THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17206, 28 June 1916, Page 6

THE CAMPAIGNS.

The Italian offensive is progressing virtually along the whole front from the Adigo to tho Brenta, and there is no reason to suppose that tho advance now reported exhausts tho possibilities of tbo effort. The Vienna communique admits tho rotreat in tho southern Tirsntino and on the Asiago plateau, but claims that tho contraction of tho front was achieved without loss and oven ■without the knowledge of tho enemy. This is too obvious a euphemism to pass muster, though the fact that no considerable capture of prisoners and guns b yet reported by the Italians suggests

that tho enemy's retreat tvaa strictly a strategic movement ana not the direct result of defeat on a wide front However, that aspect of tho position is dealt with in our Notes on tho War, in which tho essential topographical details aro explained. Broadly, the Austrians aro retreating both in tho Vallarsa and on the Arsicro-Asiago front to save themselves from envelopment, the rapidity of the Italian movement at the head of tho Fosina valley and from the Brenta, on the right wing, having jeopardised tho safety of tho whole enemy force across the Italian frontier. The labours involved in meeting and repelling tho Austrian invasion aro described in a highly interesting message this morning, and when tho story is extended to include the operations that liavo immediately led to this Austrian retreat wo shall surely find it to be a thrilling record of heroic enterprise and determination. The enemy relied on the mountains to protect his flanks and his lines of communication, but tho Italians built roads whore no roads had been, hoisted their guns up tho sides of tho mountains and crossed by passes that even the devotees of climbing avoid, until they were in positions whero they threatened the lines of the Austrian retreat. Some brilliant work on the Col Santo blocked tho road from tho Posina valley back into the Trentino, while on tho other wing tho advance from tho Brenta over the mountains was pushed so energetically that more than twenty miles of tho enemy’s front were imperilled. That is the position as far as tho reports carry us, but it is by no means certain that the Austrians will yot escape from tho threatened envelopment. Probably but for tho success of the Russian offensive tho enemy would have had reserves to hold his lines of communication, and while wo pay tributo to tho great work of the Italians it is ns well that we should not forget the invaluable assistance lont them by Russia

In the eastern theatre tho Russians are now meeting the Austro-German counter-offensive, or perhaps it would bo more correct to credit the whole movement to the Germans. On the Baranovitchi sector von Woyrsch is hammering hard to secure the important railway junction. On the Styr and the Stochod von Linsingen, powerfully reinforced, is endeavouring to regain some of the ground won by Brussiloff, and an intense struggle is raging there on a wide front. The Russian cavalry in the Bukowina is pressing on to the southern passes across the, Carpathians, but for tho present wo need attach no special 'importance to this movement, which can scarcely have been undertaken by any considerable body of men. In the western theatre there seems to have been a comparative pause on the right bank of the Meuse, tliougn the German communique claims the failure of strong French efforts to regain the lost ground. On the British front a series of raids was carried out successfully on Saturday night, with small loss to ourselves and much damage to the enemy.