PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2391, 22 February 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

While the German Government is twin"' hard to nourish confidence on a'diet of tall talk about the results to be achieved by submarine piracy l.h<s Aili'cw urrt. tfiidnig asw jjiawi at waiat to strike, awl

strike hard. The latest example of their enterprise is the bombardment of the forts guarding the Dardancllefj, the long, narrow strait connecting the Mediterranean and tho Sea of Marmara, and so affording an approach by sea to Oonstantinople, Carried out by a strong Anglo-Frcnch squadron, consisting mostly of prc-Dreadnought battle* ships, the bombardment seems to have.been highly successful and for the Turks the event must have been an unpleasant intimation of furtner trouble ahead. Already , the plight, of tho Ottoman Empire is desperate. In Northern Asia Miner its broken armies arc slowly giving way beforo the advancing Hussit. ns, another section of its forces is haltirig hopelessly before' the task of invading Egypt, after having sustained one decisive defeat, and now the warship guns of the Allies are thundering, so to spdak, at its front door. Naturally tho Turks are trying to make the best of a bad job and their report of "one soldier wounded" is the sort of effort that might have been expected of the romancers who crystallised the story of the smashing defeat inflicted upon their forces at the Suez C'anal in tho ambiguous statement that "some of our companions got across tho canal." The detailed reports supplied make it perfectly evident that the bombardment was efficiently carried out and did a great deal of damage to the forts at tho entrance to the Dardanelles, particularly those on the European side.

**• * • * Some previous bombardments of the Dafdanelles forts have been mentioned from time to time, but probably these were mere reconnaissances intended to ascertain the strength of the fortress guns. The bombardment now reported is an attack in force and presumably it is intended to persevere with it until the passage is forced and the way opened, for an advance through the Sea of Marmara. Upon the Bosphorus and Constantinople. Although it was understood that the naval interests of the • Entente- in the Mediterrnean had largely bees entrusted to the French | Fleet, the Squadron, employed in the I bombardment of tho Dardanelles is (largely composed, of .British ships, [and is commanded by a British.officer, y iCe-AdmitiAL S. H. _ Garden. An Athens cablegram gives the strength of the squadron as twelve battleships and twenty torpedo craft, Tho latter would ba employed assisting to protect their big consorts 'against hostile torpedoers and submarines, though Turkey does not possess any submarines so far as is known.

The eight ships named, except the Inflexible, which is a Dreadnought battle-cruiser, completed in 1908 and armed with eight 12-inch guns and sixteen 4-inch, arc pre-Dreadnoiight battleships. The oldest ship"engaged was the French Bouvet, completed in 1896 and armed with . two 12-inch guns, two 10.8, 'and eight 5.5. The other French ships, the Suffren and the Gaulois, were completed) the forrfcer in 1903 and the Gaulois in 1899. 'The Suffren carries four 12-inch and ten 6.4-inch guns, and the Gaulois four 12-inch and ten 8.5. The British ships affi mostly of later date. The Vengeance (1901) carries four 12-inch and twelve 6-inch guns, the Cornwallis ("1904) the same armament, the Triumph (1904), four 10inch and fourteen 7.5, and tho Agamemnon (1907) four 12-inch and ten 9.2. .

* * Tee work <5f smashing the Dardanelles forts has thus been entrusted in the main to ships past their first yOvlth as battleships go, but heavily Armed, as regards secondary armament, the six and' seVen-inch guns which are probably more serviceable in the prolonged bombardment of inferior fortifications than the modern twelve-inch _ anci ~ bigger guns, which are exceedingly powerful, but wear out, comparatively quickly in 'action.' From the reports it appears that the ships made full Use of their secondary armament after the forts had been pounded at long Jange with the bigger guns. No doubt the older'ships were employed in this work which necessarily would be attended Wiffi a good deal of dang£i'. Apart from the fire of the torts the entrance to the Dardanelles is protected by mine-fields, and the possibility of torpedo attack also has to be taken into account, The frork of the more modern ships was apparently confined .to bombarding the forts, at such a distance that the guns of the' latter were outranged. Is to the damage done all the reports (except the Turkish) agree in stating, that it was considerable. The Admiralty bulletin states that the forts on the European side of the entrance were silenced, but other reports speak also, of the magazines of forts on the Asiatic shore being blown up.

Although the fort gun- appear to have made a poor showing against those of the battleships the enterprise of forcing the Dardanelles will of course be attended by considerable difficulties. The strait'is fortySeven miles long, and has an average breadth of from three to four miles. Apart from anything that the forts may accomplish it therefore offers great facilities for defence by means of mine-fields. It will be remembered that when the British submarine 81l penetrated the Dardanelles and torpedoed a Turkish battleship she had to dive under no fewer • than five rows of mines and no doubt those have since been supplemented. At the Mediterranean end of tho strait stand the. forts of Sedil Bahr and Kum Kaleh, respectively in Europe and Asia. The most important fortresses, however, arc Kilid-Bahr (on the_ European side) and Chanak-Kalehsi fin Asia) which flank a narrow gut less than a mile wide, fourteen miles from the entrance. There aie other less important forts along the shores of the strait. The Turks, have, allowed these permanent defences to fall into a more or leSs obsolete state, but the reports of the bombardment show that the permanent defences have been reinforced by earthworks which [may quite probably be able to offer a better resistance than the regular forts. * * * * Easily as the strait is defended it was forced in the days of wooden ships. In 1807 an English admiral, Sin J. T. Duckworth, made his way past all tho fortresses into the Sea of Marmara.

Florid-accounts are given by tho Germans of the success of their efforts from East Prussia. ■ They claim to-day that a Russian force of 150,000 men has been scattered, and state that this, togothcr with the fact that the Russians have been cleared out of Bukowintt and tho results of operations in the waters around Great Britain, "inspires confidence." Making, a duetioa from amiable facia,. it is

clear enough that this confidence rests Upon £t Very slonder foundation, It is true that .the Russians have been driven back in Bukowina, but the material results of Germany's submarine piracy are as. yet negligible, and although the Russians are no doubt suffering heavy loss in their retirement from East Prussia, there is no l'easOn to suppose that their fortunes in that region are by any moans desperate, or that the geiioi'al situation is materially affected.

In (iffcct, the Germans claim that they have reduced the Russian force in East Prussia to the condition of a more rabble, powerless to stein their onset. If that were true, they would long sitioe have been hammering at the fortress line upon which the Russians arc retiring. The actual position seems to be that the Russians are fighting a stubborn rearguard actfo'n, and retiring very slowly through that part of Poland which lies between the East Prussian frontier and their fortress line. While the Germans confine themselves to general statements of great victories Won, and claims that they have captured vast numbers of prisoners, the Russians furnish a few leading particulars which throw sonic l'cal light-upon tho position. Tho fighting has evidently been 1 most severe in tho area lying round the south-eastern Cornel' of East Prussia,' yet the Russians declare that they ar6 only now retiring from the region of Augustowo, eight miles from, the frontier, and they have apparently not yet .been driven back on Gsowiec, a. fortress 30 j miles south of Augustowo and 18 miles away from the frontier. Moving back so -slowly after days of fighting probably as heavy as any the war has witnessed, tho Russians must be in anything but a disorganised state. When tho veil now shrouding this. section of the campaign has been lifted it will probably be found that the Germans have paid a heavy price for the measure of success flow attending their desperate onslaught, and that so fa'r as the main campaign is concerned it has had only a passing influence.

It is now beyond doubt that the Russians have encountered a rather serious reverse in Bukowina, ! at the eastern end of Galicia, and therefore on the extreme leffc _ of their seven-hundred mile fighting line. The evacuation ol Czcrnowitz_ and its capture'by the Austrian is officially confirmed. M.R.- Martin Donohoe's telegram reporting that the Russians had prevailed over their enemies in the CzeMowitz district related to fighting which occurred some days ago, and in the intervening time events have' moved quickly. The expulsion of the Russians from Czcrnowitz, which they had intended to hold aS part of a line extending across' the northern part. of Bukowina, shows that they have encountered strongs Opposition dt this point than they had anticipated. They have flow, apparently, been driven out .'of Bukowina along the line they had intended to defend, but) as has been stated, the AustroGerman offensive in this region will assume more than local significance only if it is found possible to pursue it towards the main line oi railway, some fifty miles north of the present fighting' area, which serves as the main line of communication to the Russian forces advancing through Western Galicia towards Cracow.

The statement of the Momitig Post correspondent at Petrograd that tlw Germans are preparing to attack' along the whole huge front of 700 miles in Poland and Galicia gains a measure of support from reported events that gives little cause for uneasiness. Apart from the East Prussian offensive and the successful advance itt Bukowina, the Austro-Ger-raans are persevering in determined attacks on the Eussian positions along' the Carpathians from Bukowina, in the east, to the fighting line in Western Galicia. Along the Carpathians, howeveri the Russians are everywhere holding selected and prepared positions, and Seem to nave been' uniformly successful in repelling all attacks and inflicting heavy loss upon the.enemy. In the region of the Wyskow Pass (about fifty miles West of Bukowina). they report capturing two thousand prisoners in two days, aiid elsewhere along the mountains they hare captured new positions., * * * *• Making every allowance for the checks they have admittedly encountered at the two extremities of their long fighting line, the soldiers of the Tsar are still in a position to pursue the policy-described by the corespondent just quoted, of . continuing to Slay the greatest possible number of the enemy in the cheapest way, patiently waiting for the time when an advance upon the German frontiers can be made profitably. Already the Russians arc holding' prepared defensive positions along the greater part of their seven-lnindred-mile line. When they are similarly established opposite tho East Prussian frontier and north of Bukowina, they, should be well able to withstand all the assaults that N Germany cares to launch. A fact to be borne always in mind is .that these assaults involve a terrible-drain upon German resources, which is bound to make itself felt-in the western theatre, where Germany's fortunes art; equally menaced. Every advanco so far that Germany has made has proved terribly costly, and she has always failed in her main objective.

General satisfaction will no doubt bo aroused by tho fiction of the Government in taking measures for the earlv appointment of an cfliciiil correspondent to accompany tho New Zealand Expeditionary Force in tho field; Tho Government has wisely decided, in making tho appointment, to avail itself of tbe co-operation of the newspaper 1 Press, and will thus have the benefit of the advice of experienced journalists in selecting a suitable correspondent, * possessing the necessary qualifications. That the appointment has been to some extent delayed is largely due to the fact that the gentleman whom it was at first proposed to appoint was unable to undertake to Supply news to the [whole of the Press of the Dominion. This, of course, is an essential condition where tho appointment of an official correspondent is in question, and under the arrangements now being niado the public in every part of New Zealand will be assured of receiving prompt and reliable news 6f the Expeditionary Force during its period of active scfvice.