PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 38, 15 February 1915, Page 8

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN ANOTHER BLOW FOR WARSAW. THE EAST PRUSSIAN MOVEMENT. Such brief messages as are to hand regarding the operations in East Prussia confirm the news received on Saturday regarding the retirement of the Russians upon their fortresses. These fortresses, of which the chief (apart from Warsaw) are Loniza, Grodno, and Kovno, form & line roughly corresponding with the Prussian frontier and distant twenty to fifty miles from it. The retirement is reported to be in progress, in good order; and there is no indication that the Russians are being pressed by the enemy. It may be accepted that the movement is based upon a well calculated decision; but whether the recent accumulation of the four additional army corps in East Prusia came us a surprise to the Russian leaders (as several previous acts have done) is not deducible. There is nothing rash about the Russian generalship. ' As a writer in the Fortnightly Review puts it, "The conduct of the campaign on the Russian side has been marked by a combination of caution and resource which has repeatedly saved the situation when it seemed to be well nigh lost. The Grand Duke Nicholas (Commander-in-Chief of the Russians) has acted throughout the operations of the past month with a cool and calculating judgment, which has never allowed his adversary to profit by the- initial advantage, which he possessed, of being able to act on the offensive. We have been witnessing a duel between two strategists, one of whom has been always ' attacking, and the j other always defending, meeting thrust j with counter-thrust, ' refusing to take j risks, and never accepting battle at strategical disadvantage. Never once has the Russian Generalissimo placed his men in a false position, or made demands on their services to which they were unable to respond. . . On his side, the German commander has played his cards with consummate skill ; but there is this difference between him and his adversary, thafy while he has played out the whole of his hand, the Grand Duke has still many of his best cards left to lay on the table." This new development is exactly in accord with the estimate thus clearly set out regarding the methods of the Grand Duke Nicholas. He found his army faced with too great odds, and before allowing them to join battle, he retired them to a place where he will not be at a strategical disadvantage. THE KAISER AND THE GENERAL. Yon Hindenberg is an acknowledged master of strategy; and though he has been at times defeated, and often totally checked, and has seldom' won an important battle in this campaign, his great schemes ■ have not been rash. Where he has failed he has been outgeneralled and out- fought, and he has pursued soundly the firm German military policy of the continuous offensive. No sooner was one blow parried than he prepared and launched i another. The East Prussian movement is one of his replies to the defeat of his long ■ and bitter struggle to reach Warsaw ; and it is quite likely that activity will burst out somewhere else directly, to engage the Russians in the hope of dividing their strength, and catching them at a disadvantage. It does not seem likely that it will be again in Central Poland. The Kaiser and hie square-faced General are eaid to have been in conference at Insterburg, and the Kaiser is reported to have ordered another attempt to bo j made this week to capture Warsaw. Now, the Kaiser has not shown himself to be a strategist at all. If he ordered that movement without the advice of the General, then he merely fell r« vic-tim-to a mania for "taking somewhere at any cost," and the idea does not seem any more likely to .-succeed than it has done already. If ', on . the other hand, he made the order on Yon Hindenberg's suggestion, it is a fair assumption that no such idea is in contemplation. To announce such a plan and not mean it has been a favourite device of the enemy. To make an announcement and act up to it on theauppoeition that the Allies have grown too clever to be "had" by the original trick is of coure» a possible alternative, but it would be dangerous to adopt it. Yon Hindenberg probably knows that he is not dealing with childish generals, however successful such threats may be in disturbing the less intelligent classes. ON AUSTRIAN GROUND. Elsewhere on the Russian fronts no important changes are reported. Of the line between Central Poland and the Carpathians little has" been heard for some time ; and it is probable that since the great German pressure on the Bzura necessitated the stoppage of the Russian offensive on Silesia (for it did succeed so far, even to the retirement of some of the Russian forces) both sides have been merely holding their ground. Such was the need for all the possible strength in the German offensive along the Vistula, and on the line of the Carpathians in Galicia, that in the centre the German forces were specifically ordered not to take the offensive, so that a minifiium of men were needed there. Ever since, the operations on the Bzura and in the mountains — the vain efforts to smash the Russian flanks —-have been so severe that neither side appears to have been in a position to send new forces to the centre. In the Carpathian campaign there appears to be little alteration. Neither side has made any marked progress for some days. There is a little information about Bukowina, in which district the Russians were reported last week to be retiring, with the prospect of not being able to stop till they reached Czernowitz. They are now said to have been strongly reinforced at that city, and apparently the original report holds good, and they have lost a lot of ground. A certain amount of prestige goes with it, but probably nothing much more, calculating the ups and downs by the large units which are now commonplace in this enormous war. The field is one of such magnificent distances that the retirement is much less significant than it would have been in other conflicts. Here, too, the retrograde movement of Che Russians appears to have been strategical Tather than forced, for had the enemy driven them ■ back we should ceTtainly have had official mention of it in an Austro-German bulletin. , IN THE WEST. The French front shows no change. There is the usual budget of small news relating to bombardments. The enemy was repulsed at Arracourt, close to the frontier east of Nancy; and the French captured a hill near Sudelle, in the Vosges, and made a measurable advance. Two German columns are reported to be advancing along the River Lauch, which lies to the north and south of Colmar, in Alsace, parallel with the Rhine. The size of these forces is not indicated. MASTERS OF THE AIR. It is stated that when a new invention appeared in Germany, the authorities, having their eyes ever upon the coming conquest of Europe, asked one question : "What use is it in war?" Of aircraft they asked this question, and their belief in the possibilities was unbounded. That their faith was well grounded has been proved in a, multitude of incidents; but the finest proofs have been afforded not by their own machines and men, but by their enemies. German aviators and, asronautfl

have made a number of raids, but have done very littl© damage proportionately to the effort and cost involved. They have achieved the grand feat of assaulting English soil ; but it had little effect beyond arousing angry derision. The Allies' flyers have had much the better of the duel. Among the places which have^been visited by French, and British flyers — all in aeroplanes — and damaged in tho military sense, are Freidrichshafen (the Zeppelin depot on Lake Constance), Freiburg (another airstation in South-West Germany), Dusseldorf, Essen, a whole galaxy of places in Belgium and the German-held part of France, and Guxhaven. In every case the Allies' raids were aimed at" military stations. The great air-raid on the Belgian coast, just reported, is by far the most important, as a purely air operation, yet carried out, and in its great success and freedom from loss eclipses even the extraordinary cruiser, submarine, and aeroplane attack on Cuxhaven. It supplies ample proof that the air is as kind to the British as the sea. It is well known among those who are interested in flying that the British flying corps possesses a type of machine which for positive stability in the air is equal to, if it does not surpass, any other aeroplane in the world ; and the Government factories are said to hare turned out also a wonderfully fine engine. Both these, no doubt ; are factors in the success of the British flying men 3 but they are useless without gifted aviators, filled with great daring and a truly national sense of proportion. That the French flyer is a gifted and brave performer has also been amply proved; and there has not yet been another feat to equal in vividness that reported to-day, when one French pilot with a gunner beside him brought down, in quick succession, three German machines. While on the subject of aeroplanes, it is interesting to notice that, according to^the report of an American aviator (Mr. F. C. Hild), who is with the French aviation corps, some well known types of machine have been utterly rejected by the French Army. These are the Rep, Bleriot, Nienport, and Deperdussin. All who were flying or learn- j ing to fly these types were ordered to transfer at once to Morane Saulnier (monoplane), or Henry Farman, Maurice Farman, Caudron, or Voisin biplanes.