Near miss in Gallipoli

Enemy’s numbers and losses

Grodno is evacuated

Russian line is unbroken

The Russian evacuation of Grodno means that the armies below have succeeded in making good their retirement “according to plan” and that we shall soon know whether any determined effort is to be made to retain possession of Vilna.

Certainly we have been promised a battle before for Vilna, but the new Russian War Minister also made it clear that the fighting would be of such a character as (whatever the result) to leave the Russian plans unaffected and the campaign undecided.

That is to say we are to see some rearguard fighting of a desperate kind but delays causing as much damage as possible are all the Grand Duke will aim at inflicting upon the enemy.

That he is capable of doing this has been repeatedly proved and some hard blows have been delivered of late.

The Russian line is not only unbroken but is straighter now than it has been since the beginning of the war.

There is the additional fact that the Russian military authorities are allowing the civil population of Riga to return to that city, in itself a sufficient indication that one German scheme, based on an initial achievement which has not materialised, has temporarily fallen to pieces.

In the recent wonderful fighting at Gallipoli, apparently, we only just missed scoring a great and decisive triumph; and we may hope that when next our men get within sight of the footing and thus seize the reward which is their due both for the bravery shown and the terrible cost of the effort.

It was welcome news yesterday to learn that a new and important mountain ridge is now in our possession, for there Is in the wording of the communique a suggestion that another big effort is being launched and the importance of a big stroke here cannot be over estimated.

Very soon the seasonal gales will be raging in the Egean and the work of the Navy will then be much more difficult.

Our submarines have been doing well, for the French communique issued last night stated that “in addition to the transports sunk on August 20 by one of our aeroplanes at the anchorage of Ak Bashi Liman, there must now be added four torpedoed by British submarines, two at the same spot, and two others between Gallipoli and Nagara”.

Mr Hilaire Belloc, by the aid of the heavy figures and arguments just as weighty, brings home in the current issue of “Land and Water” facts as to the enemy’s total numbers and losses, based on evidence and detailed statistics he has recently been privileged to see.

He puts the number of men from 17 to 45 in Germany at the outbreak of war at almost exactly 15,000,000, and in the Austro Hungarian Empire 12,000,000 - a total for the enemy of 27,000,000.

Deducting inefficient and those necessary for munitions work, mining, etc, he concludes that 12,000,000 represents the maximum potential manpower armed, equipped, organised and available for actual fighting which the enemy as a whole can present.