COMING OFFENSIVE ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

“AT ANY MOMENT NOW.”

From PHILIP GIBBS. WAR CORRESPONDENTS’ HEADQUARTERS (France), Monday.

At any moment now we may see the beginning of the enemy’s last and desperate effort to end the war by a decisive victory – for the offensive which he has been preparing for months is imminent. In my recent messages I have described the waiting attitude of our Armies in this time of comparative quietude along the lines, and the uncanny sense one has had of a portentous secret hidden behind the silence of the enemy’s trenches. “What are those beggars doing there?” asks one man of another as they stare over No Man’s Land to ruined villages and dark woods, where there is no sign of life. “Up to some dirty work,” said some of them. And they were right. They are not idle over there, those field-grey men. They are being urged on to hurried labour, which is part of the secret of their Higher Command, and these men know that every trench they dig is a pathway to a battle which will soak the ground with their blood before many days are past, and that every new gun-pit they build is one stage further to new fields of slaughter. Each side has been trying to discover the secret of the other – the plans to which every bit of work along the line may give a clue. Each side has been trying to blind the other’s eyes, and prevent observation of activity. The German gunners have a “hate” against our balloons, and try to shoot them down by long range guns, because in the baskets below them are two pairs of watchful eyes noting the activity of their trains behind the lines, and any movement on the roads. They hate still more our airmen, who every day for many days past have been flying over the enemy’s lines, spotting their new battery positions, photographing their new saps and assembly trenches and ammunition dumps, and attacking the enemy’s air squadrons whenever they come out to beat back these observers. They cannot prevent this reconnaissance, and there have been scores of encounters in the air, in which many hostile machines have been crashed to earth and brought down in flames.

THE ENEMY’S PREPARATIONS.

The enemy has been desperately anxious to find out our intentions and strength at certain points of the line, and attempted many raids to get prisoners and information. Our raids, with the object of getting to the heart of the secret that lies behind the silence of the lines, have been more successful than his on the whole, and we have been lucky in getting prisoners who have revealed much of what we wanted to know. We know now that the enemy is preparing to attack us heavily between Arras and St. Quentin, and that his preparations are ready, so that we may expect this offensive any day now that the weather conditions are favourable. It will not be preceded by days of bombardment, or by a registration of guns revealing batteries which he has brought up secretly under cover of darkness. With a short and sharp bombardment, the use of gas shells and of a number of tanks, he will launch the attack suddenly, relying upon surprise of time and place, the rapidity and power of his movement, and the excited enthusiasm of his troops, whom he has endeavoured by every kind of spell and “dope” to inspire with a belief that victory and peace are within their grasp. The German Higher Command have hurried forward for a political as well as a military reason. The internal conditions of Germany, the sullen spirit that has been crushed but not killed after the strikes, the attitude of Austria, the growing pressure of public opinion in the Central Empires against this last great gamble with the blood of their manhood, and the steady growth of the American army in France are all factors which are spurring on the German generals to strike soon, in order to gain some showy success, and to silence the cry of the people by the advertisement of victory. Behind their lines there is a terrific industry and a high nervous tension, like that of a nation drugged by hasheesh. Civilians have been impressed to dig new trenches. New railways have been built to carry up men and guns and ammunition. Far behind the lines, eighty miles or more, the German “Stosstruppen” or storm troops, many of them from Russia, are being trained in new methods of attack for open warfare. The depots are crowded with reserves ready to support the advance waves and fill up the slaughtered gaps. The hospitals have been cleared, and many new buildings have been put up for the reception of the tide of wounded which will flow back. All leave has been stopped for German officers and men, and there is not one among them who does not know that in a little while he will be flung into the furnace fires of another Marne and another Verdun, in which there will be great carnage. To inspire the German people to hold out a little while longer, to suppress the spirit of revolt among them so that the military leaders may make this throw with fate, fantastic stories are being spread about among neutrals and in their own press, and by secret word which is carefully sent broadcast, of new methods of attack which will ensure, success. Bogeys are faked up and put in circulation. The German soldiers as well as the German people have been disappointed too often by promises of victory and peace to believe in them again without some new tricks.