From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 17 July 1915:
ON the western side trench warfare continues on the familiar lines of attack and counter-attack. On the whole, however, we are not, we think, unduly optimistic when we say that on the balance the Allies once more have had the advantage, not only in the matter of small successes, but still more in the matter of human attrition. We and the French both lose heavily in men, but the Germans lose more and can worse afford it. We ought, however, to add that, according to a Berlin wireless telegram, the Crown Prince’s attacks in the Argonne have been very successful, and that he has taken a large number of prisoners and put several guns out of action. Against this, the French declare that the enemy’s gains have been of a trivial character.. In the British lines it is admitted that we have not only repulsed a severe German attack in the direction of Pilkem—i.e., to the north of Ypres —but have actually gained there a certain amount of ground.
One of the chief incidents of the fighting this week in the west has been the energetic use by the Allies of their aeroplanes. Thirty-five French aeroplanes on Monday, despite a strong wind, flew over and threw bombs on the strategic rail- way which serves the famous Calonne trench and the German works in the forest of Apremont. They are stated to have thrown a hundred and seventy-one bombs on the German storehouses, and to have caused several outbreaks of fire. The aeroplanes returned safely, though they were vigorously shelled. Later in the week another aerial raid was made on the railway system between Douai and Lille.
At the Dardanelles the struggle proceeds on the accustomed lines, punctuated by occasional telegrams from Athens as to minor successes and the gaining of ground in small quantities by the Allies. We continue to hold our own, and the Turks are showing some signs of being war-weary. That is as much as it is safe to say. Meanwhile a curious and, we hold, signifi- cant piece of news comes from Constantinople. The Turks have begun to entrench furiously close outside the old Byzantine Walls—i.e., quite (aloes to the city boundaries. This does not look as if they thought they were going to have the Bulgarians as their allies. The Balkan States still continue, in the words of the old hymn, to “Stand and shiver on the bank And fear to launch away.” That is very natural, if not very wise. Some day somebody will make the plunge, and then swear it is “comfortably warm,” and the rest will follow.
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