PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2483, 9 June 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Reports from London that superannuated engineers are t<j be employed in armament works and that skilled mechanics now pursuing other occupations are also to be drawn upon, should raise anew the question of p recruiting such workers in this country. An offer to do so was made to the Imperial authorities not long ago by the .Minister of Defence and was declined, but it is possible that in the new situation created in Great Britain by. the organising campaign of the Minister of Munitions a renewed offer might meet with a different reception. At the time when the offer was made matters were in a transition state. The Imperial Government was in process of reconstruction and the available openings for labour in the production of munitions may not have been as fully realised as they are now. .At all events, what is kiiown of existing, circumstances, and in particular the fact that men are being recalled, from retirement to play an active part in the armament works suggests that New Zealand engineers and other skilled workers going Home might be able to render useful service to the Empire. No harm would be done by repeating the former offer arid it would bo wise to,state the conditions under which workers would go Home from this country. The former refusal of the Imperial. Government may have been influenced by an apprehension that trade union rules might restrict the usefulness of workers recruited in this country. The fact that the Amalgamated' Society of Engineers arid the Marine Engineers' Institute (which numbers many skilled mechanics in its membership) are Empire-wide organisations, should _ have a material beaming upon this aspect of the position. Subject to a guarantee that their labour should benefit the State, and not private firms, New Zealand engineers and other workers, would no doubt cheerfully acrept the conditions accepted by their trade brethren in Great Britain.

Stories are still coming through about wonderful new Zeppelins,. armoured and otherwise, equipped with aerial torpedoes and other ingenious death-dealing devices, but reliable official' news of the recent fortunes of some of the big airships places thera in quite a different light. Another raid has been made on the English coast, resulting in two fires and a casualty roll of 44, including five deaths, but a counter-stroke has been delivered which goes far to compensate for these misfortunes. Naval airmen, raiding into' Belgium, have accounted for at least one Zeppelin and probably for two. These achievements are recorded in Admiralty dispatches, so that no question can arise as to the facts being .correctly reported. Two of the naval airmen bombarded an airship shed near Brussels,. in the early hours of Monday morning, and half an hour later another of the party bombarded and destroyed a Zeppelin in tho air, between Ghent and Brussels, at a height of 6000 feet. It is not known, whether the shed bombarded near Brussels contained an airship, but tho circumstances strongly suggest that it did. It would almost certainly be constructed of non-in-(lammablo materials, and it is stated that when tho bombs struck it (lames shot to a great height, issuing from both sides. This certainly indicates that there was a Zeppelin in the shed, and that its gas-cham-bers were exploded by the bombs. Otherwise it might have been supposed that the airship shed near Brussels and the airship destroyed in the air further west bore tho relation of habitation' and tenant, but the explosion of the bombs, in an empty shed would not account, for tho outbreak of flames dcscribcd.

No doubt at all attachcß to the greater achievement of the two. For the first time on record a Zeppelin has been encountered in the open by one man in an aeroplano and utterly destroyed. Many feats of splendid daring have been performod by aviators, but the achievement of Flight Sub-Lieutenant Warnefoju) oarns him a position of proud eminent even in the ranks of the heroic service to which lie belongs. The story of the deed is very briefly told. The Zeppelin* was flying at a height of 0000 feet, and Suh-Ljeutekant Wahnefobd dropped six bombs on it from above. The airship, of course, would use its guns and probably had a gun on its upper surface, but the brave attacker escaped unharmed. The airship exploded and fell to tho ground, the force of the explosion being so great as to turn Sbu-Lieu-tenant Warkeford's monoplane upside down. Having righted it—in the circumstances a greater feat than any "looping-thc-100p 1 ' under po.ico conditions—ho landed in enefny territory, started his engine again and flew safely back to his aerodrome. Superlatives would be wasted in commenting on such a deed as this lii itself.it stands as a type and example for the emulation of future generations of aviators.

A rf.pokt from Amsterdam states' that the Zeppelin's crew of 28 men were, as might have, been expected, killed. Unfortunately, the airship, in its descent, fell upon an orphanage with tho lesult that two nuns and two children were killed, and many others wounded.

Not long ago there was an encounter between a Zeppelin and a squadron of aeroplanes over the Franco-Belgian border, in which the airship was disabled, but it was not officially established that it was destroyed. The incident had value as demonstrating the superiority of tho aeroplane as a fighting machine, but in this respect is completely overshadowed by the achievement of SubLieutenant Warneford. He has the honour of being the first aviator (30 far as information goes) to. completely destroy a Zeppelin after a combat in the air, and the merit of the achievement is, of course, magnified by the ( fact that he clid it single-handed. ■ In Germany the result of the duel, a veritable, combat of David and Goliath, will be a mortifying shock. The outcome may perhaps be seen in an early attempt to give effect to the bombastic and oft-repeated threats of a destructive raid on. London. There is always the possibility of a flight of Zeppelins over London or some other great city, under cover of darkness or fog, and a rain of death upon hundreds of innocent non-combatants, but so many opportunities for a raid of this character have been allowed to slip by that tho prospect is viewed with some equanimity.

.At all events the Germans are called_ upon to add one more to the long list of failures standing against tho name of tho Zeppelin. SubLieutenant Warneford s shrewdly planted bombs should have almost aa potent an effect upon the confidence the German people'ha ve reposed in their big airships a,s upon the Zeppelin he sent crashing to earth in Flanders. Even partisan advocates will_ be able to find little to set against the repeated failure of the Zeppelins. No achievement of military _ importance stands to their oredit, unless, perhaps, ,ih the department of naval scouting. So far as scouting over land areas is concerned they are as hopelessly outclassed by .the aeroplane- as they are in aerial fighting power. Practically their only approach to offensive warfare has been in missions of. ratirder by which women and children and 'non-combatants have been the principal sufferers. A number have been destroyed because their, fragile construction made them incapable of rosisting the buffeting of rough weather, or by accidental explosions. All things considered the German people might well demand some useful return from their Zeppelins or £eek some more profitable outlet for Wealth atid energy than the production of such costly failures.

Another feat by a British aviator is reported to-day which, though it has no direct connection with the war, is interesting as bearing upon the progress of tho aeroplane. Flying at Hendon, Mr. Hawker rose to the record height of 20,000 feet and made , a safe descent. This should definitely establish the ability of the aeroplane to rise not only faster, but to a muoh greater altitude than the Zeppelin and other dirigible aircraft. Available information goes to show_ that tho Zeppelin is incapable of rising to a greater freight than about twelve thousand feet. .Mr. Hawker is kn Australian who made a remarkable series of flights in a great seaplane race round Britain a couple of years ago.

Late messages yesterday showed, that the Russians in Northern Galicia had so far progressed in their movement against the AustroGorman .flank that the _iinemy had been compelled to swing back from the Lower (northern) San on an 18mile front facing almost north, instead of north-east as in. the earlier fighting when they held the Russians on the San. At time of writing there is no news of further developments in this region, but an Austrian communique nfit yet confirmed states that the enemy have . forced the. passage of the Dniester at Zaravno, twenty miles east of Stryj (and 75 miles east-south-east of the San at Przemysl. Zaravno is only a few miles away from a railway running north to Lemberg, and an advance on this, line would menace the Russian armies on both west and east. The continued resistance of the Russians on both banks of the San, however, . affords proof that the passago.of a river is riot necessarily the immediate prelud-. to a successful advance, and as yet it cannot be unreservedly accepted even that the enemy his forced the passage of the Dniester. Some recent Austrian communiques, have been shown .by after events to be fairly truthful. Others have as evidently been false. * * * *

A later communique from Vienna states that the Austrians are within nine and a quarter miles of Lemberg, tie capital of Galicia. This precision may seem to be overdone, but it will probably prove that the announcement is true. _ The enemy might hope to accomplish something iu the way of deoeiving and influencing neutral nations bv misrepresenting the position on the Dniester, where effective exposure would not necessarily follow at once. But these considerations do not apply to the claim that the Austrians are within striking distance .of .Lemberg—a claim that; would be quickly exposed and would serve, only i.O cover them' with ridicule if it. were untrue.., AsMimjnß t±uUi the Austrian communi-

cation is in accordance with facts, tlio Russians are in a fair way to lose at least half of their remaining foothold in Galicia. They have not yet, in that event, reached the line upon which they propose to light a defensive campaign, and hold the enemy until renewed supplies of munitions and equipment enable them to resume the. offensive. Wide possibilities arc thus opened up, but it remains an overshadowing characteristic of the situation that even if tho Russians are driven out of Galicia altogether their retreat will take them into country where, owing to poverty of communications, the Aus-tro-Oerman Armies can scarcely hope to operate with decisive effect even in the summer months. They must hold the Russians in strength or relinquish the advantage they-, have now gained and for 'the Germans, at least, there are over-growing problems in the West.

A message from the High Commissioner reports that the enemy have crosscd the Dniester, but indicates that the Russians are still developing a successful offensive in Bukowina.

In the Western theatre the Germans are subjecting tho Allied lines to a bombardment for which it is somewhat difficult to find a reason, unless it is an excursion to, make a fictitious display of strength to cover weakness arising out of their efforts in tho East. They appear to be pouring out shells as though their supplies were inexhaustible, but in the only reported instance of an assault following the bombardment, oil the Aisho front, the Germans were repulsed with slaughter. In Northern France, where the expenditure of German shells has been as prodigal as on other sections of the line, the Allies are still pressing the offensive and the French have made further appreciable progress.

Some stories, are told by a correspondent of Turkish, atrocities at the Dardanelles aiid it is alleged also that Australian troops retaliated by shooting Turkish prisoners. It will be wise to reject all such stories unless they aro confirmed by official messages. Recently the accredited correspondent with tho Australian Expeditionary Force (Captain Bean) issued a warning that stories of Turkish atrocities should bo accepted with caution. He stated also that the peculiar double crack of . the German rifle with which the Turks are armed had given rise to the story that the Ottoman soldiers were using explosive bullets. The reputation of the Turks in general is not good enough to warrant stories of atrocities being immediately condemned as canards, but there is some distinction to bo drawn between the irregular _ bands who have so often been guilty of atrocities iiy Armenia and elsewhere and the soldiers of the Turkish Regular Army who. have shown that they are not wholly deficient in good qualities. As to the allegation that prisoners have been shot by ■ Australian troops there may be Eet against it meantime the statement made ■by Lord Kitchener to Sir Edmund Barton, that the Australian and New Zealand troops were admirable.

Poisonous gas plays a very prominent part in German battle tacti6s these days. Harrowing accounts are given of its deadly effects, both in the Western theatre and on the opposite frontj which in themselves should suffice to condemn Germany in the eyes of the whole civilised world. Messages dealing in retrospect with the attacks made under cover of poison fumes upon the Russian front west of Warsaw show that at the outset the Russians suffered terribly and that the devastation extended far behind their lines. Civilians, including women and children, as well as soldiers, were struck down by the fumes and stifled or ! condemned to s, death in lingering torment. Nevertheless the Russians maintained their line and even attacked and captured some of the advanced German positions. The Slav temperament may bo expected to evolve an answer to poisonous gas which may yet stagger the fiends who have invoked its aid. On the Western front reprisals have already begun. A Paris official communique, to-day states that German trenches at Vau> quois (east of the Argon ne) were" sprayed with burning liquid, by way reprisal. It is no light necessity that has induced a gallant nation like the French to resort to such measures, even in reprisal, but to the fiendish brutality of German methods only one reply is possible. The latest addition to the story of poisonous gas is a statement that ga.s-bombß destined for Turkey and packed in barrels ostensibly containing beer have been seized and detained at the capital of Rumania, and that Germany disclaims responsibility. The action of Rumania aiffords good ground for the hope that Germany'will find it impossible to confer the benefits of poison gas upon her Eastern ally. It is also an indication .of the way in which Rumanian sympathies aro trending, though of course any honest neutral nation .would be bound to block the passage of poison bombs.