NOTES ON THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17289, 3 October 1916, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR.

The earlier official report yesterday from the British front recorded’ only the continuation of the intense fighting north of Thiepval, where redoubts and strongly organised trenches nro being steadily reduced. The Germans are resisting to tlio utmost, lighting to the last for their positions, and trenches that aro captured are immediately subjected to counter-attack. From tlio official reports one may gather that the struggle at this corner is as hot, as any phase of the whole offensive, the reason for the special desperation of the enemy’s resistance being, of course, that Thiepval covered tlio flank of tho army facing General Gough north oi tho Ancre, and that unless tho flank can be held the Germans may ho “ rolled up,” which is not a particularly appropriate term, as far north as Arras. Thiepval was most elaborately fortified and strengthened after the opening of the offensive, and it is certain that a series of such positions h.. been constructed between tlio Ancre and Gommecourt. However, these positions arc liable to bo attacked from tho rear as the British advance towards Bapaume, and the enemy is depending on the “ corner ” to check the ad’vanco.

But while the early communique was concerned with the local fighting above i Thiepval, a report received last evening records a substantial advance towards Bapaume, on the front north oi Martinpuich and Flers. The little village' of Kaucourt I’Abbaye is said to have been captured, and as the advance extended from the east of Kaucourt to tlio Bapa.umc road it is ail easy inference that the British are now within half a mile of le Sars. The communique, however, does not mention the termination of the action, its wording leaving it to bo inferred’ that tho fate ol Eaucourt is undecided. At the same time it is perhaps legitimtae to draw tho conclusion that tho continuation of the advance may have brought still moro substantial results. On tho road east of Eaucourt there are several isolated buildings that have probably been fortified by the enemy, and north of the village a farm and a couplo of hills will have to bo stormed, while a miil on the left of the village was sufficiently conspicuous to be marked on tlio staff maps. The promptitude with which the British have followed up their success of tho previous few days suggests that they were anxious to give the enemy little time in which to organise now defensive positions. Gueudecourt, on the right, is just under threo miles from Bapaume; Eaucourt is a little further away.

Tho report from America that the Bremen was captured in a British net is given in the cable message as having the authority of tho State Department, but it does not follow that the story has official sanction. Presumably it would not be given out unless the State Department believed that its information was correct, but the British Admiralty has hitherto maintained silence and it is not to be taken for granted that tlio American authorities had their information direct from official sources. Indeed the story reads liko a reproduction of the one piuiK.u in some of tho United States newspapers recently. It docs not appear to have been very widely credited, though its circumstantial character doubtless impressed the journals that printed it. In the absence of confirmation there appeared to bo no good reason why it should be reproduced here and it was therefore simpiy filed for reference, but in view of the definite report thatcomes now from America it may be quoted for what it is worth.

After tho exploit of the Deutschland in crossing the Atlantic safely, tho Americans were told to watch out for the Bremen, which was to be the second of the under-water boats to run the blockade and defy the British domination of the ocean routes. But weeks passed without a sign of the submersible, and then rumours got into circulation. At length, on August 25, an officer of the British merchant service, who arrived in New York, gave out what he declared was tho truth concerning the vessel. The Bremen, ho said, had been captured by the British, and 33 of her crew of 35 had been interned. She had fouled a net in the straits of Dover, and was sighted by a British patrol vessel during her struggles to get freo, her stern under water and her bow high above tho surface. Tho wreck was extricated, but two of the crew were drowned before they could be rescued. The Admiralty was keeping silent, it was said, because it had no wish, to discourage the Germans from sending out the Amerika, tho third of the new line of commercial submersibles. However, the disappearance of the Bremen has evidently made the enterprising enemy wonder whether the gaino is wortli tho candle.

A French sea captain who arrived in San Francisco recently from Europe by way of the Panama Cm nab told ail interviewer that more than a hundred German submarines had been sunk or captured' by the British patrols. Germany, ho said, was turning out a submarine now in five weeks, but the construction was scarcely keeping pace with the destruction. Special “listeners,” like huge bell-buoys, were used in water frequented by the enemy craft, and the engines of a submarine could’ be detected even if tho boat was fifteen miles away. When a submarine was approximately located half a dozen torpedo boats went “ fiishing,” each trailing a live torpedo on a zig-zag course. If a submarine wore struck the torpedo—which scorns to bo really a captive mine—explodes. The same skipper .said that between Folkestone and Boulogne there wore steel nets all tho way, only a narrow lane being left, for the passage of surface ships. Buoys marked the passage, but even so special pilots took the ships through. American newspapers, of course, are fond of stories of this kind. They knew about the steel nets and the submarine traps long before even a hint of such devices appeared in the British journals, and if half the tales they tell have even a basis of truth tho history, of the unreported activities of tho British Navy, if it is ever written, will prove to be crammed with sensation and romance.