Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-07-30
Eoodiest Fighting of Con-
lict in the Champagne
and About Verdun.

1.-The second year of the world war
es with the Battle Of Europe" a
acerted effort of the allies on three
nts to crush the Central Powers,
Sich has developed into a titanic
fuggle before which superlatives,
Ready exhausted, are completely
$ggared
E2asFrance and Great Britain in the
Est. Russia in the east, Italy in the
uth. are hurting wave after wave OF
4 med men on the Teutonic lines, to-
\ 6+her with an avalanche of shells
81 bombs such as the world has not
hown up to the present time. For
Se first time the Teutons are. tenn
brarily at least, on the defensive on
he thousands of miles OF the exist
hg battle fronts.
"a The change in the situation when
HE year has brought is striking, al
though the results so far have beeh
more potential and spectacular than
RADICAL. A year ago the Germans,
&ontinuing their great drive against
Rhe Russians, hurled the Slavs back
Hong the entire eastern front, cap
&ured Warsaw, the great fortresses
hf Koyno. Novo Georgievsk and Brest-
fitoysk and established lines far in
hide Russian territory which they
maintained virtually unbroken until
wi,hin the last three months. They
2seized all Poland, a great slice OF
Russia to the south of that country
hand expelled the invaders from Gall
Ecia and Bukowina. Field Marshals
fyon Hindenberg and Won Mackensen
Ewere the heroes of these great sue
kcesSes. =.
On the western front the changes IN
kposition during the year were COM
Eparatively small but the Twelve
Emonths were marked by three events
&of interest: The battles OF Cham-
#paene and Verdun and the opening
Eor the great Franco-British offensive
ION the Somme took place in this per-
fiod.
The battle of Champagne opened
on September 25, after a weeks ter
rife bombardment of the German
lines by the French, British and Bel,
sians. In week of the bloodles'
fighting that had been known up te
that time the allies announced tha'
they had taken twenty miles o.
trenches, six towns and 23,o0O prison
ers. But there they halted. me!
could not break through the m1eht'
German wall and the grim deadloci
h which marked the western front TO-
so many months was resumed. INT
battle of Champagne marked the re
! moval of Sir John French, the Brit
ish commander-in-chief from the be
ginning of the war up to that time
In December, 1915, it was announce
that he had resigned to take HON
command and Sir Douglas Haig wa
appointed his successor.
In sheer human interest the bat
lie of Verdun probably surpassed al
other individual events of the wal
On February % the German crow
i, prince began his assault of the hlsto1
3 ic French fortress, known throughor
many centuries as the gateway
France. For five months the defend
crs withstood storm at the fury
which the world stood aghast. Foo
by foot, almost inch by inch, the Gel
mans forged forward, with rockies
disregard of their lives, a tenacit
and cool courage which was OH
onualled by the heroic determinatlo
of the French On June an unotf
cial estimate of the German losses
Verdun placed the total at the al
railing figure of 100000. The assai
lants fought their way to With
about three and half miles of tt
fortress but for several weeks hal
reported no further progress and tt
force of their attacks appears
have lessened.
TeutOns on Defensive.
The Franco-British offensive on Il
Somme opened on July l, 1916.
was preceded by a bombardment
unparalleled duration and intensit
featured by the appearance of ne
and gigantic British howitzers. U
der this awful hurricane of big q
fire the German first line defens