28 
LAND & WATER 
August 10, 1916 
The Attack North of Pozieres 
TH E interest of the sharp and successful advance 
north and north-west of Pozieres, undertaken by 
the Colonial troops and the Kent, Sussex and 
Surrey of our regiments is, and remains what it 
is on every portion of this held since the 14th of July : 
the power of the Allies, largely on account of their superior 
munitionment and gun power to seize rapidly and com- 
pletely any narrow belt that they will, quite apart from 
the largeradvances which require prolonged preparation. 
One point not cleared up in the story, as it has been 
received up to Tuesday afternoon, is whether the capture 
of the second line carried the British force completely 
to the windmill and gave them any useful chain of obser- 
vation posts on that ridge. (The word ridge is not strictly 
accurate. The top is very flat and the slope is slight 
on either side). There ha\e been imofhcial aftirmatit)ns 
that the rUins of the windmill were held and that the 
advance now looked down the falling parallel shallow 
valleys which lead to Bapaumc, but I have se3n no con- 
firmation of this officially. 
We have ample evidence from the German press of 
the effect of the allied gun fire and particularly of the 
British. The tiermans themsehes continually , describe 
it as superior in intensity and continuity to anything 
that has appeared anywhere on any front. Superior, for 
instance, to the continued bombardment before Verdun. 
In connection with this mtcnsity of the British fire, its 
appalling continuity and masses of men which it supports, 
there has appeared on the military side of the press in 
Berlin, and from the pen of the most prominent student 
of the war there, an " appeal to the German authorities 
to interrupt communications across the Channel." A 
man reading such a thing a year ago would have thought 
that the author was mad. But nowadays it is consonant 
with most other rubbish which the enemy press must 
publish for lack of better matter. To appeal to the 
German authorities to interrupt communications across 
the Channel, as Major Moraht did last Sunday, and to 
point out that those communications were vital to the 
British campaign in France is like pointing out to the 
Allied Higher Command that a rapid advance in force 
from the Baltic coast would turn the defensive line of the 
enemy in the East. There is nothing else, to be said 
unless the competent war students — and the grotesque 
thing I have just quoted comes from the pen of the most 
competent — shall resign themselves to telling the truth 
about the situation and to preparing their fellow country- 
men for the very difficult future which is in front of them. 
The official communiques continue in much the same 
strain. The French pressure on the Thiaumont road, 
for instance, in front of Verdun, succeeds in carrying 
nearly the whole of Fleury village and the whole work of 
ITiiaumont and holding it, with this carried, whereat we 
get a Une in the official communique from Berlin : " The 
position on the Thiaumont ridge remains the same 
without advantage to the enemy." 
The crossing of the Sereth by the Russians with the 
capture of 8,000 men and guns, including two heavy 
guns, the corresponding threat to the vital railway feeding 
the Austro-German advanced front, is described thus : 
" The Russian attacks were again unsuccessful, fighting 
is proceeding on the right bank of the Sereth." 
" MaximiHen Harden " 
Much more significant is the attitude, probably of 
civilian authorities, in the matter o« Witkowsky. Wit- 
kowsky is a Polish Jew, one of three brothers, I belie\e, 
but at any rate the brother of a very important financial 
personage in Berlin who is at the head of one of the great 
banks and who conceals his origin under the German name 
of Witting. Witkowsky similarly conceals not only his 
origin, but his close connection with the financier of 
Berlin under the alias of Maximilien Harden, having the 
reputation of a free lance in journalism. He is the best 
possible agent for the Prussian Government at this 
moment, and it must be confessed that his activities are 
being used with skill. Under the simulacrum of an exile 
abroad on account of his too great " independence," he 
receives orders to write everything best calculated to 
prepare German opinion for the very difficult times it has 
ahead of it. The matter is probably printed abroad, but 
its circulation in Germany is winked at by the authorities 
and, most important of all, is assiduously spread by 
German agencies throughout the neutral press. The 
object of the whole move is to prepare not only the 
German, but neutral and belligerent opinion for the idea 
that Germnay. though almost invincible, appreciates her 
present difficulties and would be prepared for a generous 
and honourable peace, and must not be driven to despera- 
tion. Those who desire to follow the attitude of what is 
best informed and most successful in the German propa- 
ganda cannot do better than read every quotation they 
can find from the writings of this individual, for he is 
\Vithout doubt at the present moment the most useful 
agent of the enemy. Now and then he intersperses his 
matter with violent stuff apparently opposed to German 
interests, but that is only part of the game. 
French Pressure at Verdun 
Last Thursday, August 3rd, the French pressure against 
the Germans on the Verdun sector, which is, of course, 
exactly co-ordinat(sd with the pressure put upon the enemy 
along the Somme, succeeded in re-taking the ruins of 
Fleury village, and about the point where the shrine of 
Ste. Fine once stood immediately below the height of 
Souville. These points were the high-water mark of the 
German advance rather more than a month ago. 
The work of Thiaumont, that is, the trenches organised 
around the ruins of Thiaumont, which had been lost to the 
enemy even earlier in the struggle and form the third 
point in this advance of his, was also taken and re-taken. 
The Germans counter-attacked in the night between 
Thursday and Friday, August 3rd, and August 4th, and 
recaptured the works of Thiaumont and the ruins of 
Fleury, issuing a bulletin to that efi'ect immediately 
after their success. In the course of Friday, August 
4th, however, the work of Thiaumont was again re-taken 
by the French, and in the afternoon the greater part of 
the ruins of Fleury as well. These operations, as a whole, 
resulted in the capture of some 1,500 German prisoners, 
a remarkable total when we consider the severity of the 
struggle, and the extremely narrow limits to which it was 
confined. The total number of valid prisoners captured 
by the French during the four or five days of the struggle 
as a whole in this region amounted by this time to 2,150. 
It need hardly be pointed out that the particular fate 
for the moment of Thiaumont farm or the rubbish heap 
that once was Fleury, is quite immaterial. These local 
efforts have for their whole object the maintenance of the 
enemy at full strength in the Verdun sector where he 
has every inducement now to break off the battle. 
The Italian Success 
Upon the Carso the Italians upon Sunday last, struck 
a strong local blow upon the bare hillside north of Mon- 
falcone. They captured over 3,000 prisoners. Counter- 
attacks upon the Austrian side were only partially success- 
ful, and the severity of the Italian blow mav be tested by 
the fact that in the case of the field artillery, guns, lying 
of course behind the lines, were captured. The pro- 
portion of officers taken is further remarkable — one officer 
between 30 and 40 men — which looks as though complete 
units have been overwhelmed upon the attack upon the 
enemy's trenches. The matter is significant as an 
example of the pressure which is being exercised every- 
where upon the enemy's lines now throughout the whole 
field of the war. The Austro-Hungarians give way on 
the Isonzo because the quality of their effectives is 
dropping. That is always the effect of strain even 
before actual shrinkage of numbers begin. 
H. BntLoc 
Mr. Pollen's Articles 
For the next few weeks, unless there are naval events 
of special importance, Mr. Arthur Pollen will not con- 
■tribiile his usual weeklv article to Land & W.mer ; 
he intends to resume his naval analysis in September. 
