PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 148, 24 June 1915, Page 7

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

LEMBERG REPORTED TAKEN NO CHANCE OF HOLDING IT. THE RUSSIANS ON THE DNIESTER. The chief item of news to-day is the Austrian official report that Lemberg has been captured. There is up to the present no Russian report to the same effect ; in fact, direct references to the Leinberg crisis are conspicuously absent from the Russian communiques, which deal with numerous other parts of the great Russian front. There is little room foi' doubt as to the truth of the enemy report, which is actually support, ed by the Russian silence. A Petvogrnd correspondent explains that the immediate defences of the city, in the shape of field works, were of reduced value owing to the nearness of the eloselypopnlated city behind. That is to sax, the enemy would very rapidly inflict such punishment upon the civil side of the city that the military jvould be forced to give up the defence. In effect, this is an admission that Leinberg was utterly lost when the Grodelc line, 15 miles to the west, was abandoned. Nobody knew this better than the Russian commanders, and, according to the message, the military stores in the, city were all sent away in anticipation of the disaster. I By their entry into Lcmberg, the enemy are promptly given control of four direct railways leading to the Russian frontier, and more serious still, of three which, it they can be made use of. will take the Russian positions on the Dniester in the rear. The point of greatest interest now is not so much the fall of Lembei'g, which has been inevitable for some time, but whether the Russians can save their Dniester armies, which extend from Bukowina to a point due south of Lemberg. If they can do so, the retreat will have been carried out in a masterly fashion under very unfavourable conditions. If they do not, the disaster of the loss of Lemberg may be made far more serious by a great loss of personnel and valuable material. NEW GERMAN WARSHIPS. ' A very pretty bogey has been raised by "a German naval officer," for the benefit of an American newspnper, regarding the increase of the German liavy. The palticulars given in the message, which was published in yesterday's Post,, are ■nell calculated to startle" anyone who is not acquainted with the details of the German navy : but there ' is nothing in, them. Except for what is incorrectly stated, the matter in quee» tion tells nothing which has nob been known for months, and most of it was deducible from even as early a-s 'the beginning of last jear. In fact, anyomwith a little patience and a. spice of imagination could ' have written it up from any one of several handbooks ' obtainable at any ordinary bookshop. The story the anonymous German tells includes the following :— •" Germany has recently completed and commissioned a battleship of 25,600 tons and a. battleship of 26,200 tons of the Derfllinger class, with a speed of twenty-eight knots. Both carry 15* inch guns. Germany has also completed two fast cruisers, and also four Dreadnoughts. A number of battlecruisers will be completed at the end of the year, armed with even heavier than 15-inch guns. Twenty-four 1200-ton submarines havo been constructed since the beginning of the war, with a. surface, speed of twenty knots, and a submerged speed of sixteen knots. They carry four torpedo tubes, ahd two heavy quickfirers. One of the latter has made the run to the Dardanelles. Twelve 800toivncrs and twelve mall submarines have atao been completed, and half arc commissioned." It is unfortunate thai the wrjter of this letter did not make his ships as big as the official figures in the naval year-books do, but that is a detail. Ho makes up for it in the size of the gun*, and in other ways. As far as the big ships are concerned, it is best to take first the " four Dreadnoughts," 1 which are thrown 'in, after the light 'cruisers, almost n£ an afterthought. These are the Ivonig (launched Ist March, 1913). Grosser Kurfurst (sth May. 1915), Markgraf (4th June, 1913), and Kronprinz (21st February 1 , 1914). Each is of 26,575 tons, and is armed with ten 12-inch guns. Regarding theseships, the Naval Annual says : " The. class are not remarkable for any striking development in type, and as regards the main features, the progress made since the launch of the Nassau (1908) appears to be less than in other countries." These four are not " wonderships." They are interesting a& being the iasfc of Germany's programme of vessels, armed with 12-inch guns. Britain's adoption of 13.5 and 15-inch guns wtfen Germany began using the 12iiich gave this calibre only brief popularity in the German navy. FIFTEEtf.INCH GUNS. The battleship first referred to by the! officer is cither the ErsaU Worth' (i.e., vessel to replace the Worth, which is no longer in service) 'or the "IV These two ships are believed to have been commenced in September. ]914; and they were almost certainly not "ordered" be'foro the end of 1913. They are to be of about 2p,000 tons, or perhaps more, and armed' with eight 15-inch guns, »o that they arc closely allied in power to the Queen Elizabeth, though probably not so large. The question is whether either ot them has been completed; and unless the pre-war knowledge of the«o matters was hopelessly wrong, it is most unlikely. It takes practically ft year \o "build" a warship to the launching stage, and Another year to "complete her ; and it is quite impossible to hurry the time much, whatever may appear to be done. The great armour plates, for instance, take a very long time to produce, owing to the lengthy heat treatment which is essential : and they cannot woll be turned out in less than a, year and a-half from the time of. giving the order. That, of course, cannot bo lodged till tho plans of the vessel are complete. As to when that was, one may hazard a guess from the fact that the lusl British 15-inch gun ship, "Big Lizzie. %> was laid down in October, 1912. and launched in October, 1913. If the Germans have completed one of these ships, they have certainly not wasted any time. At the beginning of 1914, as' far as the compilers of tho Naval Annual knew, these ships had not been begun. The Daily Mail Year Book bliows that they wore laid down in September of thai year: and it is just possible thai one has been rushed through. H.M.S. Dreadnought, it may be remembered, only took ton months from laying down to completion. But she was a sut'pri&o sbiy m every sense of tho word, int£iidc4.

to be a surprise ; and this apparent speed was achieved only by having a great deal of the heavy work done ahead of time. : "SEVERAL BATTLE-CRUISERS." - Then there is a battle-cruiser of 26,200 tons, of the Derfflinger class, and she, t<», is to have 15-inch guns. This is, Btibject to, error in the matter of guns, the Lutzow, laid down in July,' 1912, and launched in November, 1913. She qjight to have been completed some time ago. But she, like the Derfßingev, was designed for eight 12-inch guns ; and a. vessel intended for 12-inch guns cannot have 15-inch guns put into her — unless the owners want her to wreck herself at once. Incidentally, these vessels are of 28,000 tons. Similarly, "a number of battle-cruisers, armed with even heavier than 15-inch guns," to be completed at the end of the year, have to, be taken with salt as to the size of their guns. Two more Derfflingers are building. One was laid down in June, 1913, and might be finished this year (these vessels are longer a-building than battleships, apparently), and the other was begun in May, 1914, and will certainly not get to work till 1916. In order to provide "several" of these battlecruisers, we may include the Greek ship Salamis, 19,200 tons, eight 14-inch guns, built at Stettin, and taken over by Germany. To say that these vessels are to have guns even larger than 15inch is more absurd than to say that the 12-inch gun ship Lutzow is to carry 15-inch guns. The next size in Krupps is 16-inch ; and roughly, this gun weighs two and a-half times as much as the 12-inch. The 15-inch is very nearly twice as heavy as the 12-inch. .In thus cataloguing the new heavy ships, the anonymous writer has not gone beyond the vessels known to be in hand ; in fact, he has missed one, a vessel like the Worth and the T, laid down in May, 1914. _ -The fast cruisers referred to are the Gefion and the Hela, which are boats of about 5000 tons, much like the Karls- j ruhe, and armed with ten 4.1-inch guns. A couple more of these vessels should be under construction.