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Show PROGRESS OF THE WAR. The British consider their latest victory vic-tory in the Ypres sector one of the most important of the war and they compare it with the victory of Jof I re at the Marne, In its ultimate consequences, the erga ement may take ou the aspect of a decisive battle, but it probably is too much to say that it is as important as the battle bat-tle of the Marne, which was one of the decisive battles of history. Wore than a million men on the French side and about a million on the German side fought at the Marne for three or four days before the Teutons began to retreat. re-treat. The fighting extended along a front of .100 miles between Paris and Verdun and at about the same time another battle that of the Grand Couronne do Nancy was in progress in eastern Prance. The French' victory provented the Germans-f rom winning the war and made it possible for the allies to grow steadily stronger through the years of warfare that have followed. fol-lowed. Tho British offensive east of Ypres last Thursday can be viewed from several sev-eral aspects and we can increase or diminish di-minish the magnitude and importance of the engagement accordingly as we adopt one or another of these views. If we regard the drive of last week as merely a part of the "Battle of Ypres" it is a bigger fight than tho Marne. As yet it is not so decisive, but the "Battle of Ypres," if there is such a thing, is not yet ended. It would be-more be-more correct, perhaps, to' regard Yrpres as a campaign and the British themselves them-selves seem to regard the fighting as divided into many battles. For example, exam-ple, they designated the drive which preceded the latest as the "Battle of the Menin Road." Considered as a one-day battle,, last week's offensive was a notable and even a great battle, but not of a decisive de-cisive character except in a limited sense. It was decisive in that it ended the German hope of being able to retain tho mighty fortified positions around Ypres. It was decisive in the sense that it has given the British possession of practically all of a ridge which is the key position east of Ypres. The Germans now hold only a small part of the high ground and "their grip is constantly con-stantly relaxing. Beyond are the plains of Flanders, difficult diffi-cult to fortify. The railroad from Ost-end Ost-end to Lille will soon be under fire of the British guns and thus communications communica-tions will be weakened. It would not be surprising, therefore, if the Germans Ger-mans drew back across the plains some miles perhaps ten or fifteen to a line where they could fortify themselves them-selves more securely than on the lowlands low-lands immediately beyond the ridge from which they are being pushed. The danger would be that such a retreat would weaken the entire line in Flanders Flan-ders and soon compel the Germans to retreat from all of the Belgian coast. In the drive last week the British, took five villages, considerable military booty and 5000 prisoners. The number of captives was nearly as great as the number taken during the whole month of September. Meantime British losses in offensive fightiug do not appear to bo much greater than their losses when on the defensive, resisting the repeated Teutonic counter-attacks. While the fighting in the Ypres salient sal-ient goes furiously on the Germans have not been doing much elsewhere. In the Aisne sectors and at Verdun they have driven forward in fierce little drives and have taken trenches, but in almost every instance they have been speedily deprived of their gains by counter-attacks. At Ypres counterattacks counter-attacks have been of a vaster character charac-ter and occasionally the Germans have made real gains. In the end, however, a. British offensive has swept them out of recaptured positions and far to the rear. The advance in the most recent drive along a front of nearly nine miles took the British as deeply into the foe's line as two miles at one point and a mile or a mile and a half at others. In Mesopotamia the British, in a brilliant attack, seized the Turkish position po-sition of Msuh Aidridge at Ramadie, capturing the entire enemy force, including in-cluding a general with his headquarters staff. Nearly 4000 prisoners were taken, together with twelve guns and much other military material and large quantities of food. The German airmen attacked Oesel and destroyed a magazine. A number of Russian officers and men, who were fighting the fire caused by the bombs, perished. The Slavs retaliated by bombing bomb-ing the foe's camps in Courland. In Rumania the Teutons have displayed dis-played some activity, but have been re- i pulled in several attacks. The Italians have advanced their lines on the west side f Monte San Gabriele and have repulsed counter-attacks. The British people have been aroused by six or seven raids on London by German airmen and have demanded reprisals. re-prisals. The government has been un able longer to withstand the popular demand and Las announced, through the premier, that a campaign of retaliation will be undertaken. Scores of persons I have been killed or wounded in London j during the recent raids. j Meantime the French have been making mak-ing reprisals in Germany for attacks on , open towns in France by Teuton aviators. aviat-ors. Bombs were dropped at Frankfort, Cobienz. Treves, Stuttgart and several other towns. j News lias come that American mer- chant ships have been destroyed in the , Pacific by German raiders., The master , of the schooner Slade arrived at Tutu- ! ila, Samoan island, in an open boat, after a perilous voyage. He stated that j the Seeadler, a German raider which ! ; left the home country early in the year j and destroyed some vessels in the At-! Inn tic, sailed into the Pacific and sank a number of vessels, including three American schooners. The Seeadler put into Mopcha island, in the South Pacific, Pa-cific, and stranded. The vessel could not bo released and the Teutons decided to arm other vessels. Part of the crew went out to sea in a power boat with two months' supply of bombs and food. A little later the rest of the crew captured cap-tured the French schooner Lutece when it lauded at Mopeha. They armed it and also set forth on a raiding cruise. Tho two raiders are still plying the Pacific, Pa-cific, wdiile American, British and Japanese Japa-nese warships' search for them. The American navy lias lost two ships in the last week. A coast guard ship, on patrol duty off an" Atlantic port, was rammed and sunk by an unknown vessel. A patrol boat evidently a destroyer de-stroyer of Admiral Sims's submarine subma-rine fleet, has also been sunk. No details de-tails are furnished by the navy department, depart-ment, but there was no loss of life. An American destroyer is reported to have sunk a German U-boat. |
