PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2846, 10 August 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Thu event of the hour is the renewal of tho Italian offensive on the laouzo, of which there was little more than a preliminary notification yesterday. Now that some details arc available, it can be seen that the Italians nave opened an immensely powerful attack on their main offensive front, and that notable success has been achioved in the early stages of the enterprise. Each campaign of the war has, its own standards by which results attained must be measured in order to estimate their true importance, and tho success of the Italians in materially advancing their line o"n tho lsorizo and capturing more than 8000 prisoners in the space of two days is tc! be considered in light of the fact that they arc assaulting one of the strongest defensive lines in the world. Writing from tho Italian front some time ago, a British correspondent remarked that there is no ground on which an offensive is being carried ort that presents such peculiar difficulties as the Isonzo. It has .always been famous as an unassailable defensive position. Tho northern part of the line presents a succession of Alpine heights, and these descend' by stages to the lower, but still hilly, Oarso region, immediately north of the Adriatic. Another material factor in tho strength of the Austrian line is that the Isonzo, along a great part of its course, particularly in its upper reaches, is a deop and wide river flowing between high and steep walls of rock. Tho entrenched camj> of Gorizia, upon which the operations now in progress centre, is constituted by an amphitheatre ■. of mountains and hills. Tho town of Gorizia stands ab.out twelve miles north of the Gulf of Trieste, but its hill defences extend for many miles to north and south, and, indeed, form a link in a continuous chain, which ,is completed by the formidable Carso positions on tho south and the Alpine strongholds on the north. Gorizia, not, of course, tho town, but tho entrenched camp on the surrounding hills, is the key to the Isonzo line.

From the beginning the Italians have been at a terrible disadvantage in their assaults upon this formidable defensive barrier. Posted on higher ground, in positions prepared at leisure before Italy entered the war, the Austrians have been able practically at all points to overlook the preparations and movements of tho Italians ip the valley of the Isonzo. Inevitably the Italians paid a very hea,vy price for such progress as had been made up to the opening of their present offensive and at many points their advance carried them to-no more advantageous position than'a precarious foothold cgi hill and mountain, slopes, with the Austrians in possession of the dominating crests. In tho aggregate, however, the progress made has been of high importance. Early in the war the Italians crossed the Isonzo at Plava, north of Gorizia, and cut the most direct, though not the only railway connection Gorizia, Trieste, aud Pola, with Vienna. Further south they advanced half a dozen miles beyond the river, capturing Monfalcone, and they now hold a fairly extended foothold on the ■ Ca.rso plateau, north of ' the

Adriatic. In the north they have crossod the river, on a wide front, and for part of the distance have advanced several miles beyond it. It is in this region that they captured tho Alpine crest of Monte Nero, towering nearly 7500 feet above sea level.

It should be noted that tho developments now reported on the Isonzo supply final proof of the total failure of tho Austrian offensive from the Trentino. That enterprise aimed, above all, at cutting tho communications of the Italian armies on the Isonzo or rendering these communications so insecure as to compel the Italians to retreat from thoir main front. If tho Austrians had succeeded in getting astride even one of the two main railways that run through northeastern Italy towards the Isonzo, their offensive would havo been a triumphant success. It would have been successful in a degree if the Austrians had succeeded in retaining such positions on the Trentino front as to keep alive the possibility of a later movement against the Isonzo communications. The present action of tho Italians affords conclusive proof that tbe enemy has not succeeded even to this' extent.' Not all the ground gained by the enemy in his offensive from the Trentino has been recovered, but tho Italians would certainly not have opened so great an attack on the Isonzo front had thoy not been well assured of the security of their vital communications. /

From tho details at present available, it would seem that in their latest offensive tho Italians have made more rapid headway in a given time than at any previous staoa of their campaign on the Isonzo line. According, to ono report, tho, battle opened on a front of 60 miles—the whole length of the Isonzo arid Garso line—but it is evidently on the southern' section of the line, north of Gorizia, and south from that stronghold to tho Adriatic, that the main struggle is in progress. Gorizia, as has boon remarked, is ringed about with strong hill positions, 'and two of theso have been captured by the Italians—Mont Sabotino, about three and a half miles north of Gorizia, on the west bank of tho Isonzo and Mont San Michelo, about six miles south, and slightly west, of Gorizia. Priftr to the present'offensive, the Italians were established on the western slopes of both elevations. They now hold tho summits. Mont Sabotino is a commanding height, 1700 feet above sea-level, and dominates all the positions on the approach to Gorizia from tho west "and the town itself, which tho enemy is said to be evacuating. Possession of tho dominating summits they have won north and south of Gorizia will enable the Italians to master a considerable extent of intervening territory, and the report which states that thoy have penetrated the enemy front for a distance of 19 miles, though unofficial, may be in accordant with the facts. Just .what is meant by the statement that • the Gorizia bridgehead has been captured is not made clear in available reports. Presumably it means that the Austrians have been compelled to'evacuate the Podgora ridge, west of Gorizia, and on tho western side of the Isonzo, which has long been maintained against attack. The Austrians themselves admit that they have been driven across tho Isonzo at Gorizia, and this''practically involves tho evacuation of the Podgora position. Asi an offset to the Italian, capture of over 8000 prisoners, the Austrians claim that they have captured nearly 3000 Italians. But even if this is true it is; evident that the honours are heavily on the'side of tho attacking army.

It is suggested in an unofficial message from Paris that the. Allies arc on the evo of another great forward sweep on the Somme front, and it is stated as a fact that the German lines have for 48 'hours been subjected to a sevci'o and searching bombardment along a distance of nearly 30 miles, from the northern extremity ofthe Somme battlefront to the outskirts of Roye, about ten miles south of the most southerly section of the enemy - front which the French have penetrated since the offensive opened. The prediction must stand meantime for what it is worth, but it undoubtedly gains some colour from facts officially attested. Of lato the Allies have been steadily breaking into the enemy front in a. series of local actions, any one of whioh, before the great offensive opened, would havo been regarded as of considerable magnitude. During the last day or two the Allied forces havo advanced several hundred yards into the enemy positions along nearly the whole length of the five or six miles of front extending north from the Somme. Tho broad effect of the Allied attacks in tho latest stage of the offensive ' has been to largely, though not by any means completely, deprive tho e/Kimy of his remaining advantage of position, and throw.-his line back into dangerous nearness to vital centres in his local communications. It is quite possible that the way Jias been paveii for such a resumption of tho general attack as is now predicted.

Though there is no indication that it has opened out in tic magnitude reported yesterday, the Russian southern offensive is developing in most promising fashion. No big event is reported at the moment in Southern Russia, and it seems possible that General Sakharoff has come temporarily to a halt in Northern Galicia, but official reports tell of a great Russian victory in Southern Galicia. South of tho Dniester the enemy has been swept back many miles; the Russians havo captured tho town of Tlumacz and other positions north ancl south, and taken thousands of prisoners. They a-re now within 15 miles of tho important railway centre of Stanislau, and as reports stand are rapidly developing their success. One correspondent states that the enemy is taking tho offensive "south of Delatyn, on the lino of the Pruth," but this does not square with the fact that the region immediately north of the Pruth is ono of those in which tho enemy is in disorderly rotreat before a vigorous Russian pursuit

' According to the same correspondent, von Hindexburg 35 concentrating heavy forccs against General Brusiloff, in a fashion which proves again that the enemy is possessed of s> superior transport organisation. That tho enemy is for the 'timo being much better off than are tho Russians iu tho matter of railways is unquestionable, but it must be said that ho does not seem to havo turned this advantage to any very profitable account in t tho recent ■ passages of the campaign.

The history of these passages in a word has been that the Austro-Gcr-man line lias been deeply and dangerously penetrated in one section after another, and this is still going on. The Russians are firmly established in threatening proximity to Ivovel, in Southern Russia, they aro within a dozen miles of tho main trunk railway through Galicia on Jic north, and now they are sweeping forward in Southern Galicia. These things can only be taken to mean that the Russians have defintoly tho upper hand, in spite iof whatever _ advantages the- enemy holds on his present line with great railway junctions at his back. A dispatoh from Mit. Stanley Washburn' affords _ another example of comment which hardly seems to fit m with tho facts of the campaign. For instance, Mb. Washdurn says that the enemy's superiority in guns, especially heavy artillery, in munitions, and in railway facilities, must continue for six months. This obviously is too sweeping a generalisation .to carry much weight. The relative position and strength of the contending forces in the Eastern theatre as time goes on will not be governed only by what happens in that area, but by events throughout the wholo extent of tho war. . The Russians, as Mil. "Washburn himself states, have put 750,000 Austro-Ger-raans out of a-ction in two months, and captured 500 guns arid 1200 machine-guns. The Western Allies aro in the full tide oi an offensive which is very far from having reached its height, and tho effect of tho Italian offensive and of whatever action the Allies may take from Salonika has yet raako itself felt. W,ith matters in this state, it is manifestly unsafe .to talk dogmatically about what the position will bo in any theatre of: war six months hence.