BEST YET.

Evening Star, Issue 16231, 28 September 1916, Page 6

BEST YET.

OUR SOMITE ADVANCE. !RR£S!STBBLE PROGRESS, THE BALKAN STRUGGLE. ZEPPELSMS. [By Cp.racus.] Our latest Somme successes are unquestionably the best yet. better even than those secured by our last attack. Fresh captures are still being reported, and we are now in possession of Gucudecourt village, only three miles due south of Bapaume, and also of the famous village of Thiepval, which has out for so long. The Hohonzollexn Redoubt and a, high ridge to the cast of Thiepval have also been captured, and we have progressed towards the village of Eaucourt l'Abbye, about two miles west of GueudecouTt. Between three and fourthousand prisoners are already reported captured by tho British. Tho French also have made further progress. The later cables yesterday announced that they had participated with tho British in capturing the whole of Combles with enormous booty, and also the whole of Fregicourt. To-day it is announced that they have seized a small wood to the north of Fregicourt and nearly the whole of the ground between that wood and the wood of St. Pierre Vaast, to the east of the great road which runs through Peronne, Bapaume, Arras, and Bethune, and which is known as the Bethune road. Thus the British have so far reported the capture of Thiepval, with a high ridge to the east, and the ilohenzollern Redoubt, Gueudecourt, Les Boeufs, Morval, and, in conjunction with the French, Combles, with nearly 4,CCO prisoners. The French, besides co-operating in the capture of Combles, have capterred Fregicourt and Baneourt, with considerable stretches of ground and 2,0C0 prisoners. They have also carried a small wood cast of Vermond Ovillers, to the south of the Somme. So about 6,C00 prisoners all told are already reported, and the returns are not yet complete. It will be noticed that: in this, as in the last stroke, the greater successes have been gained by the British. This is- the result of tlic more favorable ground we have won, and as the ground slopes gently away to the north and east almost as far as tho coast, there need be no doubt of our ability to'keep it up. IRRESISTIBLE. There is sometliing remorseless and irresistible- about tho present tactics of the Allies and an inability to check them on the part of the enemy, which shows conclusively that they are completely overmatched .and without disposable reserves with which to redress the balance. Our leaders mark off certain rectors of the enemy's positions. There is a period of preparation, a period of terrific bombardment, then a fierce assault,. and in a few hours our programme is accomplished in almost every detail. Then'the whole business commences over again, and the enemy, with full knowledge and ample warning of what is com in::, are quite unable to parry the stroke?. ' Vv« are now within three miles of Bapaume, which, like Combles, is a fairlv considerable town, and it is probable that we shall endeavor to surround it, as we did with Combles. These French towns are not, like Now Zealand towns, open, sparsely-built places, wi;h wide streets and wooden houses. They are strongly built of stone and brick! with narrow winding streets, for the most part. Among the. strong stone walls a perfect rabbit-warren of trenches and dugouts can be constructed, and the whole forms a fortress of immense strength, which can only be carried by assault at an enormous cost. But by working right round these places we give the garrisons the alternative nf abandoning them without serious i resistance or being captured. So. while I we t shall storm tho smaller villages, the larger towns will probably bo methodically surrounded. Such a course will also spare them a >jood deal of knocking about. We shall continue to strike to the northeast, therefore, and BiviMlcncourt, Le Transloy, and Sailly will probablv be our next objectives: while the French will strike eastward at Saillisel and tho wood of St. Pierre Vaast. Moislams, and OUR LOSSES LIGHT. -All accounts agree that our losses are small in proportion to tho successes gained and the losses inflicted on the enemy, and this is confirmed by the official reports. We owe this to the uniform success of our attacks. The reader will probablv call to mind that during the Go-man attacks upon Verdun it was claimed that the German losses were enormously heavier than those of the French. Now that we are doing the attacking we claim, nevertheless, that the. enemy's losses are heavier than our own. This may seem very suspicious. But the explanation was several times given here during the Verdun struggle. X\ hen the infantry attack they are exposed during their advance to the Shrapnel barrages and machine-gun fire of an enemy protected by strong entrenchments. Naturally their losses are vastly greater. If they succeed in carrying "the trenches, however, they take their revenge. The defenders are either captured, killed on the spot, or shot down during the retreat. Their net losses then usually exceed those suffered by the attackers. "Obviously the relative losses will depend on the measure of success attending the attacks. At Verdun the enemy had no such overwhelming artillery superiority such as we have on the Somme, except during the opening stages of the attack. They struggled for many months in order to gain a few miles. Thus before Mort Homme it took them three or four months to gain a few hundred yards of ground. That means that nine out of every ten, or perhaps 99 out of every 100 of their attacks failed, with enormously greater casualties to the attackers than to the defenders. On th« Soram* the exaet rev*rse is occurring. Apart- from the enormously greater daily drain endured by the enemy as the result of our overwhelming artillery superiority, they must be suffering much more heavily than ourselves, because nine out of every ten of our attacks are successful, resulting in the practical wiping out of the forces defending the sectors attacked. .Moreover, we can keep it up, as the ground slopes away to the north and north-east

without any really formidable nattupT obstacles until the low-lying lands of Flanders are reached. . Our army is daily gaining tactical experience, and daily adding to its striking power} while we shall soon have many hundreds of 'tanks" in service to lead, tho way against the formidable works, thus keeping our ca9tv alties down to the minimum and those ol the enemy up to the maximum.

THE BALKANS. Thero is.not much fresh news in regard to the Balkan operations. The Rumanians claim to be advancing in the Jiul Valley, on the Vulcan Pass front, in Transylvania.. In one of yesterday's later cables they claimed to have driven back the Bulgarian right wing in the Dobrudja. 'fire Bulgarian right wing rests on the coast, and to deliver their mala blow there will be very sound strategy on the part of the Russo-Rumaniana. Should Maekensen's right wing be driven back, it will face him with an awkward situation. If he attempts to hold his ground on the left, be will be pushed back towards Sofia,' the eastern Balkan passes will be uncovered, and the Russians will be offered tho opportunity to cut him off from Constantinople. If, on the other' hand, he draws back his left to prevent tnis, ha will yield tho Danube bridgeheads successively to the Rumanians and lengthen liis line indefinitely. From the southern front there is nothing new of importance at the moment of writing. \ THE GREEK REVOLUTION. Tho ground is obviously crumbling boneath the feet of King Constantine. Ther« are reports of the resignation of General Moschopoulos, Chief of the General Staff, and he and 500 other officers have memorialised tho King, urging lrm to depart from neutrality, thus showing clearly where their sympathies Me. The destroyer Ncnchi has left the fleet for the open sea, and it is believed that she is bound for or Salonika to join the revolutionaries. Other war vessels will probably follow her example. In the meantime, M. Venezelos has announced to his followers that he is compelled by events at Kavala to act in a higher capacity than as leader of the Liberals, and that the conflict in which he may eventually be forced to engage will be outside constitutional limits—a tactful way of announcing his revolutionary intentions. Distinguished vdmirals and generals are joininc him, and there is every prospect of a landslide presently. THE ZEPPELINS. When it was announced tliat two Zeppelins had bear, brought down in Essex, the official communiquo ■listinctly stated that one of them had been capture! intact. Some doubt is thrown upon this by the latest official statement, which says "it has been established that the airships brought down were the naval Zeppelins L 52 and L33—both of most recent construction. The first airship was destroyed by aeroplane after passing through effective gunfire, and the second by gunfire causing loss of gas.'" This leaves it doubtful whether the second airship was destroyed or not. It will be a pity if it was. .r\Jl the Zeppelins hitherto brought down, except the one which landed inadvertently in France just before the war, have been merely heaps of twisted metal when captured. The perishable parts have been destroyed, and the subsequent reconstruction has left much in doubt. One captured intact would yield us every Zeppelin secret, and would enable-us, in conjunction with our own experience, to out-Zeppelia the Zeppelins. And there would be some satisfaction in using the repaired vessel against its former owners. Casualties from the last two raids have numbered 74 killed and 152 wounded—practically ,aJI civilians, of course—and a certain amount of property has been destroyed. Against this the enemy have lost two" valuable airships, and perhaps 50 highly-trained men. The military losses are all on the enemy's side, and drastic retaliation, is always open to us if it becomes expedient.