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Show AVA HEROICS. A correspondent of the Xew York World on the Somine front takes pains to correct what he believes to be widespread wide-spread misconceptions regarding the nature of the fighting. If his powers of observation are accurate his statements state-ments certainly will cause some surprise. sur-prise. For example, we are told that the German artillery fire on the Sommc front is often heavier than the Franco-Belgian Franco-Belgian tire, that the Germans are returning re-turning shell for shell and yet lose ground. He does not try to explain, why the Germans, although apparently they are supplied with all military essentials, es-sentials, steadily retire and are unable to make successful charges; he merely states what he observes. Allowing for the fact that the correspondents corre-spondents have become accomplished in the fine art of flattery and that the New York World correspondent may he overpraising the allies so as to get his writings past the censor, we are yet well enough acquainted with the fighting fight-ing in France to know that the main facts are obvious the English am1. French advance while the Germans re-tire. re-tire. Ts it lack of men or lack of morale ? That the allied shellh're is more effective effec-tive than the German shellfire is stated by the correspondent, A: no I'nsch-Fleu-ror, who ascribes the superiority to the mastery of the air by the allied aviators. avia-tors. The English are aide to encamp on high groumi in exposed areas because be-cause the German airmen are too few to make proper recr.minisam-es. On the ' ot her hand the a llt-'d airmen continually con-tinually direct ;iie ii-e of their can ' ni'iiocrs ',.i: - ofj' ho-ti!e a'!a t '.:'' in W- Tii1 co i ref'C,ridfur, 'le. ribirig th? 'p.anrit v of m: u-ed. informs us that 1 ir is bv no iiiaiib unpre.-t" lenle-i despite, de-spite, the graudiu.-e pictures of the oat-lie oat-lie sorr.eiin.e-- f m r ed from ike Uer-man Uer-man -ide. lie cays: Much has l.":eu t-aided from the ' . erman front on the Sommo try-in try-in to proe that tiie German -tc-T'Mis--1 has been extraordinary under un-der the unprecedented sueil lire. No one doubts German courage, b;;t th'i shell tire is nuc unprece'iented. , Thev have been losing ground ; steadilv under such shell tire as the small "original Bi itU-h army held fast under t Ypu-s. The Germans ; are receiving nothing worse Irom ! French and British guns than the French lived under lor more than j six months at Verdun. Now, on observation of the .Somme show, I believe thev are giving the British Brit-ish shell for" shell, and still they lose ground. An oruinary day on the Somme, such as today, is not. worse for siiell (ire than days on the Aisne at the beginning of the war, when the Fj-.-m-h and British held, without yielding, a trench for six weeks without being able to return one shr-!l for ten. I have been through both, and this is worse only because the shells are lugger. The British shelling of the German Ger-man lines is no greater than the Germans gave the Belgians for seventeen sev-enteen davs on the Vser, and the Belgians were unable to return one shell in a hundred, but the Belgians Bel-gians held. This has been a vigorous offensive, offen-sive, but not a supreme effort. The Germans are also trying to " show that . the allied advance here has been at enormous cost. It has undoubtedly un-doubtedly been heavy, but nothing like the German estimates. After traveling the whole British Brit-ish front in France, it is apparent to me the British are mm-h better off in ammunition than the Ger-. mans. In most places they are using us-ing live shells to one German return, re-turn, but on the Sommc the Germans Ger-mans have plenty, and are not sparing them. Frequently the German shell fire is heavier than the British. The constant unsuccessful counter attacks at-tacks they are trying are always preceded by shell fire fully equal to anything seen in this war. |