The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1916. THE GREAT OFFENSIVE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 79, 6 July 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1916. THE GREAT OFFENSIVE.

That the Allies great offensive is no mere flash in fcnc pan is fairly evident from the reports of the last few days' operations oh the Western front, Where 1 ' both Britain and France have beaten back the well-entrenched eri>emy "'and 1 inflicted terrific;.;'losses. sr£er*''tW :! ibrig and ' trying ■ time of jjatienf' waiting oul- armies have gone : through I ,' the'vigorous.'attack now begun has arouse'd a great spirit and wo know that Germany's utter defeat is certain. As the offensive, develops we learn, as never before in history, what a battle of big guns means', and day or night, without cessation, the mighty bombardment of French and British guns smashes the ( enemy and pulverises his entrench-1 ments. The preparation for the present great objective must have entailed enormous work on British munition makers, but now we are able to carry on not only for days but weeks and months of great gun bombardment if necessary to the end the world waits for in fervent hope. So far, the battle is one of big guns first and foremost, saving as much as possible the men of our armies, and it is clear that both British and French artillery of the latest typo outranges and outmatches the guns of the enemy. As in every other phase of ttw warfare (except "frightfulness" in which Germany still excels) in guns and gunnery we have caught up to the preparations of Germany's forty years—and beaten them. According to the French Munitions Minister (M. Thomas), the French have now also the biggest guns in use on the Western front. They are monsters, with a calibre of .'OO millimetres, or nearly 16 inches. That is, they ar,e an inch bigger in calibre than the famous 15-inch naval gun at Dunkirk with which in the bitter early davs of the struggle, the Germans were ac-, customed to land occasional enormous shells on Dunkirk from twenty miles away. M. Thomas says that the Germans do not use guns of a greater calibre than 210, millimetres (say, Sin.) in artillery preparation against the trenches or in open field fighting. "The 305 millimetre (IU-in.), about which so much has been written, is much too cumbersome for operations other than against forts like Douamonfc and Vaux. We have no evidence of any German quick-firing heavy gun—if they have one its effects have not been noticed—but it is a fact, that they have largely discarded their 77 field-gun, although we are using our 75's to an ever-increas-ing extent. I consider the 75 still the finest artillery arm of this war from the standpoint of scientific precision and perfection. In comparing the French and German ordnance one must not forget that our shells contain a far higher proportion of explosive. For instance our 75 -lu-ll liana muck as their 150, and our 151 is eijual to their 210." Britain, too,

is fully holding her place in the field, and a high tribute to what Kitchener's armies are doing was recently. paid by' M. Clemeneeau who says:—j "One renders thanks to .the Eiighsh Fleet because it has been able to an-] nihilate the German menace, to block-, ade the enemy, to assure supplies for our armies. It is true; though silent, its mounting guard is none the lessj full of grandeur. But the English! miracle is not there. The English miracle has not been wrought at sea. Dreadnoughts, cruisers, torpedoes! Well, it is all only the English tradition. But what has made the ancient northern island soar in the esteem and admiration of mankind is thati she has, for the first time in her thou-' sand year's of history, ceased to be an island, ceased to think and act as a mere island. She has embodied herself into the Continent by her fine) handsome men who have heroically held the line in the trenches of Flanders, their short pipes in their teeth, by her guns and her convoys, and, above all, the high serenity with which she has accepted, on our ancient soil, a destiny of pain and bitter struggle. Yes, that is splendid, because it is not at all the work of an hour, but the. inevitable conclusion of a history of ten centuries.' ' Other nations have, on these epic battlefields of Europe, shed more blood than England. Others have undergone assaults more violent, have had to de- ] velop a more desperate heroism be- ' fore the onrush of the Barbarians. But no nation has resolved, with more method of decision to go on to the very end of the task. No nation has experienced so complete 11 metamorphosis in its manners, in the exercise of its rights and its claims to be independent." A special correspondent of the Daily Mail, writing, in May, had the situation well in view, for he wrote: "Evidently the British have only >to be unleashed on the west and the Crown Prince's effort must be arrested. So, too, the Austrians can be concentrated upon Trentino, because no special pressure is being put on them on the east and south-east. There can be only one rational interpretation of these fac'.s, and in France the army and the civilian population realise it so well that they bear the strain without a whisper of complaint. The Allies have now a definite.' ascendancy. 1 ' At' any moment they can reduce the enemy to the defensive on any and every side. But the autumn offensive in Champagne and Artois taught their authors, imany things. They effected more in a fewdays than the Crown Prince has won .on the Meuse in three months. Here, Js ' a measure of the difference of strength to-day. The Germans undertook, | the battle of Verdun'. because they could not contemplate a large operation, and they are now so deeply /involved that they can not draw out. The Allies, oii the other hand, are so bent upon a vastly larger operation, which they hope will be decisive, that they prefer to risk local and momentary losses rather than postpone the day ' when they will be fully ready in common to deliver their knockout blow. It would, therefore, bo unfair to General Joffre and the generals and men directly concerned to regard the straggle north of Verdun as a fair trial of. strength. Vast as are its operations and the sacrifices involved, it w overshadowed by a coming event, mcamparably greater," The day 'for, that event has come.