NOTES ON THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17273, 14 September 1916, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR.

Mr Warner Allen’s story of the French advance south of the Somme makes it tolerably clear that the Gormans on that sectoi were not at nil prepared for the offensive, being presumably tinder the impression that all the fighting was going to be on the British front. Consequently, after the breakdown of the first lines of defenco there was little in the way of organised opposition and tho advance might easily have been carried much further at the very outset. It is obvious that tho sweep to Biaches entailed very small losses, and the account shows that the enemy, after breach in tho main lino of defence, was in a hurr/ to get back to other defensible positions. The British may have had an experience of this kind during their early offensive, but if so the • reports bavo not mentioned it, though tho fact that cavalry could he used in tho operations suggests that atone stage the Germans were badly demoralised. Hon ever, it is certain that if the breach made by the British had been as complete as that made by the. French south of tho river there would have been a remarkable change i-n tho whole situation; It was the narrow front of their advance that prevented the French from reaping the full benefits of their success; and it was the far greater density of the German population opposing the British that occasioned such intense and persistent fighting north of the river.

The account given by. the correspondent with the French headquarters shows, however, that a complete breakthrough was not planned. The Allies were working on the same system, organising the advance methodically and never pushing beyond the objectives stated in the daily orders. Complete control was thus maintained at evory stage, and the offensive made up in thoroughness what it lost in sensational brilliance. Looking back over the story of the past couple of months one might be inclined, in the light of present knowledge, to prophesy that, this Franco-British offensive will be severely criticised by military historians. More than one critic has already ventured to contend that the Allied commanders failed lo appreciate the magnitude of their opportunity. But such comments arc quite unwarranted, because outside the General Staffs no one is likely to know precisely what the purpose of the offensive was, and really nothing is clearer than that Sir Douglas Haig and General Foch have been working closely along lines laid down by the central control. Now that Verdun is safe one is apt to forget that the immediate purpose of the offensive was to lift the pressure from the fortress.

There was an interesting episode in the Thames in July when a captured German submarine was towed up to London and thrown open for inspection. The craft is a mine-layer, tlio UCo, and sho had neither guns nor torpedoes. Her number indicates that she belonged to a special class. She was one of a. number built in sections, which were transported to Zeebrugge and there assembled. Her displacement submerged would be about 200 tons. She carried twelve mines. The story of her capture is interesting. In April a torpedo-boat destroyer was out exercising off the East Const of England. \Vhen she sighted the enemy she was in difficulties, and from the deck of the destroyer, then some distance away, a flag could be seen at the masthead of the submarine, and in the mist it was at first taken to bo the Union Jack. Closer inspection proved it to be the German naval ensign, nud then it was noticed that the whole of the crew of tho submarine appeared to be on deck. Tho comic sido of the situation was not lost on the men of the destroyer, and once apprised of the enemy character of tho distressed vessel they set to work to make her a prize.

Tlio commander hailed the crew with a brusque invitation to surrender. The submarine men saw the guns trained on them, and they hauled down their flag and put their hands above their heads in the approved “‘Kamorad” style, At a VT'd from, the commuudstt

they jumped into the water and swam for dear life away from the ship. Internal explosions followed, and at the last and heaviest a caseado of hammocks and other debris shot out of the open conning tower to a height of 40ft. That thero was a vent for the explosive forces probably saved the ship, but as it was the bottom of the vessel was punctured in two places and rivots were started so that the' craft mado water quickly. An attempt to investigate the damage was frustrated by the” presence of thick black gases and about 2ft of water, but latcf expert examination showed that although tho submarine had laid no mines two had been released by the force of the explosions and were foul of tho bottom of the vessel. Contact between tho horns, which jutted out all around tho mines, and tho plates of the vessel would have exploded enough T.N.T. to sink a battleship, and it was an act of real heroism on the part of a young officer that rendered tho submarine capable of being brought in as a. prize. The officer went down in a diving suit and mado tho mines safe by detaching the detonators, afterwards securing them in such a position that the salvers could work in comparative safely. After seventeen days she was taken into an East Coast port.

Mr Washburn, the correspondent of “The Times” with the Russian forces, was visiting the southern' group of .armies in July, and in one of his dispatches he gives an interesting note concerning General Brusiloff. On this front,” he says, “the chief command is now in the hands of General Brusiloff, a man whose record has been one of almost universal success in this war. It was his army that, in the first months of the war, swept into Galicia and made possible the taking of Lemberg thirty days after the declaration of hostilities. It was agaiu his army that penetrated the Dukla Pass and was already pushing into the Hungarian plain, throwing the Dual Monarchy into political chaos and the big cities into panic, when the Gorman drive on the Dunajec and the destruction of the neighbouring army left his right flank exposed to tho attacks of limitless numbers of Germans pouring through the hole in the lino like water through a leak in a dyke. In spite of superior forces, lack of ammunition, and difficulties of terrain, Brusiloff withdrew his army in good older,, and, with the assistance of reserves hurried up, was nblo to - check the Germans on the San, after which the Russian retreat was definitely a rearguard action and not in any way a precipitate retreat.

“ Brusiloff himself is a man of the very highest typo of intellect and the ideal of a soldier who is equally good at attack or defence. When ono, meets him one feels that one is in the presence of the highest product of culture and of a long line of ancestors who liavo bred a specimen that can be relied on to show the last degree of mettle in an emergency. With finely moulded features, Tong tapering fingers, steady grey eyes, Brusiloff is at the first glance a thoroughbred. No man in the Russian Army know Galicia more intimately than he, and no man had a finer record, and when Ivanoff became confidential adviser to the Emperor in his personal suite, Brusiloff was his natural successor in the command on this important front. His first pet after taking over the command was to make a personal inspection of all his armies at the front, and before the present movement "Began ho knew personally exactly what to expect from almost every unit, while his intimate knowledge of the country and of tho psychology of the enemy gave him the background of understanding for the planning and carrying forward of tho slide campaign.

“ Brusiloff himself has his staff in a Certain little town amidst the waving wheatfiolds of Southern Russia, where he is as detached from the turmoil and confusion of warfare as though he were ten thousand milos away. This particular town was never, I think, noted for its luxuries. Certainly there were here no sumptuous villas or country houses in which a general might establish himself. In any case, Brusiloff is not that kind of general. In a small, barely furnished room he is directing the vast campaign which is raging over a front of hundreds of miles in length. Brasiloff himself has changed greatly since I saw him in Brody a year ago this month His hair has turned perceptibly and he looks at least ten years older. His face is deeply lined and his mien sober and serious, while his sensitive mouth has grown stern and unyielding in its lines. Only the twinkle in his deep grey eyes shows the humour and the perpetual youth which are among the dominant characteristics of the man himself. F/om his mapstrewn desk he can .look out across the deep wheat fields which from the window stretch beneath like the expanse of the sea, as the soft southern wind sweeps across their swaying acres. Surrounded by a picked staff, each man chosen for his efficiency, Brusiloff today represents about the best that Russia has yet produced in the way of a strictly fighting soldier.”