New Britain herald., 1916-10-23
BRITA|N'S REVIEW
 0F S0MME DRIVE Experience Gained Of Great Value
 to Raw Soldiers NO STAGE FRIGHT NOW

cause Germans Were Protected by
 Strongly Fortified Line-3O,OOO
 Prisoners Captured.
 Copyright, 1916, By The Associated
 Press).
 British Front In France, Oct. 23, via London.-More than three ana one half months of battle on the som me, with the heaviest concentration or artillery, infantry and every type ot war material, and the most skllltul and desperate fighting the world has ever known, has resulted in marked development of British lighting et- fciencv and of means for reducing the losses of the attackers. In the way of concrete achievements, the British have taken O,O00 prisoners, or little less than 15OO for each of the twen- tv-one villages captured with an aver age population of about 300 souls. They have taken 125 guns, 100 trench mortars and trench guns and 429 machine guns They have not. lost gun.
 The task of the British was made especially difficult by the fact that they were confronted at the outset with a most powerful line of trench Notifications. Moreover, every Vll- lage was fortress which had to be beseged and stormed. The British have driven back the Germans on front of eleven miles, to depth of four to eight miles. When spring comes peasants will blow and seed ] ground behind the lines which for two years had lain fallow under the storm of shells. In Fricourt and Ma metz, villages taken on July l, trees with their trunks torn and their fo- liage blasted by shells have bravely thrown out fresh shoots, while fresh crops of grass are hiding the shell craters in neighboring fields and car peting the scanned earth trodden by the British in their early charges. Former residents of captured villages are requesting that they be allowed to return to them and build new homes l on the ruins of their old ones. British Pay Heavily.
 The offensive has consisted of in- l tervals of preparation and siege work after each big general attack, to pre- pare what is called jumping off, place for another general attack. Through July, owing to the heavy cost of taking the first line trenches the British casualties probably were heavier than the Germans. Through August when over large part of the front the Germans were out of their second as we'll as their first line systems or defenses and the battle became one of digging and fighting in the open for both sides, casualties were about even. AS the British kept up the offensive their exposure neces- sarilv was greater. Yet from all information the correspondent can gain both from British officers of al grades who have been in the fighting and from German prisoners the Ger man losses were not less than 25 and possibly 50 per cent. higher than the British during the month of Septem- Der when the British gained most ground.
 This contradiction of the previously accepted idea of a higher ratio of casualties for the side on the offen- sive, which is usually considered as necessarily not less than two to one, is due according to the British off, cers, to the superior power of British shell fire, the number of British aero planes the increased skill of the Brit ish soldiers and the use of the tanks. The British staff did not place much reliance on these new contrivances which aroused such worldwide inter- est, but regarded them as an experi- ment which might fail altogether They are only one of the inventions aiding the offensive against modern notifications which will be used next spring when the British are fully pre- pared. Calculations as to the value of the tanks are hard to make but talk ing the average opinion of experts at the front these weird new motor cars have saved loss of 10000 men, or more than a full division, In the reduction of strong points and ma- chine gun positions.
 The offensive at every step proved that no enemy can have too many guns which will kill and demoralize an enemy with projectiles fired from a distance from anywhere from 2,000 to 10000 yards. The great value has also been proved of portable machine guns manned by sl1illful and cunning soldiers. Men posted in craters with these weapons have a formidable power whether their side Is acting on the defensive or offensive
 British Morale Good
 Not In ground gained or prisoners or guns taken does opinion at the front lay most emphasis after nearly four months ceaseless fighting, every day bringing it's lesson. Officers are always using the word morale, which means the spirit and team play an army puts into it's work. It is the thing which at the end of the tenth round of a twenty round fight, when both pugilists are still standing up well to each other indicates the win ner, The British, after nearly two vears of sta Hing have been fightine