Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-12-29

we're marching upon Lutsk and Kovel.
But about the time that Lloyd-George
goiced his optimism the Russians found
themselves checked on the river Stok-
hod and on the Dniester, south.
Greatest of Naval Battles.
Lloyd-George also had in mind the
naval battle Of Jutland, which took
has been called the greatest naval ac-
ton In history. 1t was the greatest to
date In this war. The British claimed
a great victory. which amounts to a
confession that the German navy Is
by no means a negligible factor. The
Germans ventured to sea seeking bat
tie. They overcame the advance Brit
ish column and were not checked I'M
til the heavy British battleships ar
rived on the scene
Both sides lost heavily In battleships.
cruisers. destroyers and men. In a
tactical sense the action was a draw,
but 1t demonstrated that the German
navy is o bottled up"
Early in the spring the Italians re
sumed activities on the line of the
Isonzo, particularly at Goritz. In April
the Austrians suddenly began an Of
fensive against Italian positions in
Trentino, which the latter had invad-
ed May, 1915. This move was a com
plete surprise and forced the Italians
into hurried retreat. At the end of
May Austria reported $4,000 prisoners
and 200 cannon as the spoils of two
months operations. By the middle OF
June the Italians had turned on their
enemy, and the great offensive was
checked.
The Austrian movement was evi
IDENTITY timed to affect Italy's aggressive
movements in the south, where the OBJ
jective of the Italians is Trieste.
Goritz stood in the way of progress
toward the coveted citadel. 1t fell
Aug. 8. Since the fall OF Goritz the
Italians have made slow progress to
ward Trieste.
Something was needed in the allied
camps at midsummer to pull up wan
ing hopes. hopes dashed by the aban-
donment of the Gallipoli expedition
early in January, the surrender of Kut-
el-Amara with 10000 British soldiers
in April, the subjugation Of Servia and
Montenegro and the menacing situa-
ton in Greece. The allies infantry
from Gallipoli had been transferred to
Saloniki with the evident purpose of
marching ~northward and taking the
Bulgar forces in Servia and on their
own borders in the rear.
Serious Outlook For Germany.
In some respects it seemed as though
the allies had unloaded a dead weight
by abandoning the direct attack upon
Constantinople. The Russians almost
from the beginning of the val had
been coming down into Asia Minor in
a direction which would bring them
into function with the British column
moving up the Tigris river toward Bag
dad. In February Russia captured Err.
zerum, Mesopotamia. from the Turks
This was followed two months later
by the capture of TrebiZond, IN the
Black sea. Russia's southwark march
from bases in her W home territory
backed up by her fleet on the Black
sea, really a strategic prolongation OF
her line In Bukowina and Galicia, cor
stituted a menace to German ambition
in the near east.
The elimination of Servia as a factor
which was made certain in the winter
of 1916, and the certainty that Turkey
could be relied upon for troops and
supplies, coupled with the apparent diff
fculty of the allies In launching 8
stroke in the back Of the Teutonit