NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16202, 12 April 1916, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NW RUSSIAN COMMANDER.

The new Commander-in-Chief o f the Russian south-western armies, General Brusiloff, played an important part in the victorious Russian campaign in Galicia during the first six months of the war, and the army under his command covered itself with glory during the great retreat. After the fall of Lemberg, on June 22, 1915,' most of the weight of the enemy's attacks fell upon the forces under hint. It was he who had done most of the work in capturing Lemberg in September, 1914, and it was his troops that stormed the rampart of the Carpathians and invaded the Hungarian plain. Even when he had been com-1 pelled to retire from the mountain line to ■the Dniester front he had trapped Lin-1 singen's army and put at least half of the! effectives out of action. His last great victory at Zuravno had been achieved just after the loss of Przemysl by Ivanoffs 1 troops early in June, 1915. Few of the! enemy troops that crossed the Dniester returned to their main armies, and by the middle of June the German Army under Linsingen was exhausted. General Brusiloff always contrived to make his decisive attacks when the enemy troops faced him, 1 with their backs to the river and with only a few pontoon bridges behind them i when they retreated. It was by these J annihilating tactics that ho had wrecked' Linsingen's army so completely that Lin-} singen's name disappeared from both the German and Austrian communiques. The strength of his army and the genius of General Brusiloff shattered the forces brought against it, and becamo the pivot ( on which all the other Russian forces] swung in their long movement of retirement. NEW GERMAN SUBMARINES; Tho new German submarines are described by Mr. Archibald Hurd as being I " submarine monitors." He says : — They have already been seen at sea, and there is no doubt as to their existence, for: they are the talk of neutrals who move! about the Baltic on business. They are fairly big vessels. Above the more or less | cylindrical hull is built a long battery, well protected by armour, which can be made completely watertight. It extends ; for a considerable distance along the hull, I and in the centre is the commander's ! tower, from which orders are issued. [ Within this watertight battery are j mounted guns; their calibre is unknown, - but they are certainly more powerfu 1 , weapons than anything the Germans have hitherto had. Such vessels as these, which arc no doubt of high speed— swifter than the vessels hitherto employed—will prove formidable. Like the smaller vessels, of which the Germans have lost so many, they possess the facility of becoming submerged. That is of value offensively and defensively. It enables such a submarino monitor— cruisertO ( ! approach her unsuspecting prey—a mcrI chantman. She can bring the armoured 1 battery just above the water, leaving the hull of the submarine, which would otherwise be riddled with shot, still submerged. In this awash condition she may be immune from the very light artillery of a merchant ship—the submarine's guns, as well as the crews serving them, being out of harm's way behind the steel walls. Should a British man-o'-war come on the scene, it will be easy to close tho battery and dip down beneath the surface." 1 THE FAMOUS "SEVENTY-FIVES." The famous "seventy-five" gun gets a good deal of its effect from the fact that it has some of the qualities of a machinegun, though it hoses out shrapnel instead of singlo bullets. It can be moved so as to trace a pattern on the ground with bursting shells. The French gunners speak of their " mowing fire," their " progressive fire," with which they can follow men up as they charge forward or run away; and of a terrible combination of ! tho two whereby the battery commander is able to sow any piece of ground with shrapnel so effectually end at such short notice, that nothing human upon it, which is not buried head over ears in a trench, can survive. This is tho storm, the dreaded "rafale." The process of firing tho "seventy-five" and the result is described as follows " Tho batter)' commander rattles off a string of words, containing object range, fuse, and angle of deflection; while he is yet speaking, the layers are on to the mark, the fuse-setters aro pinching the shell-noses, tho breech swings open, the traversing number grasps tho worm and wheel gear. And as the captain finishes, on a sharp word of command, each gun, being laid on an axis parellel to its fellow, whizzes off without further command a string -of eight shells ' in two groups of four, and ceases fire. As the last shell leaves the gun the loading number swings open the breech, and stands easy— .whole process has taken exactly 20 seconds; and somewhere about two miles off there is a patch of earth, every scrap of which has been so beaten by shrapnel bullets that within its area, it is mathematically accurate to say, thero is no unprotected living thing." CASUALTY LISTS, A recent cable stated that '' owing to military necessity," British casualty lists in future will not disclose the theatre of war or the battalion to which the casualty refers. Even if Britain went further anil ceased to publish casualty lists, the action could bo defended on sound military principles. Tho French publish no lists, and the Germans would pay any price to learn our ally's losses. They- would give much to know the exact strength the AngloFrench will be able to pit against them in the West. It is of cardinal importance that each side should do its utmost < to discover tho strength of the other in the field, its reserve of men, and its rate of wastage. Even if Britain were to 1 adopt the system under which France is I working, then the relations of the men at < the front need not bo apprehensive lest 1 anything should happen to the latter , without their being apprised of it. In franco the relatives are notified as promptly as possible when a soldier is < killed, wounded, or missing, though it is \ never stated when or vhe, e the casualty . occurred. Such a system fir.? worked very • well from a domestic H jiit. of view, and, j at tho same time, much to Germany's j chagrin, the French losses, both in individual battles and in the aggregate, are an absolutely closed book to her. ( — i THE AIR SERVICE. ' \ Recent English newspapers contain many ] hints that Britain is energetically forward- £ ing her preparations for offence and de- j fence in the air. ' Sir Oliver Lodge states- < that, many devices for dealing with Zeppe- t line' have been brought before the Admiralty Board of Inventions, whica has held frequent meetings under the chair- ; manship of Lord Fisher. Experts are < thoroughly awake to the problem, he adds, .< but the Government cannot give away its < secrets to the enemy Another signifi- < cant fact made public is that the Royal • Flying Corps is to be raised to a strength s of 10,000 men, <