Omaha daily bee., 1914-12-26
Warfare in Western Zone Seems
Just as Furious and No More
Decisive.
ALLIES UPON THE OFFENSIVE
Use All Means to Force Germans to
Give Up Ground.
SOME ADVANCES ARE MADE
GRins Accomplished slight and Only
Against stubborn Opposition and
Counter Attacks of
Tcutons,

LONDON, Dec. 25.-The bellig-
erent armies in the fields of war
today number all told nearly 1s,5OO,-
900 men, or 2S,OOO,OOO with all re-
serves and new" troops counted.
according to a French statistican,
Yves Guyot.
The expenditure required he estimates
at an average OF nearly $3.50 daily per
man. or about $i1, 1,OOO,OOO.OOO for one year
of warfare. single year of the present
war, he thinks. will cost about the same
amount of money as the total expenditure
for all the wars of the previous fifty
years.
Engaged in Fierce Rattle.
Instead OF the Christmas truce, which
Pope Benedict endeavored to arrange.
Christmas finds the armies OF the bellg-
erent powers engaged In fierce battles on
both the eastern and western fronts.
In the west the allies hammer is tap
ping at the German entrenchments, try
ing to find a weak point. while In the
east tho Russians. who have been driven
back from the Austrian and German from
tiers. seemingly have been brought to
bay behind rivers, which offer them
have counter attacked the ,Austro-Ger--
man forces.
Drive Russ over Rivers.
The Germans. in their rush towards
Warsaw, under direction of Field Mar
shall Won Hindenberg. drove the Rus
SLAMS over the Bzura and Rawka rivers
and they themselves succeeded In cross
ing these rivers; but, according to the
oI Nha
mans there reached the main Russian
line and were routed. From this report
1t is gathered that the Germans directed
their main attacks against the Russian
front which lies along the banks of
the Bzura river and thence southwark
to the Pilica river. but without success.
Along the rest Of the front aouth to
the Carpathian mountains the Russians
claim similar victories; but on the east
Prussian frontier the Germans apparently
have turned the scales on their adver-
sarles and, after having retreated to their
own territory, resumed the offensive and
again are back In Mlawa, whence they
originally tried to outflank the Russian
forces north OF the Vistula and work
their way to Warsaw from the north.
Seek to Enter by Back Door.
Even now 1t is possible that the Ger
mans have resumed their outfIanking
tactics. and while keeping the Russian
center busy by making frontal attacks.
are hoping TO get into Warsaw by the
back door.
All that is certain at present Is that the
two armies, whose numbers can only
be roughly estimated. are engaged in
one OF the greatest battles of the worlds
history on a front which extends from
east Prussia to the Carpathians and in
which the advantage sways first 10 one
side and then TO the other.
Military experts say that one OF the
advantages the Russians retain Is that
they hold the right bank OF the Vistula
as far west as Piock and thus can pre-
vent the Germans from using the river
for keeping their army supplied. and
along the whole OF the rest of the front
they have rivers and streams to fall be-
hind when hard pressed. This, however,
will all be changed, the experts say, when
the rivers freeze and the armies can be
moved over them as easily as overland.
Warfare In West.
Mining and sapping. artillery duels, at
tacks and counter attacks and. in fact,
every means OF warfare is being en-
ployed in Belgium and France by the
allies in their effort to force the Ger
mans TO give up their present lines of
defense. Some advance has been made.
but only against stubborn opposition and
counter attacks, which succeed occasion
ally in recovering the ground that the
allies have taken at great cost.
England this morning experienced an
aerial attack when a German aeroplane.
coming from the Belgian coast, flew
over Dover and dropped bombs I'm the
garden of st. James rectory, which is in
front of Dover Castle. No damage was
done