PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 236, 24 June 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

No appreciable change is disclosed in the state of affairs on the Austro-Italian front. . That is to say the Austrians as matters stand arc still vainly striving to retrieve the failure of their offensive in its first phase, and if they arc about to enter upon a new effort will do so with diminished prospects/ Detail reports show that the enemy is firmly hold at Montello, where the Italian;, liavo made successful counterattacks, and has been no more successful in the struggle that is bcin;> obstinately maintained along tk Piavo farther south. Ono messago observes that the enemy still hat. largo reserves behind the mountain front and may resume his efforts to break into the plain west of the Piave. There is, in" fact, very little doubt that although practically all tho later fighting has taken shape along the Piave, it is on the mountain front between that river and the Trentino that the enemy may he expected to concentrate his main efforts. Tho Italians have presumably made their dispositions accordingly, and though tho fluctuating struggle on the Piave line is by no means unimportant, it is in all likelihood of secondary importance, viewing the field of operations as a whole. * * * <» An American authority is credited to-day with the statement,' made before a military conference, that so far as the United States is concerned tho war will begin next September. The reference, of course, is to the American Array in the Western theatre, and if it means, as no doubt it does, that the army under

General Pershinq's command will be ready in that month to act as an independently organised striking force, it conveys decidedly good news. American units are already, taking an important part in the Western campaign—the message just quoted mentions that in the aggregate they arc now holding twentyeight miles of front—but this is irrespective of the organisation anil training of the American Army which is proceeding simultaneously.' If America, besides contributing a considerable number of troops to bo brigaded with Allied units, throws a con.sidcr.ablo army into the scale in September next she will exceed expectations formed in the early part of this year, Although the period of good weather will then bo drawing to an end, the appearanceof such an army at that time may easily be of signal servico to the Allies, and apart from the material value of its co-operation, tho moral effect upon tho enemy—an effect intensified by the knowledge that the ''American strength will be largely increased during the succeeding winter—should also bo potent. i

Veiiy great, importance attaches to the proposal that American .aeroplanes destined for Europe shall fly across the Atlantic by way of the Azores and Portugal, instead of being carried on board ship. Aeroplanes lake up a great deal of shipping space, and if there were no other way of getting them over the Atlantic the problem of transportation would necessarily become- acute ■when a full volume of production was attained in the United States. If the hope that American aeroplanes will be ■ able to fly tho Atlantic next summer is realised, the problem of transportation will be solved. The big aeroplanes Ifkely , to prove equal to this achievement are, of course, precisely those for which it would be most difficult to provide adequate shipping transport.

In one of to-day's messages some particulars are given of losses sustained by the enemy in the most recent battles in the Western theatre. A more detailed survey dealing with German losses in, the Somme region and in the Lys salient was issued in London in the middle, of May. It stated that in the period under review there had ken 206 German divisions on the West front, of which 126 had actually been engaged on the Sbnime and Araentieres fronts. "The Two Hundred and Eighth German Division," it is added, "which was one of those suffering most heavily, lost 70 per cent, of its effectives. Seven other German divisions are known to have lost more than 60 per cent., and at least seven other divisions arenamed as having lost 40 to 50 per cent. Only forty men to the company were left in the One Hundred and Nineteenth Division after the fighting of March 22 and 2~3. The First Division was in similar straits after reaching Sailly-Laurette on March 2S, and the Two Hundred and Thirty-fourth Division was weakened similarly on April 6.i One regiment of the Fourth Ersatz Division virtually was annihilated on April 9, and there are many instances of companies and battalions which disappeared almost completely. In a five-page closely typewritten list of losses, to German regiments and divisions engaged in tho offonsivo, which have been substantiated by British intelligence officers, there is hardly an instanco where the losses were not so large as to cause serious crippling of the efficiency of the unit. While it is impossible to mako from thesu figures any exact estimate of the total German losses, it is sufficiently evidont that the enemy casualties have been exceedingly heavy. Onenvidence of this fact is that the Germans, after calling upon all available reserve depots in the Western area, hpo already been compelled to draft into crippled divisions men drawn from Germany itself, including those of tho 1920 class. From this it may be concluded that tho demand for men to replace losses has been greater than reserve centres could supply."