THE ALLIED MOVEMENT

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 3011, 4 August 1916, Page 2

THE ALLIED MOVEMENT

THE MONTH REVIEWED.

CONSOLIDATING THE GAINS.

GERMANS MAKE 16 FRUITLESS ATTACKS. ENEMY CASUALTY LISTS TELL TALES. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGIUI>II--COPYRIGHT] [Austraiian-N.Z. Cable Association.] London, August 2. Tho Allies are largely occupied in consolidating their gains. The intense heat is not interfering with the methodical progress of Sir Douglas Haig's forces and plans. Since Sunday the Germans made 16 attacks on the French between Hem Wood and tho Somme without result.

Tho renewal of useless attacks at Verdun reveals tlie poverty of the German military schemes. The chief endeavour seems to be to keep the truth from their own people. Prussian official lists are beginning to reflect the losses at the Somme. Whereas the previous ten lists contained 27,675 names, the latest eight lists contain 42,405, this being higher than the worst weeks at Verdun. The General Staff are making most desperate efforts to keep up the reinforcements. German convalescents are sent to the front immediately they are regarded as lit. The unhappy men are placed in the front line directly they return in order to conserve the unwounded. BRITISHERS MAY BE PROUD. VERDUN COMPARES BADLY. BRITISH TACTICS SOUND. London, August 3. A correspondent at headquarters says: The German estimate of 230,000 British losses is a grotesque exaggeration. The' British may be proud of the month's work, which is comparablo to th« German effort at Verdun, with tho difference that wo have broken the enemy's front at every point and are breaking his fighting power. Captured documents confirm the importance of the captured positions and I the necessity of standing firm and making the enemy carve his way over heaps of corpses.

THE GERMAN POINT OF VIEW. BRITISH ADVANCE ADMITTED. BUT REGARDED AS TOO COSTLY GERMANS READY FOR NEXT

MOVE. j London, August 2. A Berlin communique says: Since the beginning of the Anglo-French offensive on the Somme, which the English call "the great sweep," a month has passed. It is true the Allies have obtained a curve of the German front line, 28 kilometres in length to an average depth of four kilometres, but after the experiences of the 19th, 22nd, 24th and 30th of July, they do not assert that the German line has been shaken at any point. The achievement cost the English 230,000. There is no reliable basis for. estimating the French losses, but tho total Anglo-French losses are 350,000. Owing to the enemy's slow progress we had ample time to construct behind the present lines positions identical with those lost. GERMAN THIRD LINE SYSTEM. ITS FATE DISCUSSED. London, August 2. Mr. Hilaire Belloc writes: A great point of interest now is the fate of tho German third line trench system, cut below the summit of the plateau, so that it can only be reached by indirect high-angled fire. The line runs through Martinfuich straight to Flers, about a mile in advance of the present British line. When the offensive began it consisted of a single continuous trench, but the enemy has had a month to increase the fortifications. ,

IN THE SOMME FIGHTING. GERMANS ADMIT ADVANCE [United Service Telegram.] London, August 2,

A Berlin communique states: Strong enemy forces vainly attacked from Maurepas to the Somme. fOur counter-attack caused sanguinary losses.

The enemy penetrated to the Mari-court-Clery road. We have made progress north-west and west of Thiaumont.

I Paris, August 3. A communique says: We made many successful attacks on the front at the Meuae southward of Fleury, also eastward of Vacherauville, and in tho regions of Thiaumont and Fleury, capturing many prisoners.