New Britain herald., 1916-07-01
Five Day BOmbardment.

1 The tremendous offensive which has
 been launched by the British army on 1 the German front is the continuation i of five day bonn bardment which in | the amount of ammunition expended
 and in the territory involved, exceeds 1 anything of the kind that has been l previously known in the world war. 1 For some weeks reports have been 1 current in England and France that | the "big push" of the British was about to commence. It was stated that 1 England had 2,00O,000 men, fully | equipped and trained in preparation l for the supreme effort to break the German lines. More than 100000 shells are declared to have been fired l daily in the preliminary bombardment which extended over a front ninety
 miles in length.
 The menace of the British attack was fully appreciated in Germany, ac cording to newspaper comments from Berlin, and the utmost confidence was expressed in the ability of the Ger mans to meet and crush it.
 Allies on General Offensive.
 The allies are now on the offensive
 
 British assault comes on the heels of the great successes gained by the Rus sian in Galicia and Bukowina which sians in Galicia and BukoWina which have resulted in completely driving the Austrians from Bukowina and are still continuing. On the Italian front the central powers have also met with severe reverses and for several days Jio,o 1.ix the Austrians from position after po- sition in Trentino. The defence also of Verdun by the French appears to have stiffened and the balance of bat tie in that bitterly contested sector seems recently to have swayed in fa- vor of the defenders.
 New Method Used.
 The great offensive undertaken by | the British offers, according to reports | from the front and the comments of | military critics, an absolutely new de- l parture in the tactics hitherto pur- sued by the belligerents. Contrary to the faVOrite tactics of the Germans | British did not attempt a partial ad- | vance by massing their artillery at a 1 given point on the line and following an intense bombardment by an infan- try attack in serried columns.
 Employing an enormous mum Der Of guns, the British maintained a con- t:nuous bombardment of the German lines along the entire ninety miles of attack. They sought to level the German trenches and destroy the con- crete Notifications which sheltered the German machine gun squads. Fire also was directed against the German ! evenings following this daily artillery storm raiding parties dashed out from the British lines to complete the de- wrought by the big guns Tn this way the British claim that many prisoners were taken, machine guns destroyed or captured and the entire defense of the Germans de- m oraIized. A French officer who wit messed this plan of operations de- scribed it as the last word in scien- tific warfare"
 Offensive at LOos.
 The last considerable offensive un- dertaken by the British was a driA, in force at Loos in September 1915, in conjunction with a similar French effort in the Champagne district The British captured Loos and claimed to have taken 20,000 German prisoners and many guns They were unable to press home their advantage, however, because, according to the British war office, the reserves failed to arrive on time.
 The British official losses in the cattle of Loos were 6O,OOO men. That he British public is prepared to face ] roll of dead and wounded on an wen vaster scale is indicated by the of the British newspapers n anticipating the present offensive V It has been asserted, indeed, that the British authorities were prepared to a ce a loss of some hundreds of thou sands of soldiers if they could achieve heir object and drive the Germans rom France and Belgium S
 Quiet in Balkans.
 The only front in the whole theater / f the world war where comparative T luiet reigns today is in the Balkans T and the predictions of an allied ad- ! vance in that region have been at ' east as numerous and circumstantial IS those regarding the British army n France. There have been some minor indications of portending ac- lVlty, aerial raids and efforts by the to strengthen their lines by he occupation of Actresses on the . Greek side of the frontier /
 Newspaper correspondents at . Saloniki have estimated that the lIlies have total of 500, 900 to 7O0,- 900 veteran soldiers concentrated on heir lines in that district. The re- organized Servian army, reported to be 15O,0O0 strong, was recently trans DC rted to Saloniki from the Island of / Corfu, where they had been re-