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Show MAY BE EXPECTED By Captain Cecill Battine, Military Expert Ex-pert of the London Daily Telegraph. London, July 5. In the allies' western west-ern offensive the British losses to date have not been officially published, but they are known to be heavy This was to be expected, as, under all circumstances, cir-cumstances, a very large proportion of the casualties result from slight wounds from much gunfire at close rang or from slight injuries, caused by spent shrapnel. Without making premature assumptions, assump-tions, we can rejoice at the results, so far as they have gone. The bitter experience gained in pre. vious attempts they made at offensive offen-sive actions (especially Neuve Chap-elle, Chap-elle, Festubert and Loos) apparently has been turned to good account. The attacks have been made on a concerted concert-ed plan, with a limited and defined objective, ob-jective, and the march of the supporting support-ing troops to the assistance of the first line seems to have been successfully achieved. French Excel in Gunnery. The fact that General Foch appears to have achieved a more decisive success than General Haig may be accounted for both by the greater experience ex-perience and tactical training of tho French artillery and also, perhaps, by tho fact that tho French attack on such a vigorous scale came as a greater great-er surprise to the German leaders, who had doubtless anticipated a serl ous British offensive movement at the very spot where it took place, but who apparently believed tho French reserves were too much needed to relive re-live the division decimated at Verdun to supply the driving power required for a formidable push elsewhere. The most admirable part of the joint offensive executed by the British and French so far has been its co ordination in point of time. Much has been gained from the fact that the new British levies under the impromptu mechanism of tho leadership leader-ship and staff have been able not only to carry strong Gorman fortifications by storm, but also maintain themselves them-selves in and beyond the captured works, in spite of tho deliberately matured schemes of the Germans to eject them, for there has been severe fighting in and around the villages, more of the nature of former infantry battles than most of tho warfare of the last eighteen months, and our new troops have acquitted themselves well. Chance of New Drive. Also have the French hemmed In and hammered for flvo months on the battered rim of tho Verdun redoubtsbreathed re-doubtsbreathed more freely, now that their army once more has been able to assume tho offensive. For tho moment, the Germans aro obliged to fix their eyes on the region re-gion of the Franco-British thrust. They cannot possibly afford to let it pene trate much deeper without riBk of great dlsastor, nor can they hold It In check without drawing on their reserves of munitions and men. Meanwhile, they aro faced by the powerful British forces on the long lino from Ypres to Albert which have not yet been engaged. And, notwithstanding notwith-standing tho drain of tho French re-serveB re-serveB to Verdun and the magnitude of the present effort on our immediate right the French still retain intact a very largo force which may, at any moment, bo let Ioobc on the Gorman trenches with the same devastating energy. Nor have tho German staff any inkling ink-ling ns to what section of the lino from Peronne to the Moselle may bo selected for tho principal trial of 8 Tho priceless advantage of inltia-five inltia-five has, at any rate, for the time being, passed from tho Germans to tho chiefs of the Franco-British armies. THE CAUSE. "Binks Is the most wide-awake man I know." "Such enterprise? "Nop; bad case of insomnia." |