The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1916-02-17
A Weekly Review
OF The Great War

war fronts, notable from France
and along the lines where Rus
SLAMS and Teutons are facine
each other in Galicia.
In the Champagne a'French
attack was carried through after
prolonged artillery preparation
and according to Paris. some 3OC
yards of German trenches were
taken. Berlin comedies French
again in this territory, northeast
OF Massiges, placing the extent
CT the captured positions at zoo
yards.
Petrograd unotficially reports
the Teutonlc forces on the de.
fensive on the three important
streams along which much of
the recent fighting in Galicia
and nearby fronts has been con.
ducted-the Sereth, the Pruth
and the Dniester. Several
breaches are declared to have
been made in the lines of tie
Teutonic allies. While admit
ting that the immediate straget.
ic results so far have not been
important, the Petrograd advices
record belief that the RusHan
offensive has at least relieved
pressure on the entente forces
along other fronts.
In Asia there are three dis
tiLct but interrelated campaigns
In the region between the Cau-
casian mountains and the Per-
sian Gulf. On the north the
Russians are fighting the Turks
about Erzerum. On the south
the British are trying to ad-
vance up the Tigris River. On
the east the Russians are invad-
ing Persia from the Caspian Sea.
In the fii st campaign the Rus
slams are progressing famously,
il we may credit the Petrograd
reports, which are, indeed, but
family contradicted from Con-
stantinople. They claim that
the Turks were driven back from
the Caucasian border with such
slaughter and. confusion that
they failed even to reilly behind
the line of Notifications which
had been prepared for the de-
fense of Erzerum and which ex-
tend for more than q dozen miles
to the north Of that city. 1t is
rumored that the Turks have
evacuated Erzerum. This, how
ever, is too incredible to De &C
c ,pted without confirmation, for
Erzerum occupies a strong and
easily defensible position among
the mountains and should be ca
pable of standing long. tsiege. In
1878 an English officer who hap
pened to be in the city at the
time it was attacked assumed
command and held it against the
Russians till the end of the war.
The! Turks are renowned for
stu ubborn resistance when bes,eg-
ed and their defense of Gallipoli
sho US that they have not lost
their former ability. The Rus
slams launched their first attack
at Erzerum year ago last Octo-
ber, so the Turks and their Ger.
man allies have had abundant
time to put the city in a state of
defense. If then Erzerum sur
renders shortly it will mean a
very complete collapse of Otto
man courage. 1t is much more
probable that the Russians will
be content with investing the
city and then pass on as they
did in the case of Przemysl in
their Galician campaign. The
reports Of their advance to the
north aud south of Erzerum indi-
Gates that this is what they are
doing.
4f the British on the Tigris
we hear little, but general Town
shend's force at Kut-el-Amara is
still holding out and General
Aylmers relief expedition is re-
ported to be making progress up
the rivers. The rivers of Baby
lon" came to the aid Of the Eng