German Warships in North Sea

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 78, 8 March 1916, Page 5

German Warships in North Sea

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The situation at Verdun has considerably changed, states a semi-of-ficial report to-day from Paris. The enemy has been pressing west from Douaumont, which is about three miles from the Meuse, and he is reported as having crossing the river at Forges which was a salient of the French line. The gain is said to be about 160 yards at the utmost, which may be taken as correct, no doubt, reckoning only upon the distance from Vacheranville, which is on the opposite side of the river. Another message states that big German preparations are in progress for an early attack on the Verdun-Belfort line, but) it would appear that this move has already been put into operation. Forges, it should be explained, is about four miles north of Verdun, and the semi-official report maintains that the incident there is without definite influence on the position at Verdun.

The question again arises. Has the attack on Verdun failed ? Some correspondents maintain it has, while the German press unanimous claim it as a victory. As an attack on Verdun itself, it was a failure, but the enemy is evidently nofc finished yet. The claims to victory which the German papers are boastfully making rest upon the fact that the Germans have driven in the bluntnosed French salient which rested on Etain {ten miles north-easterly from Verdun) and that now, instead of holding a large semi-circular salient which threatened the Metz and Longwy roads from Germany, and which was also a point of advantage for crushing the enemy salient at St. Mihiel, the French occupy a long narrow parallelogram averaging a little over five miles in width and between 12 and, 15 miles in length on the Woevre front. This front extends from the village of Douaumont in a southerly direction towards Freshes and Les Eparges. The Germans having thus straightened this front have greatly strenghtoned their position in the St. Mihel ' salient, the apex of which lies across the Meuse, and thus forms a jumping-off place for an offensive towards the great military training ground of Camp du Chalons, one of the vital centres of France. The occupation of certain villages between Etain and the outer ring of the Verdun forts is of no moment strategically; but the straightening of the German front and the strengthening of the St. Mihiel position are strategically very important.

The enemy is now attempting to envelop Verdun, or get behind it, and while there is no need for alarm, the . news is, to say the least, disconcerting, especially in view of the roseate hues of the early dawn of success which colored recent French statements referring to their confidence.

Latest news confirms the advance of the enemy west of the Meuse. The report of the High Commissioner shows the determination of the Germans, who have compelled the I''rent h to retire to Uethincourt, a village a mile or so west of Forges. Favored by intense bombardment, the enemy arc creeping along the railway line. Further north, on the west side of t!:c river,, the French have also given ground. However, Goose Hill is still in their possession. It is reported that in spite of the fire of French artillery, which inflicted heavy losses, t! o Germans captured Hill 265. East of the Meuse and north of Verdun, an artillery combat is being continued with varying success. .

* From Holland conics the glad news that twenty German warships were observed in the North -Sea. We wonder how far they were away from their own land! Nothing further need be written—the matter is in gotd hands. The British Bulldogs will socn bo on the scent!

0 Tlie Russians continue their successful operations against the Turks in Asia Minor, and have landed troops east of Trebizoncl, and are pursuing the enemy. Of the latest air raid on the east coast of England, it is learned that ninety bombs were dropped indiscriminately on the rural districts, the opinion being hold that on ac-, count of the bad weather the raiders were anxious to get rid of their cargo. The sight of a Zeppenn bombing a. town after a snowstorm was unique, and the Yorkios might well have ejaculated in their luck,: “By goom, lawds!”

The famous “seventy five” which some people say is saving France, gets a good deal of its eflect from the fact that it has some of the qualities of a machine gun, though it hoses out shrapnel instead of single bullets. It can be moved so as to trace a pattern on the ground wjth bursting shells. The French gunners apeak of their “mowing fire,’” their “progressive fire,’’ with which they can follow men up as they charge forward or run away; and of a terrible combination of the two whereby, the battery commander is able to sow any piece of ground with shrapnel so effectually and at sucli short notice, that nothing human upon it, which is not buried head over ears in a trench, can survive- This is. the storm, the dreaded “rafale.” The process of firing the seventy-five and the result is described as follows ,in an interesting article in the current number of Blackwood’s“The battery com* mander rattles off a string of words, containing object range, fuse, and angle of deflection ; while be is yet speaking, the ‘ layers are on to the mark, the fuse-setters are pinching the shell-noses, the breech swings open, the traversing number grasps the worm and wheel gear. And as the captain finishes, on a sharp word of command, each gun, being laid on an axis parallel to its fellows whizzes off without further command a string of ‘ eight shells ’in.'two groups of four, and ceases five. As the last shell leaves the gun the loading number swings open the breech, and stands easy—the whole .process has taken exactly twenty seconds ; and somewhere about two miles off there is a patch of earth the size of Trafalgar Square, every scrap of which has been so beaten by shrapnel bullets that within its area, it is mathematically accurate to say, there is no unprotected living thing.”

What is the size of Germany’s airship licet? On the outbreak of war there were 11 airships, of which tour wore, however, practically obsolete, and in any case recent improvements have entirely outclassed oven the best of' these pre-war types. Although there can be no certainty about the rate of Germany’s airship consruction, there is no doubt she has been building as fast as she could. The riodrichshafen factory on Lake Constance was said to have turned out an airship every three weeks in the first year of the war, and then to have increased its output to one every fortnight.* In addition, the factory at Potsdam was supposed to turn out airships at the rate of one every Jive weeks. At this rate, leaving losses out of account, Germany would have built about 30 by the end of tbe first year of the war, including the earliest types. And if it is assumed that she i 5 still building at the same rate, the greater size and so on of the latest types balancing .improved building facilities, she might have built altogether a gross total of nearly -10 airships, of which about, 30 would have been laid down since August 4, 1011. It is said that as many as 12 were destroyed, in one way or another, daring the first year of the war, and several have been destroyed within the last six months. All these calculations are really only a matter «t guesswork. We can, however, be fairly certain of one. fact—that the losses have not balanced the launchings; that Germany’s airship fh'-t, besides consisting of era It lar superior to those she possessed when ne war began, is a great deal larger than it was then.