PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 92, 15 October 1914, Page 8

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

ANTWERP EXPEDITION A SUPREME GERMAN EFFORT. Piecing together the cabled details, it seems that on Saturday, 3rd October, Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, visited Antwerp, and that the expedition to that city of the British Naval Brigade followed. The Morning Post considers that Mr. Churchill's activities, in fields that do not concern him, do not conduce to good working. The Times defends Mr. Churchill, but not on military grounds. It seems that when the British marines and naval forces, travelling via Ostend and Ghent, reached Antwerp, th» outer forts had already fallen. That is to say, the deciding factor — the occupation of positions within the outer ring, from which the enemy could bombard the city— had already been attained. There arose, as anticipated, a conflict between the military pugnacity of the garrison and the peace and property instincts of the citizens, with their natural regard for their unentrenched families i and their unprotected buildings. The citizen-spirit won. Thus the issue was really decided by the time the naval brigade arrived. TRAPPED IN A HOPELESS TASK. Nevertheless, the British seamen considered it their duty to strike a few unavailing blows on behalf of a city which deemed defence worse than surrender. It seems that the marines' were first oil the scene, and were hanging on to their positions against huge numerical superiority, although the Belgian withdrawal , had left their flank exposed. The inevitable retreat began on Thursday, 3rd October, when many of the British, falling back under German fire, entrained for, Ghent. The danger was that they would find the communications cut by I the Germans, who (as the cablegrams have already described) had foTced a passage over the river Scheldt from the south, between Antwerp and Ghent. From the moment that the Belgian field army failed to prevent the crossing of the Scheldt, forces retiring from Antwerp along the only line of retreat (westward) were liable to find the Germans drawn up across the route in a cordon stretching from the Sheldt to the Holland frontier. A glance at any map will show that, in these circumstances, the 'Antwerp garrison must be trapped. To cut the line of retreat was, of course, part of the object of the Germans in fighting so fiercely to cross the Scheldt. Most, if not all, of those British naval men who entrained on Thursday, Bth October, seem to have got through safely to Ghent, thence to Ostend and back to Britain. Those who did not retreat till next day, Friday, .found the way barred by the Germans. South of them was the Scheldt, westward the Germans, behind them Antwerp, north of them Holland. They had no course but to cross the Dutch frontier and be interned. In front of them were too many Germans to allow any possible chance of cutting their way through. < Generally speaking, it may be said that the naval brigade would probably have failed in any case to save Antwerp, because of the attitude of Antwerp citizens. As it was, the brigade arrived too late — the naval heavy guns, it is now cabled, were never even mounted — and stayed too long. It should be added, though, that possibly the detention in the fort and trenches of the men who failed to escape was due to a necessity to fight a delaying action. GALLANTRY OF THE SEAMEN. Considered in the light of the evident hopelessness of the defence, the gallantry of the naval rearguard is amazing. It found a fort that the Belgians had abandoned. That was good enough for the British seamen, and they manned it. It is true that the old Krapp guns (firing black powder) in the Antwerp forts and intervening redoubts were no match for the new Krupps usud by the enemy, but that did not deter the 400 men who filled the vacancy left by the Belgians. Their comrades — number not etated — occupied the flanking bomb-proof trenches, which had been so well turned out by their Belgian constructors that the losses caused by the German fire were light. So, also, was the manning of the trenches. In fact, it became the business of the defenders to bluff the Germans, who, had they known the Brnallness of the defending force, would probably have decided the question at once with a massed attack. But though all assaults were repelled on the Thursday with heavy loss, by the Friday the British had had to quit the trenches, and the party in the fort had to follow them. Of the 400 men in the fort, only 200 reached Holland, and probably other parties suffered similarly. It is now stated that 1560 British are interned in Holland. SOLDIERING AND SYMPATHY. From the military standpoint, there seems to be little to be said for the eleventh-hour despatch of an expedition into a potential trap,' for a purpose which was impracticable because of the position and temper of Antwerp's citizens, if not impossible. Armed as it was, the defence of Antwerp could not be considered apart from supporting operations by a field army, which seems to be a matter quite outside the sphere of a First Lord of the Admiralty. Even The Times says that the composition and equipment of the Antwerp force are open to comment. One of the cablegrams states that the naval brigade was without field and machine guns. The other pomt — demonstration of sympathy with Belgium — is admirable in principle. But is there much to be gained by sympathetic action the success of which is, to put it mildly, remote? If Mr. Churchill was responsible for the expedition, he must have been completely misled by the citizens of Antwerp on 3rd October, or else he took a course the military wisdom of which it would be difficult to disbover. GERMAN COUNTER-ATTACK AND FATE OF OSTEND. Yesterday the Franco-Belgian position was that the German cavalry were at Ghent and the Allies at Lille, and the Germans (mostly cavalry) on the plain between Lille and DunkirK were reported to be in retreat. The question was whether the Allies could cover Ostend. Most of the evidence to-day is in the direction of a negative answer to that question. The Belgian Government has made a third removal, from Ostend to Havre (in France, on the Channel coast). The German occupation of Ghent was tho result of heavy fighting with the Belgian field army south-east of that town, and it is presumed that the Belgians have retired westward. Whether they have functioned with the FrancoBritish forces is not clear. They may bo prevented from doing sc by a new offensive movement of the Germans on the Franco-Belgian frontier, where they have captured Lille. Meanwhile 'the Germans advancing via Ghent have pushed their patrols northwest to Ecloo and Bruges, heading for Ostend and the Belgian coast. It now appears unlikely that the Allies can for the present protect this coasfcline. The Naval Brigade that retreated from Antwerp, via Ghent, to the coast, has taken ship and has reached England. ' While the Germans advancing via Ghent are on the point of seizing the Belgian coast territory, the adjoining coastal district of France, between Lille and Dunkirk, continues to be a scene

of conflict between the Allies and their old enemy General Yon KluCt,. Yon Kluck's army holds the extreme right of the German position in France. In its latest fighting in the triangle marked out by Dunkirk, Dixmude, and Ypres, it is reported to have failed to cut the Allies' lines. The Germans from Ghent, marching on Ostend behind Yon Kluck, will act as his support. If the Belgian field army is caught between those two bodies of Germans, its outlook will be gloomy The linking-up of the German .•trniies in France with those in Belgium is now almost complete. A strategic readjustment should result. DOUBLE OFFENSIVE AGAINThe throwing of a German army corps into Lille, crushing the limited garrison there, will, according to a Paris message, not affect the Allies' battle-front. But it suggests ■ a vigorous offensive policy by Germany ; and this idea is supported by the statement of The Times that during the last ten days the German armies in France have been heavily reinforced, and that they are determined to make an heroic struggle again to strike their enemies to the ground in the east and west simultaneously. 1o make this supreme effort they have drawn on young men and old, and can put into the firing line the greater part of 1,500,000; but the Franco-British Allies still retain, "a marked numerical preponderance." If the Germans are really bent on the double offensive, they are pitting military efficiency against numerical superiority. Realising that the disparity in numbers will continually incre.vse to their own disadvantage, they wish to accomplish all they can before winter sets in. Also, they seek to accomplish something big to check the drift of Italy towards the Entente side. An official message ("reliable" brand) says that the Germans are moving heavy guns from Antwerp to their extreme left wing. Their extreme left wing, in the large sense, is Alsace, where, so far as the cablegrams disclose, there has been "nothing doing" for a long time. It may be that some new move is contemplated, but the statement must be discounted until confirmation is forthcoming. Paris claims that the Allies are holding the heights of the Meuse east of Verdun. The Germans state that they hold Etain, which is twelve miles east by north of Verdun. Their claim concerning an advance in the Argonne sounds less credible. BATTLE OF THE VISTULA. In the eastern theatre fighting has developed along a line Tunning through the heart of Russian Poland and south to Galicia, near Przemysl. In Poland the Russians hold a front <m*~tbe left or west bank of the Vistula, and an important point therec-m is Skierniewice, where sanguinary fighting is reported. In the Russian rear are the Vistula strongholds, Warsaw and Ivangorod. The line indicated shows that Germany still holds a large slice of Russian Poland. She is determined to fight as long as possible, on both fronts, in the enemy's country. At the south end of the Poland-Gali-cia front, no further statement is forthcoming concerning the reported raising of tho siege of Przemysl. The report that Russia met with a check in Galicia is neither confirmed nor denied.