdun operation
in the west or the Russians Galician
drive in the east, or the British cam
paign in Gallipoh. 1t has gained
more ground than any undertaking
of either side on the west front since
the start Of the trench type of war
fare. To Judge from the recent de-
velopments it is still far from abate-
ment.
Recent gains have been but slight
" less rapid than those of last sum-
mer. The slower rate may be at
tributed to the short days, not yet
sufficient in February for many
hours sustained cannonading; to the
impossible mud, which delays both
infantry progress and the convey
ance of supplies; and finally to the
fact that the French forces, for
merly the predominant element on
the Somme, have been withdrawn,
leaving the whole burden of the oper-
alton to the British. That the attack
should. make fair Roadway under
these circumstances is the conspicu-
Gus fact of the present situation in
the west.
If the offensive toward Bapaume
has been resumed it is q sign that
the western allies are satisfied with
this method Of trench warfare for
the present, different though it be
/ from the sudden dashes Of Nivelle at
Verdun, as being the best for the
present moment in the region where
thew wish 10 advance. The Somme
offensive method differs from the
Verdun method in depending less
upon a great single effort and more
upon multiplied small efforts. II
takes fewer prisoners and its gains
Of territory are made more slowly
but it calls for no such single great
exertidn. The smoother, gentler
surface Of Artois compels no such