PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2915, 30 October 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

By promptly publishing the essential facts of the abortive attempt made by a German destroyer flotilla on Thursday night to raid the transport line across the Straits of Dover, the Admiralty has avoided a repetition of the serious mistake it made on the occasion of tho Jutland battle in allowing tho false reports of victory spread broadcast by the enemy to got a long start. The Admiralty has taken time by the forelock in telling the true story of the Channel raid and probably even in neutral countries the mendacious account of the affair which Germany issued as a matter of course was at once checked and its effect nullified by the British statement of the actual facts. The Germans allege that they sank eleven -patrols and two or threo to.rpedoers and that all their own boats returned safely. Reference to the British reports shows that, with the exception that one British destroyer was sunk and another damaged and run ashore, these enemy claims are Untrue in every particular. The British losses were the destroyers mentioned (assuming that tho Nubian cannot be salved) and -an empty transport. A French trawler was also sunk. Tho Germans lost two of their best destroyers, for it is said that the ten enemy ships employed wore all of the most modern type. Such ships would naturally be selected for an enterprise of the kind, on.account of their power and speed. The British destroyer Flirt, which is missing, was launched as long ago as 1897 and was of only 360 tons displacement. The Nubian was a larger ship, of 990 tons, but sho was nine yoars old, and" therefore does not compare with such destroyers as the Germans lost. In the matter of lives lost the balance presumably turns heavily against the-enemy. '

Looking at tho affair simply-as a naval action, no very important advantage has been gained by either side. But to do this would be to adopt a false standpoint and ignore the actual issues involved. The Germans contemplated a destructive raid and in that aspect, the only aspect worth considering, their attempt must be written down-a complete and hopeleßs failure. On The other hand the efficiency of the Dover patrol, on which depends the security of the vital cross-Ohannol communications between England and France, has been'triumphanily vindicated. The enemy has suffered the heavier loss in fighting fare. Apart from this balance to tho tad he has no achievement to set against his loss; but against tho British loss there is to be set the continued security of the transport line. That destroyers were employed in a raid of this nature says a great deal for the efficiency of the anti-submarine measures' taken by the Admiralty for the protection of the main transport route across Channel. There would be no object in risking destroyers in such service if submarines were able to operate effectively against the British transports. But in fact the transport now reported lost, though happily without loss of life, is tile' first that is Known to have met this fate on the cross-Channol route since the war began. Though they have been responsible for a vast amount of destruction elsewhere, enemy submarines have encountered unrelieved disaster in their attempts upon the Channel transport line.

All things considered it is remarkable that the Germans have deferred to this late stage of the war as ambitious an attempt as they made on Thursday night to hold up the cross-Channel service. Even with the losses they have suffered, chiefly in the North Sea, the German torpedo flotillas constitute a formidable force. Germany in 19H, had about 166 destroyers (apart from torpedo boats), including some that had been built to the order of foreign countries and were taken over. Many of them were powerful craft, ranging up to about a thousand tons displacement, and the best of them having a speed'of over 32 knots. About thirty have been sunk, but the total strength of the German flotillas is probably greater now than it was in 1914. In the early days of the war it was expected that the German torpedo flotillas would play a highly important part, more especially as the British superiority in ships of this type, though considerable, was not as great as in the factor of capital ships. The expectation has, upon the whole, been falsified by events, and Thursday's raid marked a notable departure from a generally unenterprising policy. It is now suggested that the raid marks the beginning of a new epoch. Hindenbvro, is said to have been invested with a powerful measure of control over the German Navy, and' it is believed that ho will insist upon efforts to harass the Channel trans-s port service. This would be a natural enough development as affairs aro going with Germany on land, and it must be recognised that if she elects, even in the conditions that obtain in the naval war, to risk and spend ships in an effort to obtain relief of pressure, matters cannot bo expected to go all one way. Losses are not to be avoided in naval war any more than in other kinds of war, and if Germany sends out her ships to fight instead of keeping them in harbour sho will inflict, as well as suffer, loss. But whether or not the events of Thursday night mark in fact a radical change in German naval policy, they are of good augury for the Allies, and suggest that Germany is likely to fare even worso in such a contest as may be imponding than might on general grounds have been anticipated.

Except in Rumania, where events seem to be taking a more favourable turn, no marked change in the aspect of any of the land campaigns is disclosed at time of writing, but the news of the week ond is filled with the, promise of great events. It is again said that tho .Russians are on the eve of resuming the offensive on a big scale on their southern main front, and such a development would, of course, be no surprising sequel to the brilliant French offensive at Verdun, which has done so much to increase the tremendous strain already imposed on tho enemy in. tho Western theatre. Meantime, tho enemy's prospects arc certainly not improving in any one of tho principal theatres whore the major issues of the war aro working out gradually to their inevitable end. Detail reports tell of somo further progress on tho British section of the Sommc front, made in spite of weather conditions which are now to somo extent befriending tho enemy, and of tho overwhelming defeat of further German counter-attaeks at Verdun. In

this region, also, the French have at some points advanced their' line, capturing strongly organised positions.

As a whole, the news from Rumania is of a, kind to bear out the statement of the Petit, Parisien. that important reinforcements have ar-1 rived on both the Rumanian fronts. | The gist of reports In hand is that in the section of the Wallachian ] frontier zone (north and north-west of Bucharest), where the enemy lias doveloped his most powerful assaults, the Rumanians are maintaining a firm and unyielding defence, while to the north, in the region of the Moldavian frontier, they are developing a successful counter-offensive, in which they have already made largo captures of prisonous, and before which the Austro-Gcrmans arc recoiling. \ The Rumanians report -also that they have vanquished the enemy and subjected him to* heavy-Joss in the Jiul Valley, in "Western 'Wallachia, but the position' hero is made a little uncertain by the fact that a Russian communique speaks of Continued onemy attacks in the same region. In Southern Bukowina, in the vicinity of the Rumanian frontier, the Allies have lost somo advanced positions, though not apparently with serious results. The Russo-Ru-manians in the Dobrudja arc apparently resisting Mackbnsen's advance about midway between the Cerna-voda-Constanza railway and the Dahubo, but it'is not claimed.that they have come to a halt in this particular region. The general 'outlook for Rumania has distinctly improved, and there aro plain indications that the direct and indirect assistance of the Allies is now telliug. materially in her favour. The faofc that 128 French aeroplanes, and at least four British machines, havo entered Rumania in itself suggests that assistance is being rendered on a liberal scale.