PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 114, 31 January 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The story uf the air raids on London which were briefly reported yesterday is told in greater, detail to-day. Made by two distinct squadrons these attacks seem to have been tho most ambitious Germany has yet attempted. The aggregate force employed was considerable, and the attacks were remarkably prolonged. Taking account of these facts, the casualties thus- far reported were not heavy by the standards set in previous raids. Apparently only a small proportion of tho attacking force succeeded in penetrating the defences of the metropolis, and British airmen, facing serous risks from friendly gunfire as well as those of encounter with the enemy machines, vigorously attacked tho latter while they remained over London and afterwards harried their retreat. One German machine was brought down burning in Essex, and all the defending aeroplanes landed safely. The Germans selected for their enterprise a night with the moon as nearly as possible at the full—setting at '/.55' a.m. No doubt the moonlight, was of greater assistance to tho enemy than to the British gunners and aviators. Even in the clearest moonlight tficre are serious difficulties in co-ordinating the anti-aircraft barrage and the aerial counter-attack, 'out the light of the moon would make it comparatively easy for the Germans to locate their vast objective. The results attained in checking 1 the enemy's attack and organising pursuit were perhaps as good as are to be expected on an average in dealing with moon-, light raids, and the facts disclosed tend to strengthen an impression that the best answer to the enemy's raids on London will ] )0 t he found in direct counter-measures, though the,se, of course, are necessary, but in carrying the war info the enemy's country.

Apart from tho fact that the aeroplane brought/ down in Essex was a tlu'ce-seater, nothing is mado known at time of writing about the character of the German machines employed in the latest raids. It is, of corn's?, quite possible that they are superior to the Gotha threc-seat-ers which were, used in similar expeditious !ast year. It was made known some time ago by the French General Staff that ; n every type of flying machine the Germans arc feverishly producing new models. One of their latest bombing machines is a thrce-seater which can carry between 1700 and 1800 pounds weight of bombs, and when.loaded can climb 12,000 feet in 3a minutes. These machines, though inferior to some that- are being constructed and used by tho Allies, are very powerful and efficient, but in their latest raids, as on earlier occasions, the Germans seom to have _ restricted themselves to bomb-dropping from a great height. An ofheial report issued from Berlin states that bombs were dropped "on London and Shcerness with good effect," but it is a safe- conclusion that this is a purely speculative assertion,, and that the German aviators liew at such an altitude as to make observation of the. results of, their bomb-drop-ping impossible.

German air attacks on London are apt to command an amount of attention which is sometimes denied to vary much more effective work by the Allies. They must, indeed, be regarded as taki"g a leading place in the enemy's efforts to obscure the fact that in tho essentials of aerialowarfare he is heavily outclassed. It is all the more necessary from the enemy's point of view tlia'c ho should parade his ability to raid the British capital since the Western Allies are developing an aerial offensive against military objectives which has already attained important results, and promises to assume mucli greater importance as time goes on. Such raids as tho Germans have thus far made on London serve no military purpose, unless by chance, and are a feeble answer to the developing Allied offensive. As much may be said of the raids on open tpwrs in Italy which have been resumed within the last few days. Against tho enemy's achievements in killing civilians and destroying buildings, the Allies are able to set a record of definite military advantages gained by the effective use of aerial force on and behind the battlefront and far afield in German territory. A German report, alleges to-day that thirteen Allied aeroplanes wero destroyed in one day on the Western front, but i German reports are never more unreliable than in dealing with aerial events, and the example under notice is probably a fabrication. At all events, ample evidence has been supplied of late' from Allied sources that both in the Western theatre and in Itnly recent air fightng on the battWronts has turned very decidedly a.iainst the enemy." Sir Dougms Haig a day or two'aso reported the destruction of sixteen German aeroplanes, as against one British _machine. 41; the same time the Allies arc heavily and persistently attacking enemy bases, junctions, and aerodromes in Flanders, and have already made numerous attacks upon areen.il' and other seats of ivar mrl.usfcrv in the Uhine valley. The railways through Belgium and Luxemburg—the main communications of the enemy armies on the Western front—have received particular attention. Much of this work lacks the dramatic effect of a raid on London, but it will tell much more heavily on tho course of the war;

The balance to the good which the Allies h.ive established in aerial warfare is not measured only by (heir pronounced superiority oil the battlefronts -and the extent to which their operations exce.-u those of the enemy in magnitude and effect. Measured in this way, and without regard to other considerations, the balance is impressive, but it becomes still more notable when account is taken of factors which materially favour the enemy. Broadly speaking, the Allies are favoured only by their superior material resources and th? admitted superiority of their airmen over those of the enemy._ The enemy on the other hand is at an advantage in being able to.strike at less distant objectives than his antagonists. It is also to be remembered that both in short and long-disUncc raids, Allied aviatorsare subject all the time to observation and counter-attack, and that they have to cross the enemy front in their outward and homeward journeys, while the Germans, at all events in attacking England from their bases in Belgium, are opposed by much less serious difficulties. A short journey over the sea leaves them with 45 miles of English territory to traverse before leaching the suburbs of London. It is a much more formidable undertaking to traverse, more than a hundred miles of hostile territory behind the German front as British squadrons have done in some of their lecent raids on arsenals in tho Rhine valley. Tho more or less spectacular character of tho raids on London should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the Allies are making much more effective use of aerial force than the enemy, and this in spite of the fact tbat he enjoys material advantages which he will lose only when he has been dislodged from his present bases in Belgium * # * ' .#

To-day's news from Russia presents a more than usually hopeless tangle, but it seems rather more likely that the Rumanians and Ukrainians are making some headway in their respective territories, as some reports rkclarc, than that the Bolsheviki are successfully bearing down opposition. The appropriate fruitt of the Bolshevik regime are seen not in military success, but in widespread famine and disease. It is not improbable that the Rumanians now aim at recovering their former province of Bessarabia, and the report whicV declares that they are negotiating peace on the basis of taking Bewarabia and ceding the Dobrudja to Bulgaria may be well founded.

■ Thr Italians report a definite success in tho mountain area where tho enemy exnended his last efforts to break and outflank the Piave line. Apart from its effect m improving their defensive front, the achievement is welcome as strengthening the impression already conveyed by their firm stand on the Piave and in the mountains, ft seems no longer doubtful that the Italians have overcome tho weakness which led to the collapse of their lit'" on the Isonzo.