PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2679, 27 January 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Turkish communiques are not as a rule remarkable for strict adherence to truth, and it will lie wise to wait for more reliable information of the recent events in Mesopotamia which are dealt with in a Turkish communique published to-day. It declares that the British forces were attacked 35 miles east of Ilut-el-Amara, and driven further down the river, with a loss of three thousand dead, which would mean a total loss in killed and wounded of anything from ten to fifteen thousand. In a word, it is claimed that overwhelming disaster has overtaken the British columns which urn c»tle»,vmiHnt; „ to raise the investment of Kut-el-

Amara. This is almost certainly a tissue of falsehoods, or at all events greatly exaggerated news. It will be noticed that the Turks speak of the battle in which they alleged-that the British sustained such terrible losses as having immediately preceded the recent armistice. The dispatch from Sin Percit Lake, which was published yesterday, mentions the armistice, so that it evidently relates to much the same period as the Turkish communique, and it contains no hint of the terrible state of affairs alleged by the Turks. _ On the contrary, it indicates a situation broadly unchanged, save for the fact that abnormal floods in the Tigris have enforced a halt in operations. The Turks speak of the latest battle as having opened 35 miles down the river from Itut-el-Amara, whereas the last British advice on the subject waa that the relieving column was within seven miles of that place. It may have since retreated, but the Turks are most unreliable in matters of this kind. When they were being attacked, some time ago, within 18 miles of Bagdad, their reports alleged that the actual scenc of operations was in the vicinity of ICut-cl-Amara, eighty- miles, as the crow flies, further south. One passago in the communique declares that a British column was attacked and compelled to retreat at Kurna. This place stands near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, 150 miles in a direct line south-east of Kut-el-Amara. It is possible that some sort of raid has been made upon the British communications in this region.

Almost the only news of the' Balkan campaign in hand at the moment relates to Montenegro, and is of a conflicting character. The Austrians claim that they have occupied positions in Central and' Southern Montenegro, and also that they entered Scutari on Sunday last, the Serbian garrison retreating without, fighting. A Rome report, on the other hand, declares that the Ausr ti'ians :> in their advance on Scutari were checked in a desperate battle near Podgoritza, which is about 30 miles north of Scutari, by a mixed force of Montenegrins and Serbians. It is not stated, huwevc, that tho check was maintained, and since it was reported yesterday that communications with Scutari were interrupted this is possibly an occasion on which the enemy report contains the latest and most accurate news. At time of writing there is no further of events in the Caucasian campaign, but a Petrograd message states that the Turkish effectives in the Erzerum district number and that the Turks, apart from their losses in th& recent battle in which their centre was broken by a Russian assault, lost 4000 men in the subsequent night. Unless these figures arc exaggerated, they must be taken to mean that the I Caucasian campaign will at least serve an important purpose in withdrawing Turkish strength from Mesopotamia, and in absorbing a considerable proportion of the Turkish forces when the more important campaign opens in the Balkans. No dc.velopment of importance in the main theatres is reported at time of writing. On the Western front matters have reverted to normal, and news in hand relates chiefly to a series of bombardments. Ample evidence is now afforded that tho Germans failed to achieve material results in their recent attacks in Northern France and near the Belgian coast.

* * * "* Suggestions lately made that British airmen are in clanger of losing the predominant position they have won on the Western front are to a great extent discounted by a statement made in the House of Commons by the Under-Secretary for War. Mb. Tennant admits, indeed, that during the past four weeks thirteen British aeroplanes have been lost on the Western front, as against either' nine or eleven enemy machines, but £hese figures lose their apparent significance when account is taken of the work done by the British and enemy air-services and of the _ risks respectively undertaken While 128 British aeroplanes have been employed in raids during the period unaer review, the Germans nave similarly employed only twenty, and as against a total number of 1227 British aeroplanes crossing the enemy's lines only 310 enemy machines have crossed the British lines. It thus appears that while the enemy losses are slightly lower than those' of the British Flying Corps, the small saving involved has been gained only by sacrificing many of the advantages which the possession of an active aerial service confers, i As a whole the position turns heav-1 ily against the enemy. His. losses in aircraft haye been at least twothirds of those sustained by the j British,'and perhaps a greater proportion, but against the small margin here shown in his favour is to do set the fact that he has' been able bo use only a quarter as many aeroplanes in reconnaissance arid artillery observation—the most vital services that aeroplanes render to an army—as there are British machines so employed! and less than one-fifth as many in tho raids_ upon depots and lines of communication which assume increasing importance as time goes on owing to the rapidly developing offensive power of the aeroplane. The British losses as given are absolutely slightly greater than those of the enemy, but relatively they are much smaller. Assuming that all the figures presented by Mb. Tennant relate to a period of four weeks, the number of British machines lost is in tho proportion of about one_ per cent, to the total number of flights, while enemy losses, at the lowest estimate, are in the ratio of nearly three per cent, to flights. The final conclusion must be that though British airmen have not established command of the air —perhaps an impossible aspiration under any conceivable circumstances —they have established and are maintaining a very real and important predominance. The loss of two or four more aeroplanes than the enemy during a space of four ' weeks does not seem too big a price to pay for the free-ranging activities of the British airmen as compared with the hampered and restricted operations of their German adversaries. It is plain that as matters stand the euemy is definitely outnumbered in the air. His inferiority in aerial warfare is less marked than in naval warfare, but it is definite as far as it goes. In the conduct of his aerial campaign, and in tho use of aircraft generally in the main theatre, lie is reduced to the necessity of avoiding risks in conflict with an enemy who faces all risks.

That the Germans are largely reduced to defensive tactics in aerial warfare in the main theatre is shown •iw J4», Tknnant's aUtement thfit all the aircraft fights occur over or be-

hind the enemy lines. Evidently when German airmen cross the British lines they do not stop to fight, whereas British airmen pursue a contrary policy, habitually carrying the war into the enemy's country. The prevailing westerly wind in Northern Franco and Glanders, of which Mr. Tennant speaks, presumably confers no particular advantage upon the Germans ao far as actual fighting in the air is concerned, but it enables disabled German machines to volplans down into their own territory. An exact comparison of actual losses is thus made impossible, but it iE not unlikely that some enemy machines thus lost to ken are damaged beyond repair and that j full information would! swell the total of enemy losses.

Other references to "aerial matters which appear to-day carry lcs£ authority than . the official statementmado by Mr. Tennant, but some of them are not without interest. One correspondent who 'has visited the headquarters of the ftoval Flying Corps pays tribute to the "almost insolent" command of the a'ir which British airmen have established, but is of opinion that it has been arrested by the advent of the Fokker aeroplane, though the enemy has not yet grasped the initiative. This conclusion seems to be rather sweeping when set against the figures for. a period presented by Mr. Tennant— figures which indicate that a vast amount of' dangerous service is being carried out by the British airmen at comparatively slight loss, while the enemy is suffering relatively much heavier loss in his hampered and restricted aerial operations. •** • f ■ By the Times aeronautical correspondent the Germans are credited with having produced in the Fokker an aeroplane which considerably interferes with the daily work of the British airmen. This does not seem to be a,n unreasonable estimate of the position as it has been disclosed, but the broad facts hardly warrant the apprehension expressed by (he same correspondent that Britain may be left behind in the work of producing new and more powerful types of aircraft. In the Fokker the Germans appear to have produced a defensive weapon of considerable power, though individual British aeroplanes, as was demonstrated the other_ day, have shown superiority to this latest product of the German workshops. The appearance of an aeroplane specially adapted to defensive warfare is not by any means such a remarkable development as it is declared to be in one message i published to-day. In point of fact it has long been a truism with aeronautical experts that the final andonly really effective' answer to an aeroplane is another aeroplane, or, to deal with the matter in larger terms, that command of the air, as far as it is possible, • is only to be gained by maintaining air squadrons superior to those of the enemy. The production by Germany of aeroplanes designed chiefly to engage hostile (craft 'behind the German .lines is but a small step towards escaping from her present condition of pronounced inferiority where the aerial arm is -concerned, and the enterprise Britain and FrancS have hitherto shown in aeronautical development and the remarkable results they have attained should be the best guarantee that the advent of the Fokker will finally prove to be only a fluctuation ill the struggle for aerial supremacy on the Westera front. * * » .. One striking evidence of the great margin _of air-power possessed by the Allies is to be found in the splendid work their airmen are doing in the Balkans. The recent at-tacks-upon Monastir and Ghevgheli involved flying for long distances in severe weather over mountain ranges of which the ridges were in enemy occupation. These difficulties and perils were triumphantly overcome by the powerful squadrons engaged, and even the Germans admit that (Considerable damage was done to the Bulgarian positions and to the Bulgarians. These achievements are the more remarkable when it is remembered that they have devolved upon detached forces in a subsidiary campaign.