PROGRESS OF THE WAR
Other news of the fighting in Galicia. may be set aside in fata of the announcement that the Russians are preparing to evacuate Lembei'g. At time of writing; the announcement is briefly made, without comment, in a London message, but there iB no reason to doubt that it is true. If it is the evacuation will extend not to Lemberg only, but to practically the whole of that portion of Galicia still remaining in Russian occupation, With Lemberg back in the hands of the enemy, a continuation o£ the Russian offensive in Bukowina will bo impossible. Probably the armies in that region have already retreated. Lemberg is also the great Galician junction of the railways which supply the Russian western armies now extending along the line of the San. The loss of the place will thus make an end for the tirno being of tho Russia-u campaign in Galicia. That it will have any more serious effect is not yet likely. If the Aus-tro-Germans contemplate a renewed invasion of Russia it is much more likely that they will strike from their present foothold in Northern and Central Poland than that they will attempt to penetrate tho almost roadless areas of Southern Poland extending north from Galicia.
Tx il.s general effect, news from the Western front shows that tile French are still taking the lead in aggressive action against the German front, as they have been doing for same days past. The capture of the village of Neuville has given them a cotinnanclin.q position overlooking the Plains of_ Douai and Lens, two of (lie principal junctions on the ailimpo riant railway systom extending wiiih tinH wegi. of T,iUo. Instead of at this jjiial/, iiowevar,
they arc extending their assaults further south. Further details are given to-day _ of a succcssful action lately fought at Hebuterne, about twenty miles south of Arras, in which tho Germans were thrust back fiveeighths of a- mile on a front over a mile in length. On top of this it is announced that tho French have carried by assault a strongly fortified German salient in the angle of the Oisc and the Aisne, where the battlelino, after running generally south from Flanders, through Northern France, turns cast along the Aisne. This last point of attack is fifty miles south of Arras, which marks the southern extremity of tho 25 mile front on which the AngloFrench offensive has been proceeding for weeks past.
* * » « The general situation, as it is dis-! olpsed, Dears out a recent prediction, of French inspiration, that tho Allies, after rivetting the Germans' attention by a powerful blow at ono point, would follow up with a series of blows, gradually spreading the offensive over tie whole front. Opposite Lens and Douai the Frenoh are probably in a position of greater advantage in relation to the German line than in the localities in which they have taken tho offensive further south. But the energy with which they are pressing the attack in these latter areas is consistent with a plan which aims at compelling a distribution of German strength, and at effecting a weakening of the whole German line. _ Taking it that tho Allies now enjoy a considerable numerical superiority in tho Western theatre, they would be to some extent playing into the enemy's hands if they confined their efforts, evcD under favourable circumstances, to breaching tho German line®at any single point. Their aim is not to score a local victory, but to drive back the' wholo German line. Working to that end, it is onlj in a series of actions extended along the whole front that they can ohtain free play for their admittedly superior strength.
On tho whole, the Allies appear to be extending and gradually developing their olicnsivo without having yet encountered the measure of determined resistance and retaliation which , is demanded of the Gormafls if they expect to maintain their line. Dutch reports of a renewed German assault on the Flanders front—a furious attack south of Ypres and an artillery duel at Dixmude—still lack official confirmation. Possibly the Dutoh reports have merely caught up a detail of the heavy German bombardment along the front from Arras to tho sea, whioh official reports mentioned a day or two ago without singling out any particular locality ior special prominence. A German communique admits minor losses at some of the points recently attacked, and claims that tho French have been dislodged from trenches at' the eastern end of the Aisno front. A French official report states that German attacks in this region wero everywhere repulsed. It is to bo observed also that tho Frenoh have P ub »sned an official Note (details of which are not cabled) proving the falsity of recent German communiques. Tho broad effect of the news is that the Allies are developing their offensive against a German front whioh already presents some premonitory symptoms of weakening under the strain. Some attempt at an effective counter-stroke may be expected before long, but it is reasonable to. suppose that the Allies are fighting; with a great deal of reserve power in hand. So much may be assumed from -the patient deliberation and forethought which has marked their strategy since tho war began.
_ In the absence of full and precise information as to t'ae conditions that obtain in the battlefields of Prance and Flanders, it is at times difficult to assess the value of reports purporting to describe these conditions. On that account a statement by Loud Stanhope, in the House of Lords, instituting comparisons between the French and British battle tactics in the trench warfare may be received by some people with a certain amount of faitn. Ho declared that the French hold their trcnches, broadly speaking, with a few rifles and the support of their 75 millimetre (3-inch) guns, while the British hold theirs principally by rifle fire. On known facts, which are beyond dispute, this picture of the position is absolutely incredible. ■ Almost since the beginning of the war the British have held vital sections of tho front in Flanders and Northern France which have witnessed unending conflict repeatedly blazing, up into great "battles. To suggest that the British could have held their line in Flanders without ample artillery support during the weeks of furious fighting in which the Germans were striving to pierce it is 6imply absurd, and the British artillery played its part also at Neuve Chapelle, at Hill 60, and in the more recent assaults which have dislodged the Germans from strong positions north of La Bassee. It is quite possibly true that the French are better supplied with artillery and munitions than their British Allies, but the sweeping generalisation credited to Lord Stanhope is contradicted by the test of battle, a 6 it is algo bythe ropeated statements of "EyeWitness" that the Allied artillery (including the British) has established a clear superiority over the German batteries.
In one respect the totals of British casualties published yesterday bear striking witness to the rapid expansion of the armies in the field and the nature of tbe fighting in which they have lately been engaged. Comparing the figures with those for earlier periods, it will be found that the total British losses for the seven weeks ending on May 31 were as nearly as possible equal to the total losses sustained during the whole previous course of the war, a period of close upon eight months. The total British losses up to April 11, 1915, numbered 139,347; up to May 31 they numbered 258,059. The figures for the earlier period include naval losses, whilo in the total up to May 31 naval losses are excluded. Losses by the land forces during the seven weeks ended May 31 must therefore, if anything, exceed those sustained during the previous eight months, but the losses for theso seven weeks cover the Dardanelles campaign, as well as the campaign in France and Flanders. The average losses per week also throw light upon the increasingly important part that the British armies arc playing in the war. During tlio first ten weeks of the war military and naval losses (killed, wounded, or prisoners and missing) averaged 5700 per week. On the same basis the average losses per week for the next fourteen weeks to February 4,' were 4010. During the next five weeks, to April 11, the avcra-go was 7000, and during the Bovou ivcdta to May 01. excluding
naval losses, tho average was 17,000 per week. Losses at the Dardanelles have been heavy, but at the outside there are probably not more than 150,000 British troops engaged in. that theatre. In the main, the in-< creased casualty rato, must bo r&< garded as an indication of the increased numbers in tie British armies in France and Flanders. There is no reason to suppose that the rato of casualties in proportion to the forces engaged was heavier in the later period under review (tho seven weeks to May 31) than in the opening weeks of tho war, weeks which witnessed an almost unbroken sequence of heavy fighting at Hons, the Marnc, the Aisne, Antwerp, and in Y/estern Flanders. Pronably tho proportionate rate for the later period was lighter, and the figures on that a-ccount all the more strikingly demonstrate haw heavily the British armies must have been reinforced in the Later months of the I war.
Accepting Rome reports at their face value, tho Italians are making remarkable progress in their advance towards Istria. They have crossed the River Isonzo in north and south, and at tho latter end of the front ha-ve occupied Monfaloone, an Austrian port and naval dockyard on the northern side, of the Gulf of Trieste and five miles east of tho Isonzo. This brings the Italians within 17 miles of Trieste. An Austrian official message states that Italian attacks wero beaten off near Monfalcomc, but even if this version were accepted unreservedly it would show that tho Italians were beyond the river. A Paris newspaper states that in "the Trentino tho Italians advancing from the south along tht valley of the Adige have , reached Reveredo, nearly 20 miles north of the frontier, and a dozen milea south of the Trent, and shelled tho latter place and other fortifications. These accounts of prosperous progress are confirmed, though not officially, in a lato message from Rome. It is Btated that Monfalcone was reached by an advance through flooded marshes, and that the Austrian line on this front is threatened with envelopment.
A certain drab formality that commonly marks the war news iB pleasantly varied by the story that tho Italians have achieved results by stampeding thousands of wild buffaloes against tho Austrian wire entanglements in tho passes of the Trentino frontier, and that tho beasts have also rendered good service by exploding mines, to' their own destruction, but without impairing tho edible qualities of their flesh. Probably there would bo littlo of a buffalo's flesh left intact after it had established contact with an average mine, but that is a detail. As it stands, the story has been transmitted by Mb. Map.tin Donohoe, a correspondent of high standing, but evon so, a - ' measure of incredulity is pardonable until it is explained whei'o the buffaloes came from. If tho Italians havo employed mountain cattle, which might ba wild enough, in the manner describ- ! Ed, they have displayed very creditable ingenuity, but mention of buffaloes casts doubt on the whole story. Possibly Mr. Dojsohoe has merely, passed "it on.
One of tho preconceptions which' the war has disturbed is that torpedo craft, by reason of their speed and other qualities, are practically, immune from submarine attack. Somo timo ago Britain lost two destroyers in this way, and to-day it is announced that two torpedo boats have shared the same fate, with a loss of about thirty lives. Both boats were small, handy craft, of about 200 tons, with a speed" of 26 knots. No details aro given as to tho circumstances in which they were attacked, but thev must have been taken unawares. In normal circumstances a torpedo-boat can defy a submarine. Travelling habitually at speed, she presents a small and difficult target, and it has been repeatedly demonstrated that torpedo craft can outmanoeuvre submarines, and evade their attacks with little difficulty, Outstanding examples are tho British naval raid on Cuxhaven and tho protection of the squadron which bombarded the Belgian coast. It must bo supposed that in the present instance the German'submarine lay in wait for the torpedo craft as they were returning to port, or that somo decoy device was used at sea. Such things have happened as a i suspicious-looking surfaco craft being used as a decoy for a submarine lurking in readiness to attack. But it is difficult to imagine any circumstances that will satisfactorily account for the destruction of two torpedo boats by a single submarine, as appears to have happened in the present case.
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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2486, 12 June 1915, Page 4
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2,159PROGRESS OF THE WAR Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2486, 12 June 1915, Page 4
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