A report from Sir Douglas Haig at the end of
last week showed that we had taken two thousand one hundred and thirty-three prisoners, including thirty-six officers, on the Western front in February. The British line has been extended to Royo, sixteen miles south of the Somme, and now covers a front of about one hundred and twenty miles. The German retreat on the Ancre has become slower day by day. It is obvious, however, that a retreat on a twelve-mile front cannot be conducted wholly in accordance with a plan if at any point we can seize places that the Germans counted on holding. Thus the retreat cannot be said to be ended. We may prevent the Germans from comfortably settling down at any spot which they have in mind. Meanwhile Thursday's papers draw attention to the efforts the Germans are making to reduce or upset our supremacy in the air. In two days fifty-six aeroplanes are said to have been brought down. Of them twenty-three were German. Our own Headquarters state that eighteen of our machines were brought down or did not return in the two days. Once more the Germans. have made a serious attack at Verdun. They had some success at first, but the French have since recovered nearly all the ground.
