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Show BRITISH FIGHT IN OPEN FIELD Germans, Reluctant to Give Up Trenches, Dig in at Every Opportunity. UNDER FIERCEFIREi I m I Open Field Tactics Part of Constant Drill by British Since War Began. British Headquarters in France, via London, April 14, 6:10 a. m. (From a staff correspondent of The Associated Associ-ated Press) It is not without difficulty diffi-culty that one comes to a realization that semi-open warfare has replaced the old deep trench fighting on the greater part of the British front. It is difficult oven for the fighting men actually to grasp the situation, a situation sit-uation for which they have waited so long. The Germans possibly feel the change more than anyone else, for above all things they l5ve their underground un-derground comfort. The Germans were the first to transfer fighting to ditches and they are reluctantly giving up that style of warfare. The deep concreted dugouts and tunnels along the old front were the only protection the Germans had against the ever increasing British gunfire and every time they get an opportunity to pause now they immediately immed-iately begin to dig in. They take to cover as if by second nature. The British have always contended that the German dugouts softened tho men who congregated in them alwaysand could only be kept with difficulty in the open trenches. So it was easier to break the British of the trench habit than has been the case with the .Germans. Constant Open Field Tactics. Open field tactics have been a part of the training of 4he new Brjjish army ever since its organization began be-gan m 1914. There has been some criticism of that system from time to -time on the ground that the war -would always be fought from trench to trench but for the last few months the British army in France has been drilled in open tactics almost dally. The results of these training methods have been apparent in tho last few days and 'will undoubtedly prove still more valuable in the wider operations which are unquestionably coming. Outwit Crack Regiments. The correspondent saw a bit of field maneuvering two days ago in which the British troops completely outwitted part of one of Germany's crack regiments. It is rather a striking strik-ing commentary that when the war began the officer In command of the British unit was a young solicitor and such a thing as leading soldiers into battle had never entered his head. Two years of training in the school of actual war works its own wonders. The losses In the recently inaugurated inaug-urated operations, which continue to widen with time, have been so much smaller than would be naturally expected ex-pected In attacks upon such strong positions as those from which the Germans Ger-mans have been driven that the army I authorities are fairly jubilant. Another An-other gratifying feature of the fighting fight-ing has been the speed with which the British troops have everywhere attained their objective. Driving the Germans from positions which they had held for two years has given the army a higher fighting spirit than it ever had before. Turning of Hindenburg Line. The turning of the top of the Hindenburg Hin-denburg line, to which attention Is now officially called in tho communiques, commun-iques, has been an achievement of which tho full importance has naturally nat-urally not yet been developed. The Germans, hy the way, no longer call this line after Hindenburg, but know it as tho Siegfried line. The switch i to thrtt line from Queant north which prisoners say, is not yet finished and was not expected to be used except as a last resort, Is known as tho Wolan line. In the extreme south the Hindenburg line is known as the Al-brecht Al-brecht line. Tho complete smashing of the Vimy ridge seems to have somewhat upset the German plan, but they are evidently determining to put up the strongest possible defensive fight beforo falling back again. 00 |