The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-07-30

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twenty miles of trenches, six towns
and $4,000 prisoners. But there they
halted They could not break through
the mighty German wall and the grim
deadlock which marked the western
front for so many months was re-
sumed The battle of Champagne
marked the removal of Sir John
French, the British commander-in-
chief from the beginning of the war
up to that time. In December, 1915,
it was announced that he had resigned
to take a home command and Sir
Douglas Haig was appointed his sue
cessor.
In sheer human interest the battle
of Verdun probably surpassed all 9th
er individual events of the war. On
February % the German crown prince
began his assault of the historic
Fernch fortress known throughout
many centuries as the gateway to
France For five months the defend
ers withstood storm at the fury of
which the world stood aghast. Foot
I by foot, almost inch by inch, the Ger
mans 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 an unof-
! fetal estimate of the German losses
at Verdun placed the total at the APP
pallng figure of 100000. The assail |
ants fought their way to within about
/ three and a half miles Of the fortress |
| but for several weeks have reported |
no further progress, and the force of |
their attacks appears to have less |
ened.
The Franco-British offensive on the |
Somme opened on July /, 1916. 1t was
preceded by a bombardment of un-
paralleled duration and intensity, fea-
tured by the appearance of new and
gigantic British howitzels. Under
this awful hurricane of big gun fire
the German first line defenses crum-
bled. When the British and French
troops advanced they reported they
found trenches in which there was not
single survivor,-the dead guarded
the silent rifles and machine guns.
German first lines were carried over
an extent of % 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 concerned. The
fighting has been of the bitterest pos
press correspondents at the front
teen with accounts of the most amaz- n
ing heroism and devotion on both
sides. Instances have been recorded /
of the sole survivor of a company III
wounded and without hope, who II
manned a machine gun and fought to
the last amid the bodies of his com
rades, of isolated detachments who
stood off their foes for days until Il
succor reached them or death; of cap
tured surgeons who bound up the II
wounds of their captors of heroic res H
cues of wounded comrades under fire Il
and of countless similar deeds that
thrilled the watching world. II
The first move in the great allied /
offensive was not made by the Franco \
British. however, but by the Russians. Il
On June the troops of Emperor
Nicholas opened tremendous assault
on the Austro-German lines on three It
hundred mile front extending from u
the Pripet marshes to Rumania. The
Teuton lines held firm in the north
but to the south General Brussilof p
swept with irresistible force through t'
the Austrian defenses, tearing great 1t
gap about 100 miles in extent. Through u
this the Russians poured, capturing u
Czernowitz, the capital of Bukowina Is
and overrunning the crownland. The I
Austrian losses are declared to have Ut
been enormous, a month after the a
began the Russians making II
an official announcement that over III
zoo. 900 prisoners had been taken and p'
1t least an equal number killed or 81
AS the offensive developed the Rus sc
slams won new successes further north W
md at the close of the war year are m
Engaged in a mighty struggle for Lem IN
reg, the capital of Galicia The fight re
ng has also extended to the extreme m
forth, in the RigaD Dvinsk region, but
lere the Germans have held their WI
'wn and no decisive result has as yet III
'een gained by either side. II
In another theatre of the war the IT
ear was marked by other and import al
mt Russian successes Following ri'