Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-07-30
WAR OF NATIONS STARTS
THIRD YEARS PERIOD
Continued from Page One)
command and Sir Douglas Haig was
appointed his successor.
Battle Of Verdun.

appointed his successor.
Battle Of Verdun.
In sheer human interest the Bat
tie of Verdun probably surpassed all
other individual events of the war.
On February %, the German Crown
Prince began his assault of the his
toric French fortress, known through
out many centuries as the gateway
to France For five months the de-
tenders withstood storm at the fury
of which the world stood aghast.
Foot by foot, almost inch by inch, the
Germans forged forward, with reck-
less disregard of their lives, tena-
city and cool courage which was only
equalled by the heroic determination
of the French. On June 3, an unoffi
cial estimate of the German losses at
Verdun placed the total at the ap-
palling figure of 100000. The assail-
ants fought their way to within about
three and half miles Of the fortress
but for several weeks have reported
no further progress and the force Of
their attacks appears to have lessen
ed.
The Franco-British offensive on the
SOmme opened on July l, 1916. It
was preceded by a bombardment of
unparalleled duration and intensity,
featured by the appearance Of new
and gigantic British howitzers. I'm
der this awful hurricane of big gun
fire the German line defense crum-
bled. When the British and French
troops advanced they reported that
they found trenches in which there
was not single survivor, only the
dead guarded and silent rifles and
machine guns. German first lines
were carried over an extent of p
miles, and the second positions pierced
at certain points but up to the present
the fighting has been indecisive in so
far as the forcing of the Germans
to withdraw their main lines is con-
cerned. The fighting has been of the
bitterest possible description, and the
reports of press correspondents at the
front TEEN with accounts of the most
amazing heroism and devotion on
both sides. Instances have been re-
pany, wounded and without hope, who
manned machine gun and fought to
the last amidst the bodies of his com
rades; of isolated detachments who
stood off their foes for days until
succor reached them or death; of
captured surgeons, who bound up the
wounds of their captors; of heroic
resources of wounded comrades under
fire and of countless similar deeds
that fhri10oI tho foh ;xr uor1d
Tremendous Assault
The first gain in the great Allied
offensive was not made by the Fran
co British, however, by by the Rus
slams. On June 4, the troops of the
Emperor Nicholas opened a tremend-
Gus assault on the Austro German
lines on a three hundred mile front, |
extending from the Pripet marshes to
Rumania. The Teuton lines held
firm in the north but to the south !
General Brussiloff swept with irresist-
ible force through the Austrian de-
lenses, tearing a great gap about 100
miles in extent. Through this the
Russians poured, capturing Czerno-
WITT, the capital of EukOwina and
overrunning the crownland. The Aus
trian loses are declared to have been
enormous, month after the often
sive began the Russians making an
official announcement that over 200,-
900 prisoners has been taken and at
least an equal number killed or
wounded.
As the offensive developed the Rus
slams won new successes further
north and at the close of the war
year are engaged in a mighty strug-
gle for Lemberg, the capital of Ga
licia The fighting has also extend
ed to the extreme north in the Riga
Dvinsk region. but here the Germans
have held their own and no decisive
result has as yet been gained by eth
er side.