THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17280, 22 September 1916, Page 4

THE CAMPAIGNS.

It is difficult to say what importance attaches to the special order issued by ron Falkenhny'n in An'inst’,. enj-b-i.n'.ng economy' of. guns and sheik, because’ the instruction nitty have been merely » precautionary one. Tho Germans had been losing guns in the Sohmio ftghtiug and the. Austrians' had /lost many in Yolhynia and Galicia and on the Isotizo, and the deficiency had to be made good; Figures published yesterday show the ex tell t of those, losses. The Russian captures numbered “841 guns and • 1580 machine gnus, and as the brcak-througli in Yolhynia , gave them scores of heavy guns as well .as field artillery the Austrian contribution to the “bag” was really serious. In Franco the Germans’lost ovey 250’guns of all calibres, ds well ds nearly a thousand machine guiifp. : Apart .from tlioi capture of pieces ” tho direct wastage through ■ 5-Jielt-fi.ro is always serious when tlio fighting- is hot and there is a- further heavy -wastage through wear and tear. , In these circumstances tho German General Staff may well have urged tho necessity for economy, because tho enemy, has no access to foreign manufacturers as the /Ulies have and the blockade niust liavo caused a; shortage if' not a dearth of material. On’ special occasions the concentration of guns in this .war had reached extraordinary nroportiousd A thousand guns have been massed on a narrow front, as when the Germans opened their offensive on the Biala last year, and we. .have, not the slight’c§b .doubt that tho present I’ rancoBritish offensive is maintained by jtho aid of a.concentration of artillery surpassing anything previously attempted. Sir Douglas Haig in a recent communique spoke* of the enemy’s defences as being supported by upwards of a thousand gnus, and yet wo have repeatedly been told that the feature of the lighting has been the overwhelming superiority of the British •artillery. r l’hA communioues reuorfc e series of

German counter-af lacks, "apparently tho greatest and most sustained of tho enemy’s efforts since the beginning of July. Sir .Douglas Haig dismisses- the assaults on the British front in a few words, but the principal fighting was on tho French front north of the Somnioi where the enemy used artillery and infantry throughput the. day, retiring 'beaten at nightfall without having recovered any of tho ground ho lmd lost. Other sectors" are now being mentioned in the reports— Champagne and Vosges—though nowhere do the affairs mfntioned appear to have attained any magnitude. ; There is little t<» report from tho eastern theatre. Much fighting has occurred on tho Rumanian front, but our reports give no details. The Austrians claim to have rtboeupied Petroseny and to ho vancing towards tho Ynllcan Pass, the Rumanian column on that sector being presumably a weak one, operating in advance of the main body, whose function it would be merely to- defend the approach -to the frontier. _ Both Rumanian and Bulgarian messages indicate that there has been severe fighting in the Dobrudja. The position in Macedonia is developing normally. ■