The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-03

failure.
 It is nothing of the kind. On the con trary. it Is an operation absolutely fur damental to the allied plan. To make this appreciated I shall turn in my next points to the function of the containing wing.
 The great part of the Americans eur ing the past weeks and pending further operations has been to form the contain ing wing of the great allied sweep. The function of such a containing wing in movement of this sort is the most useful and the most necessary of all but it is of the kind that least advertises itself in movement.
 When you have at once the superiority of numbers and also the initiative over an enemy holding a bulge or salient gainst you, you try to reduce the salient by striking it's two extremities. That is you act principally on your two wings, maintaining in the center only as much pressure as is necessary to pin the en- emy to his salient, trying as far as pos sible to hook him.
 NO EXAMPLE IN WAR
 Now, short of some very bad blunder on the part of the enemy, or gross in- feriority. you will hardly secure envelop- ment in movement on this vast scale. There is no example In thls war, not even against the half-supplied and brolS- en armies of Russia at the end of the 1915 campaign But by the threat of envelop- ment you compel him to retire with a Very heavy loss of men and material and during the compulsion he will natut- ally give way before the wing that threatens his very life. This latter wing, therefore. which by exercising constant and unvarying pressure permits the wing at the other extremity to do it's work and so forward, is called the containing wing.
 Its role is for the moment ungrateful, Its business is to hold great masses of the enemy and by so doing to permit its
 fellow at the other extreme to advance rapidly and compel a general retirement.
 but it's usefulness to the general scheme is as high and, if anything, higher than any other component part of the scheme. Not only does it thus contain. that is, pin down and prevent the movement of
 great masses which the enemy could oth~
 erwise use elsewhere, but it exercises the force I have called suction.
 This third point of our comprehension of the whole system and the part played
 by the sectors of the upper Mouse is very
 important. A superior opponent has
 through his superiority this advantage among others over the enemy: He can
 compel the enemy to fatigue himself He can compel the enemy to throw i'll
 division after division and forbid such divisions after days of battle to obtain sufficient rest. While he himself gives the divisions with which he has recent
 ly attacked, say three weeks for rest
 and recruitment his dwindling opponents are compelled to throw in corresponding
 divisions again within week or ten
 days, with all the consequent loss of ef-
 ficiency which is progressively lncreas-
 ing.
 On those parts of the line where the
 enemy short of complete disaster is com
 pelled to hold on at all costs, this com
 pusion to fatigue his parts Is imposed
 with such severity that he would break
 down unless he perpetually renewed hls
 forces. As he here suffers the greatest
 pressure and must hold or lose every thing, he pours in men continually, ana
 though the line does not appreciaply move on the map, we must visualize wastage. which is more important than movement.
 SECTOR ON THE BOIL This vital sector, though kept station ary for a time, or nearly stationary, IS on the boil. It is the scene of forces perpetually thrown in and exhausted. look at the following figures will make one appreciate the full meaning When the pressure was first seriously applied by the Americans in this vital sector of the upper Mouse, the enemy had. I believe. eight divisions to meet the first shock. In the shock the superior ity of the forces opposing forced hlln back, as we know, past Montfaueon, He ] continued to pour in men, At the begin- ming of october he had displaced l5 dl- visions. by the middle of October 20, and | at the close of the month 30. The process 1 continues.
 He had of available divisions 10 days ] ago. that is, divisions for the front, l though. of course, not In their full estap- 1 llshment, but now heavily and increas-
 ingly depleted. rather over TO. of when l less than l60 could be used actively, and l of these again a certain number, about
 b0 were kept in rotation behind the lines. recovering from the effects of battle. Therefore 1t Is true to say that upon | this very short and vital sector or the 1 front the Americans have compelled the l enemy to employ something like hfth ! of his active strength and this propor- l ton will grow to more nearly a quarter | by the time these lines appear. | This. then, has been the function oi the American armies at the Mouse dur ing the last five weeks-a function l rear that has not been sufficiently understood ! and, consequently, has not been fecelVlns l it's due need of praise
 | The function of the containing wing has been exercising continuous pressure on the most vital point, compelling the enemy to weaken resistance elsewhere and thereby permitting the whole process of the advance on the north which, has lost for the enemy the seacoast and thrown him back from the Scheldt. II has been far more important than any cession of ground, has worn down the ' line and narrowed the margin between security and the breaking point
 CAN IT BE CONTINUED? 1 Can the pressure be continued? Will winter conditions and the recruitment of 1 the allies permit continuance? Undoubt- J edly. The winter lull of the last two | years depended on two factors. one was l the exhaustion of the allied recruitment and the other was the difficulty Of ad- 1 vancing over ground which, III former campaigns was subjected to the 1 intensive bombardment thought neces- l sary in the earlier stages of the war. | Today the problem of recruitment Is solved by the continual arrival of Amer l ican forces The problem of tho ground ] Is solved by the fact that the war has | become a war of movement, no longer Involving the churning up of the soil by prolonged bombardment upon narrow l belt and by the extension of the move ' ment out of the Waterloo district south ward to dryer regions
 More important than either of these considerations IS the fact today the ene- my does not hold as equal against equal. 1 IIc is not as in late 1916. and even late ta17 an exhausted man standing against another man equally exhausted and both