How Goes the Fight ?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12069, 26 July 1917, Page 2

How Goes the Fight ?

NOTES ON THE WAR,

THE POSITION lIYSEO,

CHRISTCHUROH. July 26

There is no apparent improvement in the situation in Galicia. The fact that the enemy has forced the crossing .of the Sereth below Tarnopol indicates that the Sereth is not to be the h'mit of the advance, and the comparative slowness of the thrust in the centre is obviously not duo to Russian resistance. The enemy, of course, could not proceed with his advance on a narrow front beyond a certain depth without risking the safety of his advanced troops, and he is now advancing on both sides of the gap in the Russian front. It was inevitable, of course, that the Russians on cither flank would retreat, and they will continue to retreat until the gap is stopped up. But thev are retiring in good order and at no great speed, for the Germans only now report having passed Podhayste, which is well to the west of the Strypa. However, the fact is obvious that- the. Russians must bo falling back everywhere between Brody and the Carpathians, and the extent of the retreat will be determined by the celerity with which the breach in their front at Tarnopol is filled.

In the meantime heroic efforts aro bein£ made along the whole front to hold the enemy armies and to prevent the reinforcement of the Tarnopol sector. Attacks are reported, in the German communique, at Jacobstadt, on the Drina, south-west of Drinsk, and on the Smorgon sector. The enemy claims to have restored th? position whero the Russians marlo an advance rear Erevo. Tn the wooded Carpathians and along the Moldavian frontier sharp fighting has occurred, and between the mountains and the Danube von Mackensen has had to meet strong Russo-Rumanian thrusts. At the same time the Russian Premier threatens to resort to methods of military despotism to save the State if appeals to reason fail. One cannot afford to be. optimistic. The fact that attacks have been delivered at so many points is proof that the morale of the armies is not wholly broken, and it does give ground for the hope that the demoralisation that caused the breach west of Tarnopol is not spreading to the other divisions. But the internal situation seems to be as bad as tha military situation, and the Provisional Government is therefore faced with an enormously difficult problem.

Tlie German General Staff does nob take the 'world into its confidence, but a certain interest attaches to the news and views that are circulated officially in Berlin for consumption by the German people. Each week Press representatives meet in conference m the German capital to listen to an official lecture on the war situation, and occasionally a, fairly frank report of one of these conferences reaches the outside world. A summary of the proceedings at n meeting held in midJune has been circulated by the American Associated Press, for instance, tb/* lectniro having a special interest for Americans because it included the assertion that forces from the United States could ba treated as a negligible quantity hpcauso of the shortage of ships. The lecturer axldecl that it would be 1018 at the earliest before American troops could play any serious part in the war. This is obvious enough, of course, but official statements issued in Washington male? -: t clear that the Americans do not. propose to wait until next year to make a move towards Europe. Special contingents are being put in training. As ships are available they will bo sent to France, where the intensive training will bo completed, so that General Pershing's force, when it gets into the. firing lino, will lack neither reinforcements nor support.

Of interest special to British renders was tho lecturer's explanation of the air raids on English cities. Tho purpose, it was said, was to compel tho British authorities to maintain a largo and widely scattered force of trained aviator:, in England, and so to prevent, Britain from establishing a definite supremacy in the air in France. Moreover, it was sakl thar. new British and French offensives were in active preparation, thi activity in the air and the intensity of tho artillery work making that certain. Nothing was indicated, however, of the Gorman intention to launch an offensive- against the French on the Aisno, and to maintain it. Tho losses suffered by the Allies in tho April-Aiay fighting were set down at 225,000 for tho British and over 400.000 for the. French. The lecturer declared that seventy-two French divisions had bosa employed—at least a million raon—and ho invited his audience to holicve that in fifty days 40 per cent of tho troops had boon put. out of notion. It happens that the French figures can I> ; > subjected to an approximate check, and it can confidently b«?i .assarted that tho French losses for fifty days could not have reached half tho figure mentioned by the German officer.

Whether tho Allies ho re another offensive in contemplation remains »o be seen. So far as the Frewh are concerned, the official slal-cunonts leave no room for doubt that a sustained offensive is not regarded as likely this summer, tho General Staff preferring to conserve the forces and to content itself with holding tho existing line 3, pending the arrival of the Americans. That does not meaa passivity, of course, for tho French do not shrink from sacrifices when they are required, or when the results would justify them. Following on the tremendous German efforts on the plateau west of Craonno, for example, tho French have counter-attacked brilliantly, recovering virtually all the trenches that had. been taken from them. It was necessary to hold the plateau, and. when tho enemy gained a footing on it he had to bo driven off again. The spirit of tho French defence is precisely tho same «is that exhibited in tho struggle for 'Verdun, last year. Tho Germans gain nothing for which they do not pay a sufficient price in blood, and immediately they relax their efforts their gains are wrenched from them.

The British policy for the rest of tho summer can only be guessed. A. general nfffuisive is not in contenvokition.

but there may be a repetition of the tactics that won Messinos, and at any moment a sector may bo ablaze. There ere purposeful small operations always in progress, and the pressure on the enemy's front is maintained incessantly. One would not be surprised if the methodical local attacks and the pulverising artillery lire rendered Lens untenable. The enemy holds a salient southwards of Monchy, and when the opportunity offers it will bo reduced. Nibbling is always going on along the salient of La Basses. The Germans must be unremittingly expectant, but they do not know where the blow is going to fall, or when. They are now

massing guns and men, as if in preparation for an offensive on their own account, an effort, perhaps, to recover the Vimy ridge or tho Messines-Wyts-chaete ridge, and if that is tho intention the day of big battles cannot bo fa,r distant.