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Show FRENCH WIPE QUI GERMAN REGIMENT 1 GERMANS CAPTURE 23,000 RUSSIANS; ,1 VICTORY IN THE ARGONNE DENIED! FAST AND FURIOUS FIGHTING IS 1 EXPECTED THROUGHOUT TDE WEEK Allies Not Compelled to Force Issue, But Will Keep Germans Busy With Their Holding Tactics in the Western Arena While the Russians Move Forward for Struggle Strug-gle to Possess Silesia, Posen and East Prussia. ENGLISH HOPE TO SEE GERMAN TIDE EBB French Sound Cheerful Note Ypres, Armentieries, Bethune and Arras Holding Out Against Heavy German Assaults Supreme Effort of Kasier's Armies to Break Through to Dunkirk and Calais Expected Before Be-fore Next Phase of War Operations Begins. Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 16, via Paris, 3:20 p. m. The National Swiss today publishes a long letter from a Swiss who I is doing Red Cross work at Brussels. An extract from the letter says: "The number of German wounded arriving here is unimaginable. Trains, which we call cemetery trains, full of piled up dead soldiers, continue to arrive from the front. " I They contain bundles of dead ; that is, four bodies tied together j to facilitate transportation. The bodies are burned promptly 1 in special furnaces erected just outside Brussels." i i i Berlin, Nov. 16, by wireless. According to information given officially to the press today, reports reaching Berlin from Geneva set forth that the British torpedo boat destroyer r Falcon, the cruiser Brilliant and the sloop of war Rinaldo have ;' been disabled by German guns on the Belgian coast. D ( London, Nov. 16. 3:10 p. m. Telegraphing from Athens, the correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph com-j i pany says it was announced in the Grecian chamber of deputies I today that Great Britain had advanced Greece 40.000,000 drachmas ($8,000,000) to pay for warships for Greece to be " constructed in English shipyards. i I Paris. Nov 16, 2:51 p. m The French official announcement given I out is Paris this afternoon says that f yesterday along the Yser canal be tween Nieuport and Dixmude the fighting was limited to artillery exchanges. ex-changes. The text of the communication follows: fol-lows: "During the day of yesterday, along 5 the Yser canal from Nieuport to tho country up the river from Dixmude. 1 the fighting was limited to artillery .c bangeB. I "The country having been further I inundated, the submerged territory now stretches to the nouth of Dix mude to a point five kilometers f (three miles) north of Bixschoote. - German Regiment Destroyed, t "The forces of the enemy which i endeavored to cross the canal be- . tween the region of Dixmude and Pixschoote all were driven back be-5. be-5. yond the bridges. A German regi ment was completely destroyed at a point to the south of Bixschoote. 7 "To the southeast of Ypres two other German attacks were repulsed. On our part, we have taken the offensive of-fensive and reeonnuered certain points of support which the enemy some days ago succeeded in capturing. captur-ing. "Between the Lys and the Olse there have been only operations of minor importance and partial prog ress made by our advanced position. "In the region of the Alsue and in the Champagne country there have been artlllerj exchanges without re- BUlt, "In the Argonne the town of SI Hubert has again been attacked by the Germans, but without success. "In the region of St. Mihiel a sur- i prise atuick undertaken by the i a- I eray against Apremont resulted in " failure V 'There has been little activity in the Vosges." Fate of War Depends on Reserves. The fate of the war depends now. Pays Colonel Feyler, an eminent Swiss military writer, essentially on the reserves of men that the armies are able to bring up, and in this respect, according to military opinion hore, Germany appears to bo In a state of Inferiority. Not only does the Russian Rus-sian offensive prevent Germany from transferring men from the eastern to the western front, they point out, but troops that are now being instructed in the interior, will necessarily be 5 Bent against the Russians. It also is pointed out that Germany -1 has to operate on fronts totallln-' nearly 1000 milea with 2G active army corps, while the allieH have at their disposal 29 army corps for a line le.;.s than half as long. Thus from the point of view of available troops, it is argued, the comparison is unfavorable unfavor-able to the Germans. Both Sides Well Equipped. So far as equipment is concerned, the infantry on both sides are equally f well supplied 'At the beginning the I German, were much better off With i quick firers. but the allies now have caught up by intensive production in the arms factories In artillery, the allies are said to have the advantage as far as light pieces are concerned, hut the German heavy artillery is in-oontestibly in-oontestibly superior. They are not likely to retain that superiority long, however, since both the French and British arsenals are beginning to deliver de-liver big guns and the allies have plenty of trained men to serve them, irrespective of the Japanese gunners whose early arrival at Marseilles Is announced by rumor. Germans Cut Off by Floods In London It is rumored that a larce force of Germans around Dixmude has been cut off by the floods. The inundated in-undated country now extends south of Dixmude to within three miles of Bixschoote, Bix-schoote, about half way to the French border In the other sections, snow haw fallen fall-en and the hardships endured by the men on the firing line, as described by persons returning from the front, are frightful. At points the Germans are Bald to have been literally swept out of their trenches by the floods Guns and ammunition wagons are Imbedded Im-bedded In the mud and countless corpses float about. The Russians apparently are concentrating con-centrating their efforts on the capture cap-ture of Cracow and Przemysl. in an effort to crush completely the Austrian Aus-trian army before making their main advance on German territory. Converging Con-verging forces are marching on Cracow, Cra-cow, the siege of which is believed In Petrograd to be near The Austrian Aus-trian garrison at Przemysl, according accord-ing to an official Austrian statement, made a successful sortie from the invested in-vested fortress. From the same source it is reported report-ed that the Germans are massing their forces at strategic points in the east-em east-em pro inces of Posen and Silesia, preparing for the expected Russian advance Turks Halt Russian Movement. Petrograd acknowledges that the evere attacks of the Turks in tho Caucasian regions near the eastern shores of the Black sea have halted the Russian movement An official Turkish statement today asserts that the Russians have suffered heavy losses. Britain's problem of dealing with the Moslems was brought up squarely bj the German statement that tho khedive of Fgypt had departed from C onstantinople where he had boon since the beginning of the war. to as-same as-same 1 ommand of the Turkish forces operating against Egypt. Another report re-port of dissension In British possessions, posses-sions, coming from the same source. io the effect that the leader of the Bedouins at Aden, a British possession pos-session in Arabia, was calling on his i nple to vise to arms against their rulers. I London, Nov. 16, 1.55 p. m. Fast and furious fighting both In the eastern east-ern and the western arenas of the war is expected by English military observers to make the coming week memorable even in a war each week of which has witnessed carnage equal to that of the great battles of history'- At the same time hints from the front encourage them to expect that tho week also will see the German Ger-man tide through Flanders toward the coast towns of Dunkirk and Calais begin be-gin to ebb The cheerful note sounded by the French official announcements of yesterday indicating that .Ypres, Ar-mentleres, Ar-mentleres, Bethune, Arras and other inland gates to the seacoast remain so far impregnable barriers to all the German assaults, is doubtless responsible respon-sible for this optimism While the vigor of the Teutonic offensive may have slackened, there is at tho present pres-ent moment little if any, indication of a resolve on the part of the German Ger-man commanders to abandon the plans which already have cost them so dearly. At least one more comprehensive attempt to break through the allied lines, therefore, Is expected before the next phase of the operations opens. This phase it Is thought in London, granted hat the German advance is not continued, will be the siege of the trenches carefully prepared pre-pared by the Germans in the rear of their present lines. The forecasts of these strategists point out that the allies are under no compulsion to force the issue at the present stage They consequent-ly consequent-ly anticipate a development of hold ing tactics with a View of keeping the German armies in the western arena busy while the Russian masses, a thousand miles to the eastward, are moving forward to the struggle for the possession of Silesia, Posen and East Prussia These calculations are mado without with-out any knowledge of the plans of the Berlin staff to alter the situation as It. exists today. |
