PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2830, 22 July 1916, Page 8

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The latest news of the Somme battle is distinctly good.- It shows that in another day of heavy fighting the Germans not only failed to improve the bad position .'in which they were, left: by'., the itjitial failure of their counter-offensive. -in - the Longueval area, but are losing ground there, and at the same timo have been dislodged from a number of important- positions on other sections of the battle-front. Up to tho present the enemy's counter-stroke has failed to achieve either-direct or indirect-results.- It is not' -gaining ground locally, and it has imposed no visible check upon the methodical attacks in which the Allies are persistently working forward to decisive results. As events, are outlined, the Germans, instead of advancing, have lost further" ground in tho outskirts of Longueval and Belville Wood, where they at first made limited , headway. Heavy fighting continues in this locality, but the position is summed up in the statement that the Britislrhave assumed the' mastery.-: On "the line extending north-west from Longueval events have turned more decidedly against the enemy. Here the British have advanced a thousand yards, in spite of stubborn opposition, and so have materially improved the general position.

Badly as he has fared in his effort to stem the British offensive, the failure of the enemy. is still more pointedly emphasised. in -the notable successes won by the Frefich further south. An eastward, advance oft a front extending a-few miles north fronii. the.'.Somme. has gained them a footing on.', the .'Combles-Clery railway. From, the details given they should now bo little more than a mile distant from Combles,. \y.hich. is an important centre in the enemy's local communications. . South- of the Somme the French li'ave made equally important he'adway. Here, it will bo remembered,"their advanced line ■has been carried to' within -threequarters of a mile of Peronne, and until the advance reported to-day they had dislodged the. enemy south of the river from an area'approximately square and measuring about four miles from north to south and rather more from east to west. This area has now been broadened and enlarged in a series of attacks'along its southern' face and further south. The enemy's first-line defences were qamed over a . front of several miles. A realisation of the importance of this success is assisted by the statement that in- the course or the-day' nearly "three, thousand Germans were taken prisoner. '

Even without reference to. a map it.will .be seen that the! Allied offensive in.its. most, recent., days.has achieved decidedly ■'■important" '-re"siilts. The .'position' .'broadly <is'. that while tlie' British "ar6 'breaking'the' force of the German' counter-offen-sive in their section of the front and also gaining some new ground, the French are actively developing the movement' against Peronne, both north and south of the Somme. This state of affairs is the more notable since fuller details show that the Germans. staked veryheavily upon the counter-stroke which-seems already to have collapsed in dismal failure. They attacked in the style which Verdun has made ' familiar, several regiments advancing in massed formation on a narrow . front. Even so the extent of their achievement was to dislodge the British from a limited area of the ground they had most' ree'e-utly gained and iu which they had not. had time, to become firmly established. Better evidence than ever is thus afforded of the fact that the. Germans'on the Somme are findiug' the economical defensive tactics which the French pursued with so much'determination and success at Verdun an unattainable ideal. They are reduced instead to a costly and unprofitable expenditure of lives which heavily accentuates the defeat exemplified in the continued' crumbling of their front under the shattering blows of the Allies.

Even before he resorted to a countcr-offensivD it was apparent that the enemy's casualties in the Somme battle were on such a scale as to amount to a deadly drain upon his remaining resources. An important addition to the evidence on this head is made to-da,y in some particulars supplied by Sie Douglas Haig in an official report. He quotes the diary • of' a captured German commanding- officer . 'as showing that on . July 1 (tho day on which the British ' offensive opened) a Bavarian regiment at Montauban suffered 3000 casualties out of a total strength of 3500. In another case a battalion losi9Soout of 1100 men, and two 'other battalions lost more than half their effective strength. Extraordinary as these examples are, they are bv no means isolated, and though tho detailed evidence which would make it possible to estimate the to till German losses on the Somme is not yet available,., it. is evident that the total is huge. _ The,.reduction of his man-power in this battle must he accounted not less disastrous to the enemy than the rapid penetration of defences in which he had hoped, to stand firm against assault. The subject of ._ enemy reserves. is one upon which speculation has ranged somewhat widely, but events are rapidly bringing out the essential facts. No one following the, course of events in- tne two main theatres can doubt that the Germans are already in straits for reserves.

Campaign developments unquestionably lend colour to the estimates of 'those authorities who maintain that' the eriomy is nearing the exhaustion of his effective reserves. Taking, elderly men and boys into account, he may still have very considerable numbers to draw upon, but ..definite evidence has been supplied from French sources that German recruits of the. 1916 class have largely been used up. This would leave as really effective • reserves the 1917 class, probably already drawn upon, and a certain number of wounded who have been restored to physical efficiency. Numbers in thiV. last' ca.tceqrv ~ canunfc he

large, for men discharged from hospital are of course, returning to active servicc in a continuous stream. On available evidence,Germany is very closely approaching the time when she will have to draw upon immature boys and men well past the ago of military efficiency. .

Though the Allied offensive is in no respect more important than as it hears upon the progressive exhaustion of German reserves, it is/exceedingly impressive also in its : rapid penetration of the German defences. This aspect of the Allied , achievement is effectively emphasised in the statement that tho ground so far gained'is twice as extensivo as the avea gained by the Germans at Verdun, and that in sixteen days the Allies gained as much ground as the Germans gained at Verdun in five months. Effective as it. is, however, the comparison-is less than fair to the Allies, since the Verdun defences included an-extensive area which from tho first was only intended to be held against the first shock of assault. There is no analogy' between the advanced defences at Verdun and the formidable field fortifications of the, German front line on the Somme. More,than this, the Allies are undoubtedly much nearer to a. success of far-reaching strategic importance than the Germans.ever were at Ver'dun.

Exceptional activity by the Allied aircraft is a notable feature of the news to-day. They have dropped many tons of explosives-on enemy railway' oentres, aerodromes, -and' other points of importance Raiding also is being pursued on a considerable scale. These' activities, may be related only to the Allied operations on the Somme, but it is equally possible that a new chapter in t-he Western offensive is about to open with an assault upon some other sections of the German line. "

What news there is from Bussia is good, and it is not necessary to make an exception on account of ehemv reports alleging successcs south-west of Lusk and elsewhere. The value of these reports may be judged from a comparison of German and Allied communiques dealing with events in the Western theatre. It is evident that the enemy at present, feels it necessary to freely depart, from the facts, no doubt chiefly in the hope of deceiving his own public for a time. It is pretty certain that the Russians are : on'the eve of another big development in .their'offensive, and a measure of .uncertainty. ..as. to where the main blow, will. fall.is no doubt shared by the enemy.