PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2814, 4 July 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

■ Anticipations based upon the first news of the Anglo-French offensive are more than con firmed to-day. By a powerful and- woll : directed attack the Allies havo sensibly improved their immediate position, but it is still more important that they .havo given an impressive demonstration of their ability to bring the enemy to battle under conditions which place him at a decided disadvantage. Tho significance of the German defeat is heightened by the apparent inability of the enemy to make free ancl effective use of his admittedly formidable strongth in attempting

Ito checkmate the Allied move. The weight of evidence is wholly against the idea that the Germans were surprised by the assault on their front north and south of the Somme. Indeed, the point is set at rest by the fact that an enemy commtniqve some days ago mentioned, the destined battlefront as an area in which the Allied bombardment had been particularly heavy. The truth seems to be that tl.s Germans knew where tho blow was to fall, but oven so Were unable to malco head against it when it fell. The apparent explanation is that any attempt on their part to effect a counter-concen-tration was defeated by the widelyextended Allied bombardment, and by raiding, which, in places, actually assumed the character of threatening attack. To know that attack is impending in a given sector is one thing; to feel that it is safe to concentrate undividedly against the coming attack in that sector is quite another thing. It was apparently upon the horns of this dilemma that the Germans were suspended. From such details of the battle as are now available it would appear that tho enemy did not approach an effective reply to the unprecedented bombardment to which he was subjected. The German infantry in _ places defended their trenches with desperate gallantry, but the' reply to the Allied bombardment was relatively so feeble as to occasion remark. The Germans may yet be able to improve to some extent upon thoir late performance— it is best meantime to assume that they are holding something in reserve—but thus far the account, from tho Allied standpoint, is one of superior force effectively employed. l -

Though it is not protended that it is more than a beginning, the success won by the Allies on the i- Somme ranks in itself as one of the most important of the war, and a parallel must be sought in the greatest battles which the war has witnessed. Approximately the Allies haye broken for a mile and a quarter into the German front over a distance of five-and-twenty miles. Apart from all the surrounding circumstances of. the offensive the capture of such an area, including many elaborately defended strongholds, is' a very great achievement, and the Gorman communigucJfi\\K\\ seeks to depreciate the Allied success is a somewhat fatuous attempt to cover up a disaster. In its local effect the Allied 'achievement is a vital threat to the Gorman northern armies and their communications. Tho threat may not immediately develop from tho point to which it has been oarried. It is the most promising feature of the situation that the Allies aro setting the pace and pursuing tactics, as one report puts it, which aim at a steady and continuous hammering of the enemy line, without unnecessary loss of lives, until it becomes possiblo to launch a general attack. For the time the Allies are shown to havo firmly consolidated the ground won, and in places they {ire still pressing forward. The British havo captured the fortified village of Fricourt,' which was passed on north and south in the main assault. This finally disposes of an advanced salient in the German lino which projected towards the road and railway junction of Albert, a useful centre in the' Allied communications. Further south, on either side, of the Somme,' tho French are still making important headway, and in places have entered the German _ second line. Unwounded prisonors in their hands, as reports stand at timo of writing, number over 6000. The British return of prisoners taken is apparently incomplete, but 3500 aro already accounted for. The point is emphasised in official reports that while the losses of the enemy havo been exceedingly heavy,' those -of the Allies, thanks to their effective bombardment, have b3en relatively light. .Possibly tho tide of assault on the present fighting front is now well past its culmination for the timo peing, though there can be no certainty on the point except to the Allied high command, and certainly thero is none to the enemy. The process of battering at the German lino until conditions aro ripe for a general assault may very probably have to be continued for a long time, and the Allies are not likely to restrict themselves to any one area as the process continues. But so long as they are able to carry on the battering under the conditions of the opening battle and its surrounding circumstances, the Allios have no reason to be dissatisfied. Inflicting much greater losses_ upon the enemy than they are coincidently Buffering themselves, they are moving steadily along the road that leads to victory. It is remarkedby one correspondent that the quiescence of the Germans has become retaarkable, and that it is surmised that they are "lying low." Such a policy hardly seems to meet tho circumstances in which they have lately been placed, but it would do doubt be' very unwise to anticipate an easy and uninterrupted tide of Allied successes. Checks and setbacks are bound to be encountered where so formidable an enemy has to be overcome, but unless some totally unforeseen turn enters, the Allies should from this timo forward make generally good progress towards their goal.

Wiiether any special significance attaches to the violent artillery action on the Flanders front is not yet clear, but there are suggestions that,the Allies are employing monitors to assist the sliore-batterics on the northern front,, and that their object is to make a German infanivy advance impossible. It may seem that the last thing the Germans are "likely to attempt in their present plight is an offensive in Flanders, an enterprise in which they have repeatedly come to grief when the 'odds were vastly more in their favour than now. But on the other hand it is manifest that their only hope of salvation lies in. action; the. alternative would be to submit more or less passively to the methodical battering by which the Allies hope to reduce them ultimately to a condition of fatal wcakncss. : If the Germans arc capable of checkmating the tireless assaults of' a superior force it must bo by some great and decisive stroke. More deliberate methods will no longer servo their purpose. At the moment great issues ban"' in suspense at Verdun. Though the battle, in its latest phase, has gone against them, the Germans have not yet desisted from I the assault in which they have now been engaged since February. Withdrawal at this stage would involve a damaging confession of defeat and an admission that false hopes have been dangled before the German people, but it dops not seem probable that the Germans will continue to pour men and material into

the insatiable maw of Vfcrdun as they have done for the last _ four months. In their rosiest anticipations they will hardly bo able to seei' at Verdun the field for such a suc-J' cess as would restore their fortunes in the Western theatre. ' • * * # What hope they havo lies in offensive action, and there is no visible possibility of effecting the needed diversion at Verdun. So much being assumed they arc as likely to attempt another offensive in Flanders as on any other section of the Western front. At best such an enterprise would be a forlorn hope, but it does not seem that they have anything better in prospect. Whether or not it is selected hy the-Get-mans aji the theatre- of a final bid for victory, Flanders will ccrtainly lose none of its past importance as th&,war develops. One element in the Allied preparations has been the constitution of a powerful coast-bom-bardment fleet of monitors and other ships, so organised that it is largely able to defy attaok by submarines. This fleet has often done good_ gfirvice, both in bombarding the German coastal depots and in stiffening the Allied flank. It may be expected to play an increasingly important part as time goes on, in countering attack by the enemy, if that should be attempted, and in furthering the Allied offensive.

] Broadly speaking, no very material change is disclosed, at time of writing, in the Eastern theatre. That is to say, the Russians are grossing forward victoriously on the southern flank of their line, west of Koloinca junction, while in Southern Russia the enemy is still persisting in-his long-continued and hitherto unsuccessful attempts to break the Russian line east and south-east of liovel. The Russian success in the south is likely to compel an extended enemy retreat, and it seems to be also relieving pressure in Southern Russia, which for some time has been the most critical section of the front. This is suggested in the fact that a largo number of the prisoners recently taken in the south, near lfolomea, are latcflrrivalsjn that region.

On the Italian front also the Austrians are being subjected -to continued heavy pressure, and some further successes by our Allies are reported. Little movement is reported on the Isoiizo front, but the Italians have made further progress towards the Trentino frontier.

Stories aro afloat in Denmark that a German naval offensive .in the. Baltic is imminent, and though they rest on no particular authority it might be unwise to reject them a-s altogether lacking -foundation. Tho belief has been expressed that tho losses and damage sustained by the High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland are likely to disable it from attempting any decisive action cithor in the North Sea or the Baltic for some time to come, but as matters stand Germany may be inclined to take risks .which she would not have faced at an earlier stage of tho war. Busy work in the shipyards may yet enable her to oppose a great superiority of force to the Russian Baltic Fleet, but this docs not necessarily mean that she is able to command the Baltic. The possibility of British reinforcements entering that sea is at least to be considered. Moreover, in any attempt to overwhelm the Russian Fleet, Germany must expose her remaining Dreadnoughts to mine and submarine dangers in an area more than ordinarily favourable to_ the uso of these agents, of destruction. Even under the policy of keeping; the capital ships out of harm's way, one of Germany's latest battle-cruiscrs, tho Moltke, was torpedoed, though not sunk', in the Baltic. It is also to bo kept in mind that any results achieved by the German Navy in the Baltic must be followed up by action on land if they are to be turned to account. Our present information is that Von llindenbukQ is at a standstill on the northern front for lack of, reinforcements, and if this is the fact tho likelihood of the German Navy achieving results of decisive importance in the Baltic is reduced accordingly. With _ a great force available on .land it might have paid to sacrifice even a great part of the fleet for tile sake of winning commtind of the Baltic and an extended hold on tho Russian, coast. With such a force lacking tho naval sacrifice would be apt to be mado in vain.