PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2892, 3 October 1916, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Now that fairly full aocounts. are available of the reverse suffered by tho Rumanians in the Hermannstadt region, in Southern Transylvania, it is clear that an exaggerated impression of the event was' given in the enemy reports which first made it known. Hermannstadt is a railway town of some importance, 16 miles north of the Rumanian frontier. Southward of Hermannstadt, and constituting the main frontier gateway in this region, is the Roto Turm Pass. To be exact, the Rote Turm Pass penetrates the main chain of the Trarisylvanian Alps immediately north of the Rumanian frontier. Here, as elsewhere, the Dual Monarchy had carefully retained all the advantages of strategic positions in the days when the frontier was defined. The Rote Turm is one of the series of important frontier passes captured }vy the Rumanians practically - at the inception of their campaign. They hold it to-day, after the local reverso of which the Austro-Germans

havo attempted to make so much.

The Rumanian troops involved in the recent battle were an advanced force wheh had moved north from the Roto Turm Pass towarcTs Her-

mannstadt. It-is admitted that this force, which quite possibly was not large, was nearly cut off, and only cscaped that fate by hard fighting. But the final result, apart from tho immediate loss suffered and inflicted by the Rumanians, is to leave the latter in command of tho immensely important mountain gateway north of the frontier from which the advance on Hermannstadt was made. It will be noticed that an Austrian communique states that after the battle at Hermannstadt the Rumanians resumed tho. offensive. The added remark that tho result was not affected does not rob this admission of its significance, moro especially as' the Austrians admit - also that they were compelled to retire north of Fogaras, which place-is, 18 miles north of the Rumanian frontier, and 30 miles east of .Hermannstadt. In a message- just received, the Germans claim that three thousand Rumanians were taken prisoner, and much material captured,, and allogo thp.i the Rote Turm Pass is fillfed with wrecked vehicles. It is not claimed, however, that tho pass has been recaptured, and this message also concludes with the significant statement that Rumanian attacks failed. Tho final impression must be that though the enemy won some success in 'a local battle, lie was definitely checked beforo he had gained any decisive advantage likely to be extended and developed. * * j *

It is probably wise to look with suspicion upon tho efforts the onemy is making' to advertise the importance of his renewed activities against Ilumania. As some London news-

papers have remarked, the report that Genekat, von Falkeniiayn commands the Austro-German troops in the Hcntiannstadfc area suggests that a big- offensive is afoot. But the report may be falso, and in any case the raero fact that tho Germans are in different _ ways booming thenoffensive against Rumania- docs not necessarily, or even probably, mean that tho enterprise will take formidable shape. At present wo have only words to set against hard facts which point to developments on totally different lines. Mr. J. L. Garvin, the editor of tho Observer, makes the somewhat extraordinary suggestion that von Hindenburg hopes to smash Rumania, and hold the line from the Baltic to the Black Sea, "when he will return west before the French and British have time to deliver the knock-out." As a rule, it is wise ' to avoid dogmatic statements in regard to tho larger issues of the war, Dufc it is quite safe to say that the programme thus airily sketched is ono which the enemy has about as much hope of carrying out as be has of journeying to the moon and back again. Last year the danger was for a time in plain sight that the Austro-Germans might succeed in extending their main Eastern line to the Black Sea, but it can hardly, be said to exist now. Any suggestion of the kind is met ana' disposed of by a statement made by General Jowre early in August: Wo know positively (he said) that our enemy is now calling up his last reserves. Hitherto the Germans havo been able, according to thoir method, to transport reserves from one spot to another; ! but now, in view of the concerted efforts of the Allies, that is impossible, and it will become more and more impossible for them to proceed in that way. Every source of information at our disposal confirms this view a

Since General Joffre spoko the balance has further turned heavily against the Austro-Gormans. Thoy have sustained disastrous defeats in the main theatres, and Rumania has joined tho Allies. To anticipate, at this stage, any attempt by the enemy to greatly extend the scope of his operations, therefore, seems equivalent to entertaining fancies which have nothing to do_ with the facto of the war. Even if it were practicable, a massed concentration against Rumania would bo likely to bring the enemy_ nothing but disaster. The Rumanians are now posted in strong positions right across Transylvania, and their immediate contact with Russia, apart from any advance by the Allies from Greece, guarantees them necessary support On the other hand, in the present state of tho enemy's reserves, a strong concentration against Rumania would almost certainly be effected at the cost of disastrous collapse in Galicia and Southern Uussia. n * « « Reports from Russia are brief, but full of promise. After a period of nearly stationary but heavy lighting, which has fully served the general purposes of the Allies in pinning down large enemy forces, the Russians are again on the move towards Lemberg, and already have captured two thousand prisoners, on ono line of approach, from the north-cast. Tho fighting now reported is in progress on two or more vital sections 01 the front extending across Galicia. The Russians are moving south-west towards Lemberg along the Brody-Lemberg railway, and further south. In Central Galicia they have carried enemy positions south 'of Brzezany, which covers an important road in marshycountry. where roads are few and not easily improvised. In this last area important river-crossings are also in dispute. On present showing the threat to Lemberg should develop apace, but it will not-be surprising if the tide of battle extends quickly to Southern Russia, whero the Russians are much closer to Kovel than their Galician armies are to Lemberg. Throughout the offensive which has done so much to alter the a-spoct of the, war," tho Russians have profited greatly by rapidly shifting the point of attack along the front between the Pripet marshes and the Carpathians. Their aim is to overthrow the front as a whole,- and separate the Austrians from convenient contact with their German allies, and it is probably a [matter of comparative indifference to them whether Kovel or lemberg first rewards their efforts. The fafl of one of these junctions would in ordinary course be speedily followed uy the fall of the other.

An important extension of the British' movement towards Bapaume bears further witness to the extent to which tho Allies are masters of the situation in the Somme region. The remark is made iu one message that if a wedge is driven twenty miles further eastward of tho Bapaume-Peronne Road (across which the French .have already driven on a fairly wide front) it will endanger communications vital to a large part of the German front. This seems to be a strictly moderate estimate of possibilities. An advance of twenty miles from their present, line would carry the Allies to the great junctions of Oamrai and St. Quentip, which the Germans must safely cover or rotreat with all speed. Twenty miles of country affords them no very safe margin, considering that on a part of the offensive fronfc their main positions have been completely broached, 1 and that the Allies are now splendidly placed to widen the breach. At all times, however, the Allied offensive must be considered in light of the fact that' its effects are not local only, but general, owing to the terrible drain it imposes on German man-power. It is not by any means certain that developments will take the obvious line.

Still another Zeppelin has been brought down in England, the fifth to meet that fate. The continued run Of airship disasters, and realisation of the fact that the days of raiding with impunity are over, should have salutary effect' in Germany. Phe season in which Zeppelin activlfcy is- possible is rapidly nearing an end—thore were no raids last year after the middle of October—and from the German standpoint its record is anything but inspiriting. A new cause for depression will be found m the promise of a great extension of aerial activity by the Allies. Hitherto the principal German war factories have received comparatively little attention from ■trench and British airmen, but the recent raid on Essen was a practical demonstration of possibilities, and it is now intimated that at the appointed time numerous squadrons will attack Krupp's and other similar establishments. That results of vital importance are to be achieved in this way is beyond dispute. The possibilities of damage and destruction aro only limited by the numbers of aircraft avaiklile.