PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9091, 9 July 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

In Germany the fearsome nows of the day appears to be furnished by the raid of a great British air squadron on the important harbour of V/ilhelmshaveu and the adjacent country. Not because the German aviators were quite unable to stop it, and, indeed, did not dare to tj-y. From this point of view alone the raid is absorbingly' interesting- The Germans have boasted of their superiority in the air, aud it is conceded on all hands that they built superior airships. YVe mean heavier than air, not Zeppelins, for the superiority of those craft is not at all recognised, and, indeed, since that plucky Canadian, champion destroyed one of these Goliaths of the air, no German seems to have had the heart to mention the type which was to have by this time, if we remember ngnt, destroyed the British fleets and devastated the greater part of Britain. But it is generally agreed that the other type' of airship has in Germany attained to structural strength and aerial stability beyond anything on the other side. Consider, however, the disappointment of it. The men in these Gorman aeroplanes are nowhere in comparison with tha French and British and Belgian aviators. There is not one record to their credit against the many on tho other side, piling up from day to day. The ascendancy of the Allied personnel in the air has been long, therefore, established. But here is a positive refusal to give battle.

Now, nothing is more certain than tho knowledge of the enemy that the revelation of their naval base arrangements is most undesirable. Indeed, this has been now admitted in connection with this very raid. Vet the German aviators saw the biggest squadron of the air wo have yet sent out heading hi tho direction of these naval basesThat squadron had eighty or ninety miles to go—tho distance, approximately, between Terschelling, tho Dutch Frisian island, where the squadron was seen going strong, and the port of Wilhelmshavcn. It was a grand opportunity for a great battle of the air. At any cost tile enemy ought «o have barred the road. Reverse the position, and give the Allies a great force of airships such as the Germans have in Flanders. The alarm would have been given, and while a squadron was assembling for a flight to the objective of the hostile squadron the first observers would have been on its flanks harassing, and there would have been a very pretty fight. But the German aviators contented themselves with a leisurely alarm, which only succeeded in raising a lament in special circles that the hostile raiders got there, and a determination to tell tho world that they did no damage. There could be no better climax for the proof of the immense ascendancy of our flyers.

.The German statement that the raid did no damage with bombs may or may not be true. But the real damage is not of bombs. The real damage is the gaining of knowledge by the extensive reconnaissance. At this season of fine weather suoh»a reconnaissance is not' made as a picnic, as the German staff knows very well. It has a real object. What? We only know that the British and French services are enterprising, and getting more powerful every day. Because there has been frankness about munitions timid people have jumped to the conclusion that we are weak. But the frankness is a proof of strengthWeakness does not dare to be frank, cannot afford to bo frank. W r e are right in regarding our services as enterprising, even if they are not as frank about their strength as they are about their weakness. •* • • We remember Mr Churchill saying long ago that the German fleet, if it would not come out, would have to be dug out. The air raid on Cuxhaven which followed that utterance led to nothing, and that showed, at all. events, that the time had not come for any fleet work. Since then tho Kitchener armies have been created, and there stand now in England at least a million of men as well trained soldiers as any in tho world, all volunteers as is no other army in the world, ready to go anywhere and do anything. The air has been for some time full of vague rumours of great preparations in the British naval building yards for naval service on a great scale, and these seem to he backed by tho vote asked for and passed hy Parliament for 50,000 fresh seamen for the Navy, which, for the ordinary services .it is performing so splendidly, has, as many men as it requires for the rest of the war. Imagine a shoal of craft, heavily armoured and gunned, able to set the German minefields at naught, and defy the worst efforts of the submarine terror; and connect that possibility on one side with Churchill’s “digging out,” and on the other with the air raid on Wilhelmshaven. Add that if such an expedition can reach the German shore it will hot he content with startling the weak nerves of the German High Seas Fleet, hut will he wanting also_ to throw a powerful army ashore against the German naval bases, and then ■ you will realise that the German staff, already wondering where that terrible Kitchener is going to throw his million soldiers of the “Ypres” quality, is having a good deal that is disquieting to think about.

This brings us to the “Calais” chimera, with which these Germans are doing their best to obsess the world in general and the British in particular. We see. at the same time, their _ evident chagrin at the success of this air raid, in getting over their naval bases at all. Is it impossible that they know something of the British preparations of which w© of the outside British public never hear? Let the millions of Britishers answer that question who are for ever squealing about the wonderful feats of the great German spy system. Assuming that the German staff does know something of the preparations for their benefit, we can easily conclude that they feel the necessity for some desperate move which may retrieve their fortunes before the blow falls. Hence it is not difficult to realise the feverish anxiety to get all the men and guns that can he got together for breaking through the Allied lines- But, as a French staff officer has pointed out, according to one of this morning’s messages, the Allied lines axe now so strong that any attack must bring very serious losses to the attacking armies. It comes to this: Can the Germans, who are no stronger than they were eight months ago, when they failed to force the thinly-defended lines, which were unsupported, by reserves, hope now to force the same lines, more strongly fortified, very much more strongly held, and supported by powerful reserves?

Possibly it may bo said that they have some new weapon. They havo tried guns and liquid fire, tho descendant of the old Greek fire of the Middle Ages, and new bombs, and howitzers, and now they are boasting of a fifteeninch gun which requires no speciality of emplacement. Jiut have they a monopoly of new things? To-day we publish a message speaking of rumours that ‘‘the French possess an important new weapon for defence and attackThis not improbably refers to the new gun recently invented for firing with safety shells charged with turpinite, which infallibly kills everything within 100 yards. That would be a very important sort of gun, both for offence and defence. The seventy-five was a novelty when it was first tried by the French, and the Germans have put nothing in the field to beat it. Is it improbable that they may have something still better? Have they not the same brains as they had before? Chemistry is a great source of death-dealing, certainly but are all the chemists in Berlin? On tho whole, we need not feel distressed by the idea that in their desperate venture against tho western lines the Germans are going to have the advantage of anything new- They will have to rely, at tho last, on the close formation and the parade step, which last so astonished our Tommies at Ypres, when the Prussian Guards used it in the last assault, under the Kaiser’s eyes, which exhausted anO ended the German effort —that for a time they did not fire.

The High Commissioner reports that the Gorman-Austrian armies, resuming the offen>ive on the Eastern fronts, were everywhere repulsed. Petrograd gives some detail, which shows that von Mackensen has been beaten in another big battle, twenty miles north of Tornasotf, that is, on the line on which he was chocked by the great battle east of Krasnik. Advices from Lemberg confirm, with reports of thousands of wounded coming to that city, to Jaroslav and to Przemysl. Berlin adds a general confirmation by reporting that “Wo frustrated Hus sian efforts to break through the Aus triau front, between tho Pruth and tho Dniester.” This is very important, as showing that the Austrians are in this quarter on the defensive. They were the other day driving the Russians north-east into vast Russia ■ later they were making attempts to force them, and getting beaten; today they are ‘‘repelling attempts to break through.” They assign the reason. ‘‘The Russians are using naval guns from Kronstadt and other fortresses.” This means that the munition problem has been solved on the Russian side.

Berlin adds: “We are progressing west of the Vistula.” This is improbable, as a serious advance, because the German line east of the Vistula at this point has been stopped by the great battles, its activity is being confined to sending along trains of wounded into Galicia, while at the same time the Russians are battering tho Austrian army of Galicia covering the rear of this, the main advance, stopped between the Vistula and the Bug. The German commander, for the present, has something more vital to think of than “progressing west of {he Vistula,” where, by the way, his progress was seriously impeded two days ago in the great battle of Opatow. The German commander has to see that the Russians of Galicia do not break through the covering army and strike at his rear, after severing his communications. The forces "progressing west of the Vistula” may be wanted to help him to extricate his main army from a battle of reversed fronts, which the German tacticians always dream of inflicting on theii enemies.

Berlin also reports “wo are threatening Lublin, Ivangorod and Warsaw.” . This is exactly what all the world has been saying since Mackensen started on his march to the northwest on the.Sokal (Bug) : Vistula front. The official intimation seems to come at the moment when the tlireat begins to resemble the probability of a retreat. On the whole the campaign on ' the eastern front begins to straighten itself out in favour of the Russians, t who have stopped the. enemy’s pursuit and are striking him hard. The outlook is all the better, because of the absolute silence from the northern side of the co-operative German strategy. Nothing, so far as reported, has stirred on the Narew or the Shavli fronts. The great combine has become inert. The “Anaconda,” as the Americans called the crushing movement ordered by Grant by the combined armies of the Union Federation, has ceased to crush, because the southern fold of its power has been severely wounded. ,

Further messages coming as we write are strongly confirmatory. Petrograd adds that the enemy at Krasnyk is in rout, and that his offensive is broken as far as Kamionka, where his right first reached the Bug. Vienna admits now that the “check” at Krasnyk was due to the very strong Russian reserves. The Russians have reached their concentrations, as the Allies did on the Marne, and are using them to strike also as the Allies did along the whole line of the enemy’s advance. We can only hope that they will persuade the enemy to extend his rout from Krasnyk to Kamionka, and that they may at the same time break through von Linsingen’s line, .between Kamionka and Halicz, and fall on the said extended rout. At all events, the ♦ado has turned.

From the Dardanelles we have Sir lan Hamilton’s account of Monday’s attack from Achi Baba on the Allied position. He describes it as the heaviest yet delivered by_ the enemy, and we can well' believe it, seeing that in ihe beginning the assault got possession of some of our trenches. But the quality of the Allied troops and the skill and weight of their fire prevailed. It is-clear that despite their enormous losses the Turks are still strong, and quite well supplied with munitions.

Reference is again made to the withdrawal of the big ships of the fleet, the supporting operations being left to the destroyers and cruisers, the smaller guns carried by which are just as effective for the purpose and far cheaper than the great guns of the big ships. There are two references to the withdrawal, one of these is a message from the Dardanelles, and is a simple statement of fact.

The other, from Athens, is a statement in which there is a very seriouscomment. It is that the fleets have been taken away .because of the arrival in the Aegean of seven German submarines, ana that the withdrawal involves “a catastrophe to the army." We are asked to believe that the fleets of Britain and France have abandoned the Aegean Sea to these seven

|submarine wonders of the world, leaving the transports to take care of themselves as they may, and the armies to starve and surrender to the exulting Turk and the snarling German! If these seven submarines haveappeared, and if their appearance accounts for the non-activity of the one that did the damage some weeks ago by, the suggestion'that its commander was waiting for them —even so, we do not believe that the Allied commanders would bolt. Wo prefer to believe that they would be true to themselves by being equal to the occasion.

But there may bo another explanation of the submarine story. It is another submarine story, of nine going to Pola to assist in the defence of that great Austrian naval stronghold. Both are rumours, and they have got the submarines mixed, even though they may “no be there, as they say in the classic speech of the north. • • ■ After all,' the “disquieting” story comes from Athens, where, so far hack as the time of St. Paul the populace was ever seeking new things, and recent occasions have proved that the new things are just as vain things as they were in the time of St. Paul. Constantinople does not seem to find any consolation from the seven submarine wonders of the world, for it is giving way to gloom and disappointment because it gets only Turkish wounded instead of enemy prisoners, and hears of the certainty of territory being handed over to Bulgaria. • • • Another rumour is vouched for by the “Daily Express” correspondent at Bern©—that .Germany will have in August one million fresh men in the field, most of whom will replace the exhausted battalions on the east front. Of the western destination of any of these, if ,any, the correspondent is silent. At all events, he does not help any of us to get more, frightened about “Calais.” • • • The best things we have to-day are the French statesman’s hearty appreciation of the tremendous and astounding efforts of Britain. Quito as reassuring is his statement of determination to see the war through to victory; and very pleasing is it to see that Italy, while keeping ascendancy over the enemy in the field, is following the example of the Allies by organising a national ' effort for the production of munitions.