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Show PROGRESS OF THE WAR. Russia's success in breaking the Austrian Aus-trian line is one of the most remarkable remark-able achievements of the war if the Petrograd reports can be accepted at anywhere' near their face value. The only parallel since the conflict settled down to trench warfare is the Austro-German Austro-German drive against Russia last spring and summer. The English and French ; drives failed; tho Teuton drive into Serbia was a minor affair; the German drive at Verdun has not been a success and the Auetro-Hungarian drive in Italy has been on a much smaller scale and hanot yet attained its object. The Russian success is all the more remarkable because of the fact that it was achieved against an enemy even better supplied with ammunition if not with guns. The German drive which began with the blasting of a hole on the Russian front along the Dunajec was carried on against an enemy pitifully piti-fully supplied with military resources. The latest drive of the czar 's legions was made against as many and as great obstacles as the Germans face at Verdun Ver-dun and the initial success has been much more pronounced. The main question which arises in the minds of all observers at this juncture junc-ture is: Can the Russians keep it up? Every grand offensive has a momentum which carries it forward into the enemy's en-emy's positions to a greater or less extent. ex-tent. The proof of any genuine achievement achieve-ment comes with 'the second stage of the, offensive, which is the enemy's response. re-sponse. As yet Austria and Germany have made no adequate response to the Muscovite drive, but the time for such a counter-stroke has just arrived. The next week or ten days will show what the Teutonic allies can do to check the attack of General Brussiloff. Inas- , much as the Teutons have the muni-, tious and a staggering array of cannon and machine guns it seems almost hopeless hope-less for the eminent Russian strategist and commander to keep up his progress. The only elements in which he is superior su-perior to the enemy is his initial momentum, mo-mentum, his capture of 70,000 prisoners and much military booty and his ability to throw more men into tho fight than can the Germans and Austrians in view of their nffelisivcs on the western front. The advance of the Russians is still a matter of much obscurity. Whether Hie Austrians have drawn back their entire advanced line extending from the Ptipet marshes to the border of Rumania Ruma-nia is uncertain, but even the Russian accounts do not claim this much. Petrograd Petro-grad states that the czar 's soldiers broke th rough along a line of ninety-four ninety-four miles to a depth of about forty miles. Whether this is a continuous break in the line or whether it is the sum of a series of breaks is not yet clear. At all events the Rupsinn? -have re-ta re-ta ken their fortress of Lutsk, ha vc rounded up a vast number of prisoners and niiiny guns and machine guns, have captured vast quantities of ammunition ammuni-tion and other supplies and have forced the enemy to retreat at numerous points. Another advantage, and as events may demonstrate the chief one, will be the lightening of Teutonic pressure pres-sure at Ycnluu( and against the Italian line. The 1 taiians have been losing some territory each day since the first forward move of the Austro-Hungarians. Owing to the fact that the Italians, loitering along in a lazy fashion for a year, did not sufficiently prepare the lines behind them for the contingency of a retreat they have been compelled to make a painful sacrifice of men to withstand the tidal wave in the Tyrol. It would not be surprising if the Romans Ro-mans had lost more men in tho last mouth than in the entire preceding year. The Germans captured Fort De Vaux after fourteen weeks of fighting in the Verdun sector. They now hold two of the twenty-five forts of Verdun Dou-aumont Dou-aumont and Be Vaux. The fortified hill known as Le Mort Homme, although assailed for two months and more, still resists. To take Verdun does not necessitate the capture of all the fortifications. The Germans can drive a wedge into the ruined city by the capture of not to exceed six more forts. , The taking of Verdun city, while a notable success, would not be the final operation in this sector. It would, at most, render the French line east of the Meuse all (he way from Verdun to St. Mihiel untenable. The French would be compelled to reform their lines west of the river and apparently would be able to hold out on this line indefinitely. The Germans have already lost 300.0UO men in the Verdun operations and it is extremely doubtful whether the French have lost more than 150,000. Some place the French loss as high as 200,000 and the German loss as high as 375,000. During the week the Berlin government govern-ment admitted tho loss of two more warships in the North sea, the Luetzow, a battle cruiser, and the Rostock, a tight cruiser. The Luetzow is by far the most valuable ship in every way that the Germans have lost. It is one of the latest of their dreadnought cruisers. Although its tonnage is not listed it belongs in a class which is of about 25,000 tons. The Pommern, the battleship which was lost, was of only 13,200 tons displacement. Berlin says that the entire loss of tho German fleet in the battle has been made public, but it is quite certain that many other German Ger-man warships were seriously damaged. That admission was made in the Reichstag Reichs-tag at the time the German victory was proclaimed. It seems probable that each navy has lost in ships sunk or seriously damaged, counting all vessels large and small, between twenty -five and thirty ships, and by this we may form some adequate idea of the magnitude magni-tude of the battle. Another clash on the sea occurred a few days ago, but it was insignificant. English monitors and gunboats exchanged shots with a German squadron of destroyers which came out of the harbor of Zeebrugge, but no material damage appears to have been done. English airmen made an attack on Antwerp, where the Germans have been constructing submarines and naval depots. The results of the raid are unknown. Along the English front in France there has been desperate fighting in which the Canadian troops especially distinguished themselves. In one week they lost 0000 men. The Princess Patricia Pa-tricia regiment was shot to pieces for the third time and now the Canadians have been relieved by English regiments. regi-ments. It is apparent that the losses on both sides in the last week along the sectors held by the British have been exceedingly heavy. In Asia Minor the Russians have drawn in their lines a little in the face of a Turkish offensive. This was a natural step to take in view of the obvious ob-vious fact that for the present all the efforts the Russians can put forward must be directed toward victory along the Austrian fine. Austrian - submarines have sunk the Italian transport, Principe Ilmberto, in the southern Adriatic and hundreds of Italian soldiers who were aboard are believed to have lost their lives. The Austrians sent homo the fatal torpedo despite the fact that the tra.nsport was being escorted and protected by a circle cir-cle of torpedo boat destroyers. The death of Lord Kitchener, the English minister of war, was one of the most dramatic events of the world's greatest tragedy of empires. On his way to Russia after organizing the English Eng-lish army of more thny 4,000,000, he boarded the British cruiser Hampshire. When out only a few hours' cruise from the Scottish coast the warship was blown up a few miles to the west of tho Orkney islands. Kitchener and his staff were placed in a lifeboat, but it was quickly swamped in the heavy sea and all of that distinguished company were drowned. Only one boat brought its human freight to shore, but among the saved there was not one of Kitchener's Kitch-ener's staff. Tho English government has just a nn on need that the cruiser was destroyed by a mine. |
