PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2813, 3 July 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

_ Saturday, July l, will bo for all time a red-letter day in a mcmorablo year, as tho day on which the Western Allies took the offensive in what is likely to provo tho decisive conflict of the war. Tho Allies are striking after long and arduous preparation against an enemy weakened by many vain efforts to gain a deoision. This makes the outlook promising, and at the same time imparts decisive importance to tho Btago of tho war which the offensive has opened. In 1914 and last year the Allies fought, in the main, to avert defeat. They are fighting now with larger hopes iii prospect, and even more vital issues accordingly depend upon the issue of the conflict ushered in by tho tremendous outburst of battle of which reports tell to-day. It is not only a British offensive that has opened. While British assaults have already carried tho German first-lino de-fences-on a front of 16 miles north from the Somrao, the French are simultaneously attacking on a shorter front south of the river, and it is indicated that this effort also has been attended with success. Moro than this, there has been desperate fighting at Verdun, which has resulted for the timo in tho French strengthening their position on tho cast of tho Mouse.

It must occur to anyone who has followed tho news, of late and reads the dispatches now in hand that the Allies are not governed in their present action by the conditions that have ruled in the past, when powerful attacks in selected .areas have been accompanied at most by diversions elsewhere, soon identified in that character. An exceptipn should perhaps bo made in the case of aerial activity. The Allied air-squadrons have always been exceedingly active in past battles in raiding enemy communications, and engaging hostile aircraft. But even in this particular reigning conditions are abnormal. It is doubtful if tho Allied airmen have over hitherto com©' within measurable distance of doing as much to cripple and disable the •enemy's aerial arm as reports show them to bo.doing at the present time. Nothing is more remarkable in the existing situation than that, even with, the great assault on tho Somme well under way, the policy of worrying and damaging the enemy by continual bombardment and raiding along a great part of the front is being pursued as actively as ever.Instead of dying down with the opening of the greater conflict, tho raiding has developed and extended, and is being carried on now by the French as well as tho British troops. The character of tho raiding on the British front may be judged from the fact that in the neighbourhood of Neuve Chapelle a strong party not only penetrated the German front lines, but entered the support line in rear. Considering that in the Neuve Chapelle region tho enemy works are rather fortifications than trenches in the ordinary sense, it is pretty safe to assume that in any other war this attack would have been called not a raid but a battle. Manifestly the British Army is using superior force with splendid effect in keeping the enemy engaged in a wearing conflict on a' much wider front than the scene of the present offensive on tho Somme. In a sense, tho British' blow has fallen, but it is evidently much too soon to attempt to measure by events the scope or power of the attaok that is being developed against the onemy.

As matters stand, there is no warrant for assuming- that the attack which has broken into the enemy front oyer a distance of twenty miles north and south of the Somme represents the main blow for which the Allies have prepared, or indeed that it is more than a detail in a developing scheme of attack. On that account, the fact is less significant than it otherwise would have been that the Germans anticipated attack in this very region, and indicated as much in a recent communique. The scale upon which the Allied' operations arc developing will work out naturally rather in a series of assaults than in a singlo concentrated effort to pierce and turn the- enemy line. Nevertheless, in their successful stroke /on the Somme, the Allies are attacking on a longer front than they have ever selected for an oflcnsivo in any one locality since thp days of siege warfare began. Naturally, at time of writing, there is little detail nows of the results thus far achieved, but there is enough to show that tho assault attained rapid and signal success. The front on which British troops are engaged extends 18 miles north from'the Sommo (where the French and British Armies are in touch), and, therefore, to within about ten miles of Arras, which town lies immediately south of the area in which the Allies put forth great efforts in the spring and summer of ' last 'year in endeavouring to reach a network of vitally important railways held By tho enemy. Tho present attacking front is roughly the southern half of a pronounced westward bend in the front, of which the extremities rest east of Arras and on the Somme. From their initial success in penetrating the German forward defences, which seems to have involved an advance of something like a mile, and in places more, along the front, the Allies proceeded to attack a series of fortified villages stiffening the enemy line. Some of these villages have been captured, and others are surrounded. The masking of some enemy positions' as an alternative to attempting to rush them by direct assault has b'cen a standing feature in offensive onerations, on tho Western front. Tho object aimed at is, j of course, to avoid a needless sae'ril fice of life.

Less ground appears to have been won on this occasion in the first shock of the assault than was won on. some sections of the Lens-La "Bassee front and in the Champagne,

last September, but tho probablo explanation is that tho Allies have materially altered their tactics. • In tho offensives of last year many lives were sacrificed without commensurate gain as a result of attempting to carry tho initial effort further than tho forces at disposal warranted. Particularly on the northorn front troops penetrated to positions which could not be hold for lack of support, and the infantry also attacked unaided positions which there was little hope of reducing without preliminary bombardment. Discussion has since turned upon the possibilities of an intermittent offensive in which tho artillery, moved up from timo to time, would play a full and effective part at every stago of tho operations. That tho Allied offensive will develop somewhat on theso lines may practically be token for granted, and it is to be remembered that the tactics pursued last year, when tho Allies were by no means as \well prepared as tbey are now, were in part dominated by tho necessity of creating a diversion in favour of Russia.

Fob the timo being the offensive takes shape as a powerful blow against the southern flank of the line of immensely strong defences covering the communications along the centre of the Western front—tho railways radiating weßt and south from tho main.line along the valley of the Meuse. There is a manifest relation between the present assault and the long and desperately-contested struggle in which; the Allies have fought their way towards La Bassee and Lens. An actual penetration 'of the enemy's line at the Somme would, of course, also threaten his communications along the Aisne, but tho immediate threat is rathorto the Gernorthern armies, depending on From the position now reached evonts .will doubtless move rapidly, and tho outlook is certainly promising.- Besides having a.battle an His hands at tho Somme, and an uncompleted task at Verdun, the enemy is being pitilessly harried along a great part of nis remaining front, and apart from the immediate effects' of this treatment must be seriously hampered in disposing of his forces to die best advantage. The point is made, and it is of great importance, that the recent raiding has had the incidental effect of disclosing the location of every German battalion, irom the sea to the Somme. Tho enemy is certainly far from being as well informed in regard to the Allied dispositions, and his disability is, of course, intensified by the severe restrictions imposed upon his use of balloons and aircraft— the _ eyes of a modern army. A significant detail as to the effect of tho British bombardment is that some'of the prisoners taken had been without food for days, the constant shelling having cut them off from supplies. One highly interesting statement is made which cannot, however, bo accepted unquestioningly, since it rests, upon the evidence of prisoners. It is to tho effect that eight Germtfn divisions have lately been transferred from the Western theatre to the Eastern front. The importance of this statement, if it is based on fact, does not need to.be emphasised. Obviously as matters stand the Germans would not remove a single soldier from the Western theatre if they , could possibly help doing so.-

Vekdun is to some extent overshadowed by the new developments, but it has witnessed, during the last day or two, some very heavy and desperate fighting; which hasturned, as reports go, decidedly against the enemy. The Thiaumont work, which has changed hands three times in the most recent fighting, and is now in French possession, is a. highly important position on the flank of the wedge- which the Germans have driven into the French defences east of the Mouse. According to the latest report in hand, the Thiaumont redoubt has been demolished, but theFrench are established' ; in the near neighbourhood of the site. The local outlook at Verdun is improved by the general turn of events, and the fact that the enemy has been constrained to launch violent attacks west of the Mouse as well as on the east suggests •' that the advantage he has gained in the latter area may be less pronounced than had been supposed. The whole of the attacks west of the river, though they were furiously pressed, seem to have been deoisively repulsed.

Good news comes also from the Eastern theatre. Rapidly following up their success in tho battle on their southern flank, which was.reported at the- end of last week, the Russians have captured the highly important railway centre of Rolo--mca, a junction to which many lines converge. Its possession should bo- a, material aid to further progress, and the enemy is stated to have already"suffered further heavy losses in men and material. Another Russian success is the capture by assault of an enemy post at tho confluence of tho rivers Lipa and Styr, about oight miles north of the Galician frontier. This should have a bearing upon developments further north, in the area between Lusk and Kovel, where the struggle is aparently still proceeding onfairly even terms. No development is definitely reported in this region at the moment. Tho Germane claim to have captured some Russian positions, but without definitely indicating ■ their location. Unofficial statements that VON Hisdenburg is about to open his long-deferred offensive on the northern Russian front as yet lack supporting evidence or confirmation, and it seems rather unlikely that the Germans will seek in existing circumstances to extend the scope of their active operations. Continued heavy fighting is reported in the Italian theatre, both in the Trcntino sector, whore the Austrians have been further driven back, and on tho southern section of the Isonzo front. In tho latter area, on the Dobordo plateau, north of tho Gulf of Trieste, the Italians havo not only repulsed Austrian counter-attacks but have captured two hill positions and taken over a thousand prisoners.

A state of affairs is reported on tho main Caucasian front which 'docs not come up to some of the more optimistic .anticipations recently expressed, but affords reasonable ground for satisfaction. The Turks are not yet in hopeless disarray, and are still offering a powerful and organised resistance to tho Russian offensive.; They are shown, however, to have failed badly in an attempted counter-stroke. Attaining some temporary, success they were ultimately heavily defeated, and the Russians "not only regained some advanced positions they bad lost, but effected a further advance.

Not a great deal has been heard about tho Arabian revolt since it was announced last week; but it is now reported to bo spreading in Yemen, the great south-western province of Arabia, and many tribes arc said to bo joining. Tho revolt is likoly to seriously hamper Turkey as timo goes on. '