OCR Text |
Show PROGRESS OF THE WAR. After a brilliant advance the" Rus-siaus Rus-siaus have met with disaster owing to mutiny among their troops on one sector. sec-tor. On other sectors the Teutons have made advances by a furious offensive, but these advances have been slight and were mainly valuable because they checked the sweep of General Korni-lofif's Korni-lofif's men in the region of Kalusz. "When the Russians began their offensive of-fensive several weeks ago their activity ac-tivity extended from Zlocov, directly east of Lemberg, southward to Brze-zany, Brze-zany, Halicz and Stanislau. The line was practically a straight one, north and south. After a few days of fighting fight-ing only the northern tip of the line at Zlocov failed to advance. The remainder re-mainder of the line swept westward until the Russians had advanced on their left flank about forty miles and had occupied,' first, Halicz, and then Kalusz on the Lomnica river. The lines thus swept in a great semi-circle from Zlocov through Brzezauy around to Kalusz Ka-lusz and to Novica, a short distance south of Kalusz. The fronts stood thus until the Teutons Teu-tons began their counter offensive. Their preliminary blows were, struck in the region of Kalusz, which the Russians abandoned, although, according to Petrograd, they retained the crossing cross-ing of the Iomnica river. At Novica the Austrians regained the heights, but the Muscovites, in a counterattack, retook re-took some of the lost ground. The net gains of the Teutons were nothing to boast of in this region, but soon a striking strik-ing success was achieved at Zlocov, which is on the Lemberg-Tarnopol road, running from the northwest to the southeast. Along a front of forty miles, north and south of Zlocov, the Germans Ger-mans and Austrians pressed forward until un-til they had driven the enemy back nearly twenty miles. Petrograd declares that the retreat was due rather to the disaffection among the Russian troops than to Teuton fighting qualities. In one of the Russian Rus-sian regiments, which was rife with the spirit of mutiny, a debate was held as to whether the regiment should fight. During the dispute the Germans at tacked and this regiment ran away. Neighboring regiments were compelled to retire, and soon the Muscovites were in full flight. It was not until the Teutons had captured three defense zones that the Russians were able to re-form their shattered lines. While the Germans have not taken one-fourth as much territory as was occupied oc-cupied by General Korniloff in his advance ad-vance they have sent a wedge deep into the heart of the Russ lines east of Lemberg and have strained it to the breaking point. In their offensive the Russians captured 37,000 prisoners and many guns. The Germans, in their offensive, have captured some thousands of prisoners and perhaps a large number num-ber of guns. During the operations in Galicia thti Germans struck hard and fast on the western front. The purpose is not altogether apparent. It has been suggested that the crown prince, believing be-lieving that the French were near the point of exhaustion, was trying to defeat de-feat them definitely before American troops could occupy .any part of the front. But another purpose would appear ap-pear to be quite as likely. As soon as 1 the Russians had attained success in j the Gulk'ian drive it became necessary I for !he Germans to strengthen the Aus- tro-German forces in Galicia. In other .v o r d s , it became necessary to send troops bark from France to the eastern front. It is probable that the crown prince has been trying to cover this movement by attacks along the French lines. The crown prince attacked on the ' Chimin Dos Dame?, which is in the ' -Suisons-LaOD, sector, in the Cham-; Cham-; a'iie and on the west bark of the . Mo:iji.', near the famous Dead Man's : hill. On the Cherr.in Pes Da:ues the Ger-i Ger-i mans met with some suece.-s just how much is not clear, inasmuch as the lines ; have writhed back and forth in this ; sector for week s. It is probable that p the French have lost several trench sys-j sys-j terns and a part of the highway, but i there u no sign of a breach in the ! line such as would necessitate a rc-' rc-' treat. In the Champagne the Teton I "saddle'' has changod hands several ! times. The French had taken most 'of the observation ground in this re-j re-j giun during the spring and summer lighting. Naturally, the Germans have tried to retain a hold on the high ground. For a long time they kept f the "saddle," after they had lost the hills on either side. The French, in a swift drive, drove the enemy off the "sadd'e" and tried to organize the trench system. Here the battle has also swayed back and forth, and the official reports do not make it clear which side is in possession of the commanding position. po-sition. On the Meuse the French attained a rapid victory, which recalled General Gen-eral Nivelle's jemarkable drive at Verdun last fall. Not so much ground was gained, but the drive was remarkable for the same characteristics that mark-d the earlier battle. The Germans had pushed down from the north into the French lines east of Dead Man's hill. They had penetrated deep into Avocourt wood, after crossing the hill summits. Last week the French determined to regain the summits. They organized their forces carefully and awaited a favorable day for an infantry infan-try charge. Finally, when they charged, they found that fortune favored them. The enemy, thinking that delay meant the abandonment of the offensive, had ordered a change of forces. It was while the relief regiments were occupying the forward trenches and the relieved regiments regi-ments were moving to the rear that the French launched their attack. The German lines were thrown into great confusion. The French met with no resistance as they crossed over the summits, sum-mits, and once, on the other side they rushed forward so swiftly that they had captured the third line before the fo-3 was able to offer effective resistance. resis-tance. On the whole, therefore, the crown prince's western offensive "has not been fruitful, but it may be that he prevented a French offensive which might have proved costly at a time when the Germans Ger-mans were sending regiments and divisions di-visions back to the eastern front. The only operation by British forces that attracted attention, aside from the raids near Lens and northward thereof, was an advance along the Euphrates river northwestward of Bagdad. The British defeated the Turks and moved forward about a dozen miles. The atrociously hot weather in this region soon forced a cessation of activity. Aside from the military operations on the various fronts there has been fighting fight-ing in Petrograd between government forces and revolutionaries. The Maximalists, Maxi-malists, who are anarchists and radicals of various sorts, became violent in their demonstrations, seeking to overthrow the provisional government at a time when the members of ,the cabinet were in a turmoil. Four or five of the members had resigned and a condition condi-tion of weakness and ineptitude prompted prompt-ed the rebels to assert their demands. T'ae provisional government finally ordered or-dered the troops to fire on the rioters who had been marching and countermarching counter-marching in the streets. Then the government decided to take possession of strongholds which the Maximalists had occupied for months. Headed by the remarkable leader, Kerensky, the government forces stormed the fortress of Peter and Paul in the face of machine ma-chine gun fire and captured it. They also captured the chateau of a Russian Rus-sian dancer, which had been fortified. Since the street battles Prince Lvof, the premier, has resigned and Kerensky has become premier. He promises a forceful policy and has severely criticized criti-cized the irresolution which prevented the provisional government from deal ing adequately with the elements of violence. vio-lence. He has restored complete order in Petrograd. Meantime, Lenine, the most obstreperous of the anti-government leaders, has been exposed as a bribed ageut of Germany. On tho sea the British effected a coup when they disposed of a fleet of seventeen German merchant ships engaged en-gaged in trade between Germany and Holland. This trade had been in progress prog-ress for some time and the British admiralty ad-miralty determined to break it up. A mosquito fleet was sent into the shallow shal-low waters on the Dutch coast and lay in wait for the German merchantmen. One day three of the ships ventured forth and came in contact with the warships. war-ships. They fled for the shore under fire. The next day fourteen ships were attacked by the British. Of the seventeen sev-enteen ships four were captured, four were forced aground, four were destroyed, de-stroyed, two were wrecked, two regained re-gained port badly damaged and one reentered re-entered a Dutch port undamaged. The Germans have been unable to increase the destructi vencss of their U-boats. For three weeks the submarines subma-rines have sunk about the same tonnage ton-nage each week. The latest British report re-port shows sixteen ships sunk, fourteen of them being of more than ltk'O tons. |