Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1916-08-02
BRIEF HISTORY OF GREAT war.
Germans Hurled Back SlaYs and Established
Lines Only Recently Yielded.

uC SeCOHu year OI the WOTlu
war closes with the Battle of
Europe a concerted effort of the
Allies on three fronts to crush the
Central Powers which has deve-
loped into titanic struggle be-
fore which superlatives, already
exhausted, are completely beg
CARED.
France and Great Brit; in in
the west. Russia in the east, Italy
in the south are hurling wave
after wave of armed men on the
Teutonic lines, together with an
avalanche of shells and bombs
such as the world has not known
UP to the present time For the
first time the Teutons are tempo
rarily at least, on the defensive
on the thousands of miles of the
existing battle fronts.
The change in the situation
which the year has brought is
striking, although the results so
far have have been more potent
al and spectacular than radical.
A year ago the Germans, continu
ing their great drive against the
Russians, hurled the Slavs back
the Slavs back along the entire
eastern front, captured Warsaw
the great fortresses of Kovno,
Novo Georgievsk and Brest Lit
ovsk and established lines far in
side Russian territory which they
maintained virtually unbroken
until within the last three months.
They seized all Poland, a great
slice of Russia to the south of
that country and expelled the in
vaders from Galician and Buko-
wilma. Field Marshals Won Hin
denburg and Won Mackeneen we're
the heroes of these great success
es,
On the western front the chang
es in position during the year
were comparatively small but the
twelve months we're marked by
three events of interest: Tho bat
ties OF Champagne and Ntrdt;n
end the opening OF he great
Franco British offensive on the
Somme took place in this period.
The battle of Champagne open
ed on September 25. after a week S
terrific bombardment of the Ger
man lines by the French, British
and Belglans. In a week of the
b'oodiest fighting that had been
known up to that time the Allies
announced that they had taken
twenty miles of trenches six
towns and . 0Ol prisoners. But
there they halted. They could
not break through the mighty
German wall and the grim dead
lock which marked the western
front for so many months was
resumed. The Battle of Cham
payne marked the removal of Sir
John French. the British COM
mander-in chief from the Begin
ming of the war up to that time.
In December, 1918, it was an
nounced that he had resigned to
take home command and Sir
Douglas IIaig was appointed his
successor.
In sheer human interest the
Battle of Verdun probably sur
passed all other individual events
of the war. On February % the
German Grown Prince began his
assault of the historic French
fortress, known throughout many
centuries as the gateway to
France. For five months the de-
tenders withstood a storm at the
fury of which the world stood
aghast. Foot by foot: almost
inch by inch, the Germans forged
forward, with a reckless disregard
of their lives, a tenacity and cool
courage which was only equalled
by the heroic determination of
the French. On June 5 an un-
official estimate of the German
losses at Verdun placed the total
at the appalling figure of $50, 600.
The assailants fought their way
to within bout three and a half
miles of the fortress but for
several weeks haye reported no
further progress and the force of
their attacks appears to have les
sened
The Franco Baitish offensive
on the Somme opened on July /,
1916. 1t was preceded by bonn
hard mont of ,1+1por,11a1ad 1,,r,4;o>