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Show K HAVE FAILED, I EMRTJECLIS British Military Attache at Washington Considers Battle Bat-tle Conditions Good. WASHINGTON, April 13.-Both French and British reinforcement are reaching Sir Douglas Haig's army in Flanders, which now is in a strong position posi-tion to meet further German attacks, Major General James D. " McLachlaa, British military attache here, said tonight to-night in reviewing the situation on the northern part of the long western battle line. While the Germans have scored, General Gen-eral McLachlan said, they have not done as well as they hoped and each hour their advance is delayed makes victory for them less likely. By failing to break through, the Germans find themselves them-selves in an awkward narrow salient and for that reason the battle is bound to continue with great ferocity. "As things stand the Germans have scored, ' 'said General McLachlan, "but not so heavily as they would liked to have done. They have won no decisivevictory, deci-sivevictory, and each hour that their ada nee is delayed makes it less likely that the' will. They are in a position not very different from that wliich tbey occupied at tho end of the first, and what may be called mobile, stage of the preceding battle for Amiens. "By their drive at Amiens the Germans Ger-mans hoped to separate the British from the French army. Their attack between the Ypres-Comincs canal and La Bassee is clearly meant to divide the British army, roll it up and penetrate pene-trate to the coast of the English channel. chan-nel. In the battle for Amiens their attack at-tack was stopped upon the northern portion of the line between Arras and (Continued on Page Tour.) HIS HAVE FAILED, EXPERT DECLARES (Continued from Page Ona) Albert. In the present battle then northern f lan U , while bending back the British line, has similarly failed in its object. "Tho country between Wytsohaete and La Bassee back to Hazebrouck is in tho nature of a shallow basin surrounded sur-rounded by high ground. Into this basin ba-sin the Germans have penetrated to a maximum depth of about ten miles, and on a front of about fifteen miles between be-tween Ploegsteert wood and La Bassee, but they have failed to force the British Brit-ish from the hills stretching west, from Wytsohaete, and at the south end ot their attack have been held on the line, Festubert, Givenchy and Hulhich, and have thus been kept from Bethurio, which was their immediate objective m that region. These two failures leave them, in spite of all their gains, in the center, in an uncomfortably narrow salient dominated by higher ground in the hands of the British. "The British are, in fact, in a strong position to meet further attacks which are bound to come. Their own and French reinforcements are reaching them, and behind them they have the line of hills running from Wytschaete on the line of Kommel, Seherpenberg, Mont Kokercele, Kruystrete, St. Syl-vestre Syl-vestre to Cassel. To achieve a success that will compensate them for the losses indnrred by the great number of divisions (over twenty) used in the initial attack, the Germans will, moreover, more-over, have not only, to occupy those heights, but to press on through the country behind, which is undulating and broken, and the defensive qualities quali-ties of which the British commander m chief is not likely to have overlooked. "By failing to break through between be-tween Ypres-:omines canal and Wytschaete Wyt-schaete and thus to push the British from the ridje running west towards Cassel, the Germans find themselves in an awkwardly narrow salient. For that reason, if for no other, the battle is bound to continue with great ferocitv, as Field Marshal Haig warned the British Brit-ish army in his special order of the day, published in today's newspapers." |