July 13, 1916 
LAND c^' \^^ A T K R 
numerous set of points, which is to- lx>- the note of this 
summer, has received a further example by the launching 
of the first serious offensive against Hindenburg in the 
north ; and the point chosen by the Russians for this 
new action is the district immediately to the east of the 
railway junction of Baranovitchi. 
The plan of the I'Jussian railways (on Map I), sufficiently 
shows the importance of that knot ; five lines converge upon 
it and, what is more important, upon its possession 
depends the chief lateral conununication of the enemy 
upon all the right wing of his Northern Eastern froni. 
If he loses the junction of Baranovitchi he must fall back 
for a lateral communication upon the line which runs from 
Lida through Volkovisk to Brest. This does not mean 
that his forces will have to fall back necessarily over a 
wide belt of country, but it does mean that his lines will 
be supplied with more difficulty from a line of com- 
munications more distant, and it would in particular 
render difficult what must be during the whole progress 
of the offensive the enemy's chief preoccupation : to 
wit, the moving of troops up and down the line to con- 
centrate upon the most threatened points. Baranovichi 
is to the north what Kovel is to the south. It is so 
im])ortant that the moment it is threatened the enemy 
is perforce pinned and dare not mo\e men from its 
neighbourhood. 
The Russians are much nearer to attaining their end 
at Barano\ichi than at Kovel. They are nearer geo- 
graphically, and they are probably not faced by so con- 
siderable a concentration up here at the northern as they 
are at the southern junction. They have not, at the 
moment of writing this, reached the junction itself, but, 
50 far as one can judge from the communiques and from 
the map, it is under direct fire already, or, at any rate, 
under direct observation, and the range at which the 
station lies from the first Russian positions is not quite 
8,000 yards. It has, therefore, already ceased to be of 
use to the enemy in his communications between north 
and south, and that is a point of capital importance. 
'* Grumbling " of the Eastern Enemy Front 
Not the least remarkable feature in all this Eastern 
field of war, is the regular rate at which our ally continues 
to capture both prisoners and guns. Thus, we have 
seen how during the German retirement from the Styr, 
the total prisoners taken in only four days was over 
12,000' and 45 guns, of which a considerable number 
were heavy guns. But we hear day after day of new 
items : for instance, an isolated batch of prisoners, mado 
in the village of Ciregoreff upon the 7th. The remainder 
of a battalion (of some 600 men) that were picked up 
by the cavalry between Stokhod and the Styr last Thurs- 
day, and have only just been reported. The Hun- 
garian cavalry charged and largely captured by the Trans- 
Baikal Cossacks last Saturday. The full total of less 
than a fortnight ]iast is close on 30.000 men. 
Altogether, at the moment of writing, the number of 
living prisoners, Austrian and ( jerman, held by the Russians 
they first attacked on the 4th of June, cannot be 
less than a quarter of a million. 
It is a formidable figure at this period of the struggle, 
with the middle of the open season not yet reached, hardly 
a third of it expired, and with the enemy's reserves of 
man-power in the state with which all reasonable calcula- 
tion is now familiar. 
The German Glass '18 has begun to be called 
I say " all reasonable calculation," because there may 
still be groups of opinion here and there in England 
(there are no such groups elsewhere) which continue to 
accept the accuracy of the (ierman lists and vaguely dread 
some fantastic and non-existent reserves with which 
the eneniy would surprise us at the last moment. 
To correct such errors, if they still remain, I would 
like to point out certain facts which have recently been 
put before me abroad and the proofs of which are abund- 
antly sufficient. 
The German class U)ib has now, at the moment 
of writing (July loth), nearly all of it — at any rate, 
by far the greater part of it- — appeared in the firing line. 
For the German class 1916 appeared in large quantities, 
notably in the llird Corps, and in the XVIIIth, all 
along the Verdun sector as early as the glh of last 
March. 
Next, note that class/iqiy began to appear some weeks 
ago in the German fighting line. What proportion of 
the German class 191 7 has now already been drafted 
from the depots into the lighting units to fill gaps I am 
not informed ; it may be no more than a fifth, or it may 
be more ; but, at any rate, it has appeared, and has now 
been present for some little time upon the front. 
Lastly, there is this very significant piece of news. 
Class ic)i8, of which there has been no question hitherto 
in any of the conscript nations, except Austria, has now 
been warned for serxice all o\er Germany and in Saxony 
has already b:gun to b: called ui>. 
The Offensive on the Somme 
WHILE the general offensive has taken in the 
East the form just described and has shown 
its last development in the beginning of the 
northern attacks at Baranovichi, the corres- 
ponding moves in the West are already in full swing, 
and the first blows have been struck upon a front 
of over twenty-five miles, where the little marshy 
upper Somme crosses the Allied line and where the ' 
British Forces join hands with the left of the French 
Sixth Army. 
The minds of all readers in Western Europe have been 
fixed upon this field, but we shall not understand its 
importance unless we take a more general survey and 
consider how the opposing forces stand in the West. 
The enemy in the West has disposed his forces into three 
main groups with three different tasks assigned to each. 
Each of these groups is about the same size in mere 
numbers, though differing in quality. 
There is first the large immobile mass of somewhat 
over 40 divisions, which holds all those parts of the 
line not immediately threatened nor innncdiately designed 
for activity. The whole stretch from the Oise \'alley 
eastward through the Argonne and onward to the neigh- 
bourhood of Verdun is included in this, as is everything 
beyond Verdun, eastward and southward, past the salient 
of "St. Mihiel in front of Nancy and so down the Vosges 
to the Swiss frontier. 
There is next what has now become through the im- 
mense drain of men the group at leasf equivalent in 
numbers and superior in quality which has been sacrificed 
in the fundamental error of Verdun. By this time at 
least 40 divisions have appeared upon this sector. 
That a large proportion of the original attacking force has 
disappeared is a commonplace with which all Europe is 
acquainted, but the gaps have either been made good, 
so far, by new drafts ; or units wrecked in action (as the 
5th and 6th divisions were wrecked months ago) and their 
remnants withdrawn from the fighting had been re- 
placed wholesale by fresh units. Verdun easily accounts 
for the second 3rd, of the enemy's available forces in the 
West. 
The last third, equal in the number of divisions to the 
force flung at Verdun and to the immobilised divisions 
along the rest of the front, is the very large body of men, 
novy not less than 40 divisions in strength counting 
the " relays " behind the line, which is drawn up in 
three armies (the 4th, the 6th and 2nd. — \\'urtemburg, 
Crown Prince of Bavaria, Bulow) along the northern 
portion of the front, not quite a hundred miles in extent, 
much the greater paft of which on the Allied side is 
held by the British. 
It is against this body and against its left or southern 
wing (Bulow's command) that the Allied offensive opened 
its bombardment and its first great subsequent infantrv 
attack on the first day of the month. All that which 
may be called the " Sector of Albert " from near Gomme- 
court Up in the north to a point of about fiv^ miles beyond 
the Somme, upon the south (just up to and beyond the 
great Roman road which runs eastward from .\miens to 
St. Quentin) was engaged, striking full at Bulow's 
second .-Yrmy. . ' 
At the moment of writing, after an advance the details 
