SITUATION REVIEWED

Nelson Evening Mail, 4 August 1916, Page 5

SITUATION REVIEWED

METHODICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH PLANS. GERMAN LOSSES ON THE SOMME. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) L LONDON, Aug. 2The Allies are largely occupied in consolidating their gains. The intense heat is not cnteriering with, the methodical progress of Sir Douglas Haig s Sunday the Germans have made sixteen attacks against tne French, between Hem Wood and .the Somme without result. . Tlie renewal of the useless attacks at Verdun reveals the poverty of German military schemes. Their chief endeavour seems to be to keep the truth from

their own people. . .The Prussian official casualty lists are "beginmno- to reflect the losses on the Somme. Whereas the previous ten lists contained 27,685 names, the latest eight lists have over 42,405 names, being fo'gher .than in the worst weeks at Verdun. _i. The General Staff are making most desperate efforts to keep up the reinforcements. German convalescents are *ent to the front immediately they are regarded as fit, and the unhappy men are placed in the front line directly they return, in- order to conserve the number of wounded. r Mr Hilaire Belloc writes: "A great point o£ interest now is the fate of the German third line. The trench system is cut ;below the summit of the plateau in order that it can only be reached by direct high, angle fire: The line runs through MaTtrnpuich straight to Flers, about a mile in advance of the present British line. When the offensive began it consisted of a continuous trench.. but the enemy have had a month in which to increase the fortifications.^ A. Berlin communique says: "Since the beginning of the Anglo-Frencli offensive on the Somme, which -the English call the 'great sweep,' a month has passed. It is true that the Allies have obtained tie curve of the German front line for 28 kilometres by an average ' deptb of four kilometres, but after their experiences of July 19th, 22nd, 24th and 30th thev do not assert- that the German line "has been shaken at any point. The achievement caused the English: 230,000 casualties. There is no reliable basis for, estfcnatmg the French losses, but the total AngloFrench loss is 350,000. Owing to the enemy's slow progress we have had ample time to construct beh.nd our present lines positions identical with those •lost." The Times' 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 comparable to the German effort at Verdun, with the difference that we have broken the German front at every .point, beating them in fighting power. 'Captured documents confirm the uniDortance of the captured positions and ithe necessity for standing firm and making .the enemy carve their way over -heaps of corpses. They urge the posthaste construction of new defensive lines near.