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with threatened torpedo attacks, which caused the British fleet to draw off from the battlefield-to return to it the next morning. In consequence, the German

fleet was enabled to return to port with the prestige of having inflicted heavier losses on the British, and of having remained on the battlefield. This great naval battle (Jutland, May 31, 1916) had no effect on England's control of the sea, but it had a great moral effect in Germany.

Throughout 1916 Germany developed increased tactical use of the submarines, and Feb. 1, 1917, began unrestricted submarine warfare in the greatly enlarged war zones, which included all the waters about her enemies. Since then large numbers of Teuton U-boats have caused a serious loss of shipping, and this successful tactical result has made the submarine campaign as much a part of the grand tactics of the war as any movements of the armies. In fact, the submarine is now the most dangerous weapon possessed by the Teutonic Allies.

Dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war in 1916, especially with the Somme offensive, had brought about a political change in England, and the energetic Lloyd George was made head of the new War Council, (Dec. 6, 1916.) Increased preparations in great guns and munitions were made by Great Britain and France, and Russia was equipped as never before.

Events of 1917 Summarized

In the beginning of 1917 an adequate British expedition was approaching Bagdad, (taken March 11, 1917,) and Russian forces were moving to co-operate in Asia Minor and Persia. There appeared to be hope of cutting through the Teuton "bridge" to the east, but suddenly the Russian revolution broke out (Czar abdicated March 15, 1917) and all the Russian armies were paralyzed for any offensive value.

For four months the Russian armies did practically nothing but debate. In July, 1917, there was a feverish offensive, urged on by the Russian democratic leader, Kerensky, and the Russians made gains in Galicia, probably helped by the surprise and by withdrawals of Teutonic

troops. But when Austro-German forces were brought up against them, the Russian troops again became demoralized, and many of them refused to fight, marching away in Galacia without firing a shot. This is the situation at the time of writing. However, there is one favorable element in this Russian situation which must be kept in mind: Evidently the Teutonic allies are still compelled to keep large forces on the Russian fronts.

On the western front, in the Spring of 1917, a great allied offensive, using the new strength of artillery, was launched against the Arras salient, which extended from north of Arras beyond Soissons. Here an extraordinary situation developed. Hindenburg had anticipated the attack of the Allies on this sector, and he had withdrawn to more favorable positions behind the exposed salient, (March, 1917.)

Leaving small detachments in his trenches to keep up appearances, Hindenburg had moved back his men, his guns, and all his material safely to his new positions. That he was able to do this on a front of over fifty miles, unsuspected and unmolested, with the air full of allied airplanes, is comment enough on the limitations of scouting from the air. An attack in force by the Allies while this movement was going on would have been dangerous for the Ger

mans.

At first this withdrawal was not understood, but in the battle of Arras (April 9-May) which followed, it was found that Hindenburg had improved his own positions and given the Allies a devastated and shell-scarred terrain to fight over. There were gains for the Allies at first, but, as before, the battle waned into raids, and there has been no aggressive fighting in this region for weeks. Again the only tactical result of great effort has been the number of Germans who have been put out of action.

A terrific blast of over 1,000,000 pounds of high explosives which had been placed in mines under a salient at Messines, south of Ypres, wrecked everything in the German trenches (June 7, 1917) and gave the British possession; but no

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tactical gain has followed, and this is cited merely to show the proportions to which mining operations have grown. Since then north of Ypres the Germans, by a concentration of artillery unnoticed by the airplanes, destroyed British forces across the Yser Canal and captured their position. This British loss was of some tactical importance, as it strengthened the German hold on the Belgian coast, which is now realized to be a dangerous German base. At the time of writing, a new British offensive has begun in Flanders.

In spite of all the resources devoted to them in the three years of warfare, aircraft have not become a part of the grand tactics of the war. The Zeppelins have not been of any military value, and airplanes have not yet been devised that can carry their fuel and sufficient weight of explosives for serious bombardments. Even for the short flights over the Channel the raids have been mere haphazard dropping of bombs, and have not won any military results; and for scouting and direction of artillery the present airplanes have great limitations.

True Military Situation

From the foregoing, it is evident that the advantage would be with the Teutonic allies if it were possible to weigh the military results of this war in the usual scales. But such standards of other days do not apply to this epoch-making cataclysm. Entirely different estimates must be made to arrive at the true military situation. To military critics the one outstanding fact is that this war is being

fought with enormous losses in men and material out of all proportion to the military results attained.

Changes to intrenching tactics have greatly increased the tasks of the armies and multiplied their losses. The giant proportions of the artillery and of material of all kinds in these campaigns have become a fearful drain, such as has never before been imagined. Simply to consider the tons of costly munitions thrown away in an everyday bombardment is astonishing, and expenditure on the same enormous scale must be made in all the other material. The constant appalling losses of men* and the incalculable wastage of material have become the dominant factor in the grand tactics of the war, and all other military results are dwarfed in comparison.

In all the wars in the past, the military results have been self-evident in victories and in gain of territory. In this war, to judge from any such evidence would be to arrive at a false estimate of the actual military situation, which is not contained in any list of victories or in any advantages that can be seen on the map. The real military results have gone far beyond all this, and the only true estimate of the present tactical situation is to realize that the real results of the grand tactics of three years of war are two groups of haggard nations, equally depleted in men and resourcesand equally war weary!

A conservative estimate of those killed in three years is 7,000,000.

Estimates of War Casualties

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Killed and died of wounds. Died of sickness..

Prisoners

Missing

FFICIAL statistics of the killed, ported during June, 1917, are as follows: wounded, and missing are not regularly published by any one of the nations, though compilations made from official lists as published each month by some of the belligerents convey a fairly accurate idea of the losses. These lists, however, do not specify the particular periods covered.

The German official casualty lists, re

Severely wounded
Wounded

Slightly wounded

Wounded remaining with units.

Total

28,819

3,215

1,835

36,772

21,315

5,354

56,160.

13,077

.166,547

The above casualties, added to those

reported in previous months, (including the corrections reported in June, 1917,) bring the totals reported in the German official lists since the beginning of the war to:

Killed and died of wounds..

Died of sickness......

Prisoners

Missing

Severely wounded

Wounded

Slightly wounded

Wounded remaining with units.....

Total

.1,032,800

72,960

316,506

275,460

590,883

315,239

.1,655,685

263,774

.4,523,307

The above figures include all German nationalities Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, and Württembergers. They do not include naval casualties or casualties of colonial troops.

Since these figures were put into type the German casualty totals for July, 1917, have been published, adding an aggregate of 89,863 to the total in the foregoing table.

The British casualties, as officially reported for July, 1917, prove the extreme severity of the fighting in the series of offensives launched by Field Marshal Haig. In that month alone the casualties totaled 71,348, of whom 2,490 were officers and 68,858 men; killed, died of wounds, and missing were 723 officers and 16,276 men; only 2 officers were made prisoners of war, and only 96 men. The ghastly figures for the five months of March, April, May, June, and July, 1917, tell a tale of ferocious fighting, and are as follows, respectively:

In March, 1917, the official compilations at Washington placed the number of German dead at 893,000, wounded at 450,000, captured and missing at 245,000.

The untrustworthiness of all present estimates is clear from the above. The number of German prisoners and missing estimated in the first year is put at 485,000, whereas near the end of the third year the number officially reported by Germany is 591,966.

On Dec. 6, 1915, the following tables were compiled, showing the losses during the first fifteen months of the war:

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Germany

50,000 22,000 60,000 893,200 450,000

40,000

28,000

245,000

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March

April

May

June

July

Total

This makes a grand total of 271,256 British casualties for the five months.

In July, 1915, estimates by the Red Cross were as follows for the first year of the war:

Dead

Severely wounded

Slightly wounded Prisoners

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Belgium.. Serbia

...

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Totals..4,263,956 2,444,968 2,341,032 9,049,956 *Includes Canadian and Australian but not Indian troops.

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