THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 41, 17 August 1916, Page 6

THE WAR

The comprehensive and clear statement by tho new Minister of Muni : tions, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, on tho British munitions supply is, in its way, as gratifying as the recent financial statement by Mr. M'Kenna. The simple statistics of the Minister give a good idea of the enormous- increase that has taken place in the production of guns, shells, and explosives. They are most eloquent testimony, not only to the wonderful, organisation of British industry responsible for such results, but to the willing response of tho workers, especially the women, to the call for labour in making the supplies. Even yet t-hs enormous output is not sufficient' for all needs. "The Ministry's programme will not be completed until the number of guns has been increased many times,' and the ammunition is sufficient to maintain an indefinite offensive along the whole front." But the steps already taken towards that ideal are enormous.

Britain is now independent of "America for 18-pounder shell (the nature used in the greatest number), and no doubt the time is fast approaching when the supply of heavy projectiles will, as the Minister says, be pro-fided by the British and Canadian factories. But/Lord Montagu makes it plain that even yet ■the supply is far short of that ideal which will alone be a perfect safeguard for a general offensive—a, steady supply as rapid as the consumption in a. great offensive on the whole front. The extent of the offensive possible is limited only by the quantity of ammunition regularly available. It is not sound policy to depend upon accumulated stocks if the attack is likely to be protracted. They may be exhausted at the most critical stage, whereas their proper purpose, like that of reserve troops, is to come into use at that critical stage. There cau not be too great a supply of munitions. The output now is evidently great "enough to remove the fears that once expressed themselves throughout the Empire; but it is still too small to fill to satiety the greedy mouths of the artillery.

It is notable, that the Minister has nothing to say about 'Russia's munitions supply. It is' probably the weakest link at present in the Allies-.' chain; nor is this surprising. The native 'manufacture of shells has had to be organised upon a modem scale upon a comparatively slender skeleton, and while if, is ho doubt many times greater than was, before tho war, ever thought likely, it is incapable of supplying anything like the needs of the campaign. Russia, with her huge "European and Asiatic dominionsj has but two or three ports in use; yet "those ports are the gates through which her vital shell supply is.coming. Notwithstanding the growth of the home industry, the Russian offensive could not have been undertaken

without the stream of war material that has been steadily flowing, month lifter month, from tho'TJinted States and J it-path -The iniirvcl ia that so much lm»

been accomplished on the East front, especially in view of the skill the enemy has in moving his troops rapidly from point to point for the better defence of threatened sectors.

It appears that the Russians were not in a position to use gun ammunition in anything iike the lavish way thai has become the .rule on the West front.. Little is , heard, for instance, ot "barrages" or curtains of fire, which at times are said to have isolated areas on thb Somme for days at a time. Mr. Stanley Washburn, the British press correspondent with the Russian armies, made an important contribution to our knowledge of the Russian, armies in Juno, during the fighting roiinrl Lutsk. H& pointed out ihat "hurricane fire" v.as rarely used, and that the Russian gunners, aided by the closeness of the front lines to the enemy trenches, carutully cheeked all their shots. "There lias probably been the most economic use of ammunition on any of the fronts in this war, commensurate with the lesuits, during these advances. . . . Avenues were cut through the .barbed wire at frequent intervals along the line, through which the attacks were pressed 'home and the flanking trenches and the labyrinths-Were taken in the rear or on the flanks before the Austrian.? were able to effect their escape. The line' once broken, the Russians moved steadily forward, taking Lutsk six days after the first attack, and one division reaching its maximum advance of 48 miles just ten days after the first offensive movement."

'Between the systems adopted in the West and in the East t-heve is the widest difference. In France, where the ammunition supply is extremely generous, and the gun's are in huge numbers, the enemy's front is literally deluged with shells. Fine shooting at definite targets is not the object; the idea of the batteries is to cover every inch of ground within certain areas, concentrating upon the German trenches ;. and .thus inevitably the whole of the defensive works are shattered, and the men within them either hit or robbed of most of their fighting power. As far as tlr. immediate advance is concerned, this plan results in the capture of positions with a minimum cost to the infantry. The heavier losses occur in later stages when the enemy endeavours to recover his losses. But the Russian tactics, as described by Sir. Washburn, are dictated by the possession of a shell supply which is insufficient for such- a magnificent expenditure. It places" good shooting' on a higher plane, and calls for greater •work, in the earlier -stages, from the infantry. We know nothing of the losses the Russians suffered in breaking, largely by sheer hand-to-hand fighting, through the enemy's front. But it is quite certain that if the same tactics were tried on the West front to-da.y they would fail utterly, as they have failed already. That the Russians succeeded is proof that the enemy lines were held in far fewer numbers -when the great attack was made Jlian is the case in the' West. The Russian infantry, driving through the gaps made by their artillery, found foes sufficiently few to be reasonably handled, in spite of the fact that the enemy had cover and the Russians none. In France, such an entry of the trenches would mean, the closing in _of great forces in the grip of which the invaders would be crushed as fast as they swarmed through the breaches.

The magnificent advance of nearly fifty miles in ten days in the Lutsk region was the due reward for a display of heroism on the part of the Russians not yet adequately recognised. But it was followed by a gathering of reserves from every _ possible sector. Germans and Austrians were hurried up from north, south, and west. Mr. Washburn tells of a statement that one unit was brought from Verdun in six days. Against this strengthened line the Russians have been, able to 'make but little progress in the ensuing weeks, but they have persistently battled on, trusting to their phenomenal success in Galicia to carry on the work so well begun in Volhynia.