PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2494, 22 June 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The name of Lemberg looms large in the war cablegrams to-day. By their own showing tile Germans are almost at the gates of the city, and if this is true its fall and a Russian retreat from Galicia should be only a matter of hours. Whether or not they have lost Lemborg tlio Russians are fighting desperately for their remaining foothold in Galicia, and with a margin to come and go upon that is steadily growing narrower. Lemberg has been the inspiration of all the recent fighting in Galicia. It was in order to retain Lemberg that the Russians offered such a magnificent resistance on the River San, to the terrible assaults of the German army corps and massed batteries. When they hurled back the enemy in defeat from the River Dniester they saved Lemberg for the time being. Now it seems likely' that Lemberg will share the fate of I'lzcniysl in tailing again into the bands of the enemy, and of the two places Lemberg is tlio greater prize. Relinquishing Przemysl, the Russians were able to continue a stubborn resistance to the advancing German legions. They have contested for weeks the thirty miles or so of territory which separate the positions they took up east of Przemysl from the area in which the fiia) battle for Lemberg is nov being fought, if it lias not already en.led.

If Lemberg falls the gains of the victors will bo gieater an .1 move dscisive. Both U-mberg and Przemysl arc vitally important railway junctions, but in a very different sense. Przemysl stands on the main railway from west to east through Galicia, and covers also the most important railway approach to the mountain frontier of Hungary in the south. As a strong fortress Przemysl was of the utmost value to the Russians both as a covering stronghold in their defensive campaign, and because its possession would have facilitated a renewed invasion of Hungary and Western Galicia later on. With tho destruction of much of tho fortress artillery and of many of tho individual forts 1-y tb? Anstr'ians before they surrendered tho place, its importance to tho .Russians was very greatly rcduoed. Apart from its artificial defences, now largely destroyed, the fortress sito is of no great military strength. At the height of its development some of tho forts were commanded by outlying bill?. In the Russian retreat the loss of Przemysl amounted to 'ittle more than tho loss of so much ground. Lcmbsrg is in a different category. Developed by the Russians as a great military base it is at the centre of a system of radiating railways running up to all sections of the present Russian front, The armies which are still making head against the e'nsmy on the Dniester, as well as those which are apparently being driven in on Lemberg from the west, are directly based on that place. If Lemberg is about to fall only a speedy retreat will save the armies along the Dniester from having their communications cut. As to the situation north of Lemberg, an Austro-Gei-man occupation o? the city would leave tho Russians possessed only of a number of detached sections of railway running lip to their own frontier, but all save one or two of them stopping at that point. To the Russians these detached lines would, of course, be useless, but to tho Germans, holding Lemberg, they would serve as feeders for forces advancing as far as the frontiers of Russia and Galicia. That point reached the transport problems of the Austro-Germaus would begin. * * * • * As to the position reached in the battlo west of Lemberg what appears to be the latest news, as yet, is contained in a Berlin communique forwarded from London on Sunday. It states that the Germans have captured the Grodek positions. These positions are situated in a region of lakes about 15 miles west of Lemberg. It is quite probable that the Russians also took up the line further north indicated in tho German message. Their remaining hold on the Dniester has been indicated in their own reports. Roughly (accepting tho German report as to the northern scction of the front), thoy took up a north and south lino aoross Galicia from the Dniester in the south to tho Russian frontier in the north. Lemberg, as stated, is 15 miles east of this line. The lake region extends south from a point opposite Lemberg. The northern section of the line lies amongst hills. The Berlin story is that tho Germans, assisted by one Austrian corps, attacked and carried this northern section of the line on Saturday, with the result that the Russians were driven back hey on d p.n important road and railway which runs north-west from Lemberg. This would mean that the Germans have gained a footing almost due north of Lemberg, and it is stated atso that the Russians, on being defeated in the north, evacuated the Ctrodok lake positions—in other words, that they were forced to retreat all along tho line. » * * * This measure of defeat is not yet admitted by the Russians, but the Petrograd report that tho enemy's vanguards were repulsed in attempting to break through tho defiles between tho Grodek lakes rather wears the appearance of being an early instalment of the story which the Germans have carried to a later date. Thero is also a report that the Guano Duke Nicholas lias said: "I will defend Lemberg at all costs.'' It is unlikely that he made any such statement, for tho whole experience of the war in the East has shown him to be a commander strong and skilful in action and sparing uf words. At all events it is plajn that Lemberg is imminently threatened. After overcoming the first great check offered to their advance by tho Russian defencc of the San, the Germans have pressed relentlessly forward until the.v are,now fighting almost at tho gates of the monaced city. In the circumstances it is difficult to believe that the Russians can continue their heroic resistance unless at the eleventh hour pressure in tho Western theatre compels a weakening of the German Eorres in Galicia. Of this at the ijioment there is no definite sign AssrMiNG that tho Germans succeed in capturing Lcmberg and driving tfirt ftMfiAiflnA nut of Galiris, a point will have beau reached in the

Eastern theatre from which new and immensely important developments may be oxpectcd to take their rise. Ono point to be noted is that, tho total immediate, effect of the AustroGerman drive, assuming thatit continues to the confines of Galicia, will have been to repel a Russian invasion of Austrian territory. Another important point, established by an overwhelming weight of evidence in both enemy and Russian reports, is that the Austro-German success has been duo in the main to an _ overwhelming superiority in artillery. Side by side with reports of Russian defeat and retirement have come stories of tho prowess of Russian soldiers which may bo added to. an accumulating volume of evidence that the Russian troops are soldiers of the finest stamp, enduring, resourceful, and of indomitable courage. The Russians have been beaten in Galicia, not because tho AustroGcrmans are better soldiers, but because they are much better supplied with guns and ammunition and (which is equally important) became tho existing railways and other transport facilities enable them to use their preponderance in artillery with effect and maintain supplies of ammunition. The fact has been frequently noted that the transport conditions which have enabled the Austro-Germans to execute their great drive in Galicia do not exist in the Russian territories adjoining Galicia, If he attempts to carry liis offensive beyond the borders of Galicia, General von Mackensen will be in the same position as any other traveller heavily burdened with impedimenta who seeks to extend a journey from a region fairly well equipped with railways and good roads into ono where these aids to travel and transport arc largely absent. Given time, the Germans might overcome the difficulties arising from the sparsity of railways and good roads in the Russian frontier territories, but this is a war in which time is on the side of the Powers opposed to Germany and her allies.

The developing strain upon the Germans in - France and Flanders has a very close and immediate bearing upon tho strugglo in the East, and local developments in tho Eastem theatre also point to general conclusions by. no means unfavourable in their bearing upon Russian prospects. Roughly speaking, so far as the occupation of territory is concerned, the Russians in tlieir main theatre are back at the point at which they began the war. They have lost, or nearly lost, Galicia. The'western strip of Poland which is in the hands of the enemy, they could scarcely have-hoped to hold in any case until time and battle have so weakened the German armies as to make a Russian invasion of Germany possible. Warsaw and tho vital main railways arc secure, and there is no present reason to suppose that the German incursion into tho Russian Baltic provinces amounts to anything more than an- isolated campaign of minor importance. The campaign in Galicia has demonstrated that the equipment of the Russian armies, particularly in artillery, is not yet good enough to enable them to meet the enemy on his own ground and under his own conditions. On the other _ hand, the Russian armies proved invulnerable in defence when the German resources in men were greater, and their resources in artillery probably not less, than they are now. It is a perfectly reasonable anticipation "that the Russian dcfeuce will prove as impenetrable in future as .it has in the past passages of the war. * * * * This, of course, does not exhaust possibilities. Defending as they are a shortened line (whether or not Lomberg remains in their possession) the Russians are defending it with ever-increasing resources They have lost great numbers of men, but are drawing upon a practically inexhaustible supply Losses of men by the enemy in the Eastern theatre have probably been quite as great as those of the Russians, and the enemy is drawing upon vanishing reserves. A few days ago it was estimated by tho Pans Matin tliat Germany's total losses to date in killed, wounded, and prisoners numbered 4,200,000 out of a total available strength of 8,500,000, and ihat the Austrian losses on tho same basis had reached a total of 2,526,000 out of an available strength of 4,500,000. These estimates may bo high, but so far as German losses are concerned they are not greatly disproportionate with the figures presented in the French official review of tho first fivo months of the war. In that document German losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners up to the middle of January were estimated at 1,800,000. The German permanent losses were estimated at 260,000 per month, or 1,300,000 for the first five months. The estimate of the Matin covcrs wounded men, a proportion of whom will be returned to the front. Tho comparison mus« therefore be made between its estimate of losses totalling 4,200,000 for a little over ten months of war and tho official reviewer's estimate of losses totalling 1,800,000 during the first five months. Remembering the terrific battles that have been fought during the last five mouths in France and Flanders and in Poland, tho Carpathians, and Galicia, it is not difficult to believe that the rate of German wastage has very greatly increased during these months. That accepted, the Matin's estimate of German losses may easily bo as near the mark as the estimate for the earlier period which bears the stamp of French official sanction. # * * * A late message from Petrograd, dated at London on© day later than the Berlin communique which has been quoted, speaks of a continued defence west of Lemberg without admitting that the Russian lines have been forccd. It is mentioned, however, that passes have been issued to ton thousand Russians to leave the city—not a reassuring detail. * * * * Ftrtn'iriin progress by the French north of Arras and in the Northern Vosges arc the principal developments reported to-day in the Western theatre. One message gives an interesting description of the manner in which the Germans have fortified their front north of Arras. In places they have dug in so deeply as to defy bombardment, but even against'defences of this character the French are making headway. In places the Germans arc constructing a- second fortified line, but it scorns impossible that they can duplicate to any extent such a front as is being gradually wrested from them west and south of Lille. * * * * No material change is disclosed in the Austro-Italian campaign. In Tolmein (a place on the Isonzo River 35 miles north of the Gulf of Trieste) the Italians have found a formidable obstacle to their advance towards T/'fcri.-i, hnf..?» tlwv arc believed to he ivoli Minelicd wlt-h heavy wUlleuiJ

they should be able to lay siege to Tolracin and to Gorizia, another stronghold further south, with good prospects of success. The nornn'l Italian Biege-trains include 0 and 8-inch howitzers, but experts conalso have heavier weapons at consider it likely that the Italians will maud. * * * * A Constantinople report states that a battleship of tho Agamemnon typo is lying semi-submerged in Kehalo Bay, which is presumably on the Turkish Aegean Coast. It is rather a reflection on the Admiralty and Mm British Press Bureau that such messages should be allowed to circulate without being accompanied by an official denial or confirmation as the case demands. There arc two ships in tho Agamemnon class, the Agamemnon herself and the Lord Nelson. Though later in date they are similar in type to the old battleships which bulk largely in the Allied squadron at the Dardanelles. Both carry four 12-inch guns and a powerful secondary armament. The Agamemnon was completed in 1907 and the Lord Nelson in tho following year.