of trenches, with little opposition, many of the Turkish soldiers being found buried in the débris, while those who remained were taken prisoners. East of the ravine the Royal Scots made a fine attack, capturing two lines of trenches assigned to them, but further to their right the remaining battalions of their brigade met with a check. Meanwhile the Gurkhas, pressing along the Saghir Dere, captured a commanding knoll directly west of Krithia, the final result of the day's fighting being a gain of 1,000 yards, while the left wing was thrown forward so as to face east instead of north. The sketch shows the position of the Allied forces on the night of June 28th. In order to support the main attack on Krithia Sir William Birdwood, commanding the Australian and New Zealand Division, was directed to make a demonstration along the Sari Bair ridgeway towards the Maidos-Krithia road, so as to prevent the Turks reinforcing their army defending Achi Baba. This order was carried out, but there was no gain of ground, as the Turks, apprehensive for their communications, had asembled in great force at this point. The Turkish defeat on June 28th alarmed the Constantinople Government, and Enver Pasha hurried down to the scene of operations to try and put fresh life into Turkish resistance. On arrival he ordered a general counter-attack to be made with the object of recovering the lost ground, and this was launched on July 4th, when after a violent bombardment two divisions of Turkish infantry were sent forward in massed formation after the German fashion against the positions held by the 29th and Naval Divisions. The attack made no impression on the British troops, who easily repulsed it, inflicting enormous loss on the enemy. Following up the success gained on June 28th with his left wing, Sir Ian Hamilton directed the Naval Division, working in co-operation with the two French Divisions, to push forward the right and right centre of the Allied line in pursuance of his ultimate plan, which is to envelop the Achi Baba position. After two days' severe fighting the whole line was advanced some 400 yards, the 1st French Division succeeded in occupying the lower valley of the Kereves stream on the extreme right, the losses of the enemy again being very heavy. Fighting is still reported to be going on. During the past month General Cadorna has deployed the whole of the Italian Third Army on the right bank of the Isonzo between Tolmino and Monfalcone, and has been carrying out a vigorous offensive in order to gain a secure footing on the left bank- -an antecedent condition of further operations eastwards. Italian troops have crossed the river, at five different points, Caporetto, Plava, Castelnuovo, Gradisca, and Monfalcone. Considering the immense strength of the Austrian defences, General Cadorna and his brave troops are to be congratulated on having made so good a start. Along the thirty-mile front from Tolmino to the sea there is a continuous wall of defensive works flanked on the north by the fortified position of Tolmino, and on the south by the formidable Corso plateau, while Gorizia constitutes a central Austrian point d'appui, having been converted into a modern fortress with a girdle of exterior forts supplemented by advanced batteries provided with armoured cars on which the latest types of heavy howitzers are mounted. All that destructive science can do to render this iron barrier impassable has been done, and the Italians are having a hard struggle to break through it into Austria. While regular siege operations are being carried on against Tolmino and Gorizia the Italians are putting forth great efforts to secure possession of the Corso plateau, which dominates the rail and carriage road between Monfalcone and Trieste, as well as the Isonzo valley up to Gorizia. The plateau must be completely subjugated before any advance can be made along the coast road into Istria, and before Gorizia can be attacked from the south. On July 18th the Italians, who were already in possession of the bridge head at Sagrado, stormed with great gallantry several lines of trenches on the summit of the western face of the plateau, and captured 2,000 prisoners with a large quantity of war material. As these words are being written they are now following up this success by an infantry attack supported by a large number of heavy and field guns. Further north another army is operating against Tarvis along two routes, one of which goes over the Pontafel pass, and is traversed by the Venice-Vienna railway, while the other is the coach road leading from Plezzo over the Predil pass to the Save valley. The progress of the Italian columns along the railway route has been checked at Malborghetto (see map in last month's FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW), where the Austrians have constructed a chain of forts, which have not yet been subdued, while along the coach road an equally strong group of forts covering the Predil pass will have to be captured before the way is clear to Tarvis. A further offensive is being directed across the Carnic Alps by way of the Kreuzberg pass down the Sexten valley to Innichen and Toblach on the Püster Thal railway. Formidable works have been constructed at Sexten and Lambro, covering the approaches to the railway, and the Italian artillery is now engaged in bombarding the forts before the troops descend into the Drave valley. This movement has considerable strategic importance, for when the railway is reached communication along the Püster Thal between the Adige and the Isonzo will be cut, and the Austrian position in the Trentino turned. The further the Italians advance the greater the pressure on the Austrians, and the more troops they will have to divert from the Russian frontier to meet the threatened danger in the west. The main Italian attack is coming across the Isonzo, and this is as it should be, for a successful offensive in this direction will go far to determine the attitude of the Balkan States, all of whom are making ready for war, but holding back till the Allied Powers have obtained some sufficiently decisive successes to justify intervention on their side. A glance at the map shows what possibilities exist for a movement into the valley of the Danube by the Italians acting in co-operation with the armies of Serbia and Roumania. The Serbian Army has recruited its strength, and is now ready to again take the field. There has been a general, but not very pronounced, recrudescence of the German offensive during the past three weeks in the Western theatre of war along most sections of the front occupied by the Allied Armies, this offensive taking the form of reconnaissance attacks directed with the apparent intention of discovering weak points in the line rather than with the purpose of obtaining a strategical success. North of Arras a series of German counter-attacks has for the moment brought to an end the French movement on Lens, while in the Woerth district German activity has been occupied in preventing the French from straightening out the St. Mihiel salient, which it is of vital importance to retain in view of a possible ulterior attempt being made to break through the French line in the Verdun region, and reach Paris up the valley of the Marne. Whether the Crown Prince of Germany had this in mind, or, what is more probable, wished to mark his return to his army by achieving a substantial success, he recently made two most determined attempts to break through the French line in the Bois de la Grurie in order to reach the St. Menehould-Verdun railway, which is the principal route by which Verdun is supplied since its investment by the Germans on the north and west. The first attempt was made on June 30th, and led to some desperate fighting between the Binnarville-Vienne-le-Château road and the route Marie Therèse, where a battle was fought lasting over four days, when the Crown Prince drew off his troops without having made any appreciable gain of ground. The attack was renewed on July 12th on a wider front extending as far west as the Haute Chevauchée, on the eastern extremity of the Bois de la Grurie, but it was again unsuccessful. The Crown Prince claimed certain minor tactical successes, which General Sarrail, the French Commander, refused to admit, but in any case, whatever the trifling gains or losses may have been on either side, the Crown Prince's object was defeated, and communications with Verdun are still open. In the meantime we may very likely see a renewal of the French offensive against the St. Mihiel salient, which is a dangerous thorn in General Joffre's side. Last If June was a bad month for Russia July has been worse. month's record was broken off on the day when Generals Mackensen and Boëhm-Ermolli, moving in co-operation, reached the Grodek position, which covers the approaches to Lemberg from the west. There were then good hopes that General Ivanoff would put up a successful defence of this position, which is a very strong one, but the Russians made no serious attempt to hold it, and on the night of June 18th they fell back through Lemberg on their way to the Bug, leaving strong rearguards behind to gain time for the evacuation of the town. While Mackensen made his way northwards, capturing Zolkiew and Rawa-Ruska on the 19th, Boëhm-Ermolli advanced along the railway, and on June 22nd, after a good deal of fighting with the Russian rearguards, he entered the Galician capital, which had been in Russian occupation since the first week in September. He took neither prisoners nor booty in the town, which had been left in excellent order by the Russian administration. The military value of Lemberg has been naturally discounted at Petrograd, but its fall was a heavy blow to our Allies. If we look at the map we see that Lemberg is a great strategical railway junction, in and around which the whole railway system of Galicia is centred. For this reason it has been called the key of Galicia, and the Russians discovered this to their advantage when they captured the town last September, and used it as an advance base for their intended invasion of Hungary. As soon as the town was occupied by the enemy the line of the Dniester was turned, and retreat was inevitable. What then took place is fresh in the memory of those who have been watching the progress of the campaign in the East with hopeful but disappointed interest. On June 23rd Linsingen, operating from Stryj, crossed the Dniester between Halicz and Zurawno, and in spite of a temporary check, defeated the Russians in a five days' battle on the left bank, and threw them back behind the Gnaila Lipa. Thence they retreated further east to the Zlota Lipa, which they reached on July 1st, and there linked up with the Russian army ! holding the line of the Upper Bug. Up to this date the Russians defending the Dniester below Nizniof down to Chotin were still in position on the left bank of the river. While these operations were taking place in Eastern Galicia Mackensen was preparing to strike another blow, which was this time aimed at Warsaw. For this purpose he determined to change front from east to north, and move into Russian Poland between the Vistula and the Bug rivers with the intention of reaching Warsaw on the right bank of the Middle Vistula. It was a bold scheme, and one which led to the Austrian débâcle last September. Leaving the Galician railways behind them, he and the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, dividing the country into two halves, started on their march northwards on or about June 30th, the Archduke directing his way to Lublin between the Vistula and the Wieprz, while Mackensen conducted his "phalanx" between the latter river and the Bug, having Cholm for his immediate objective. The Archduke, who was first in the field, and whose advanced guards had crossed the Tanew river some days previously, marching very rapidly, reached the Wisnica on July 2nd, and fought a pitched battle at Krasnik with the Russians, defeating them and causing them to retreat across the Urzedow. The success, however, was short lived, for the Russian commander brought up his reserves, and falling upon the left flank of the Archduke's army, struck it so hard a blow that the Austrians were thrown back to the Wisnica, and took up a defensive position on the heights north of Krasnik. Mackensen had meanwhile advanced up to the Wolica, but when he heard of the Archduke's discomfiture he halted, and sent troops to his assistance. This appears to have taken the pressure off the Archduke, and released Mackensen for a further onward movement, for as this article goes to press the news arrives that the German army, advancing on both banks of the Wieprz, has crossed the Wolica, and after a successful action has occupied Krasnostaw, both of which places are within half a day's march of the Lublin-Cholm railway, the Russians having retired to a second defensive position covering the line. Further bad news from Vienna reports the Austrian General Kirchbach to have crossed the Bug in the neighbourhood of Sokal, the effect of which, if the movement continues, will be to isolate the Russians on the Zlota Lipa and Lower Dniester from the Russian army operating in Poland. On the left bank of the Middle Vistula General Woyrsch is reported to have reached the Radom-Ivangorod railway. While these movements were taking place in Eastern Galicia and Russian Poland, Hindenberg, who with his usual secrecy had been collecting fresh troops on the East Prussian frontier between Soldau and Willenberg, suddenly took the offensive and surprised the Russian army which had been watching the frontier, and which fell back on the defensive position between Ciechanow and Krasnosielc, where it was attacked on July 14th, and compelled to retire behind |