The Outlook 1916-06-21

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The Outlook JUNE 21, 1916 Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York

THE STORY OF THE WAR: THE GREAT RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE Nothing of so sweeping and extensive a nature has occurred this year in the military operations of the war as the double attack made by Russia on Austridn positions. The rapidity of the movement recalls those early days when once before Russia swept down to the Carpathian Mountains and all but crossed them into Hungary, only to be driven back a year ago. The Russian attack was really of a double nature. [See the map on the following page.] One advance was in the district which iscommonly called the Volhynia ‘Triangle, at the three corners of which stand the towns of Rovno, Lutzk, and Dubno. Before the move- ment began Russia held the first of these towns, Austria the other two. Now Russia holds all three and has advanced rapidly toward, and at points beyond, the border line which separates Russia on the northeast from Galicia in Austria on the southwest of the line. Undoubtedly this movement is aimed at Lemberg. The other Russian attack is farther south, close to the point where Rus- sia, Austria, and Rumania come together. Here stands Czernowitz, the capital of the province called the Bukowina. So fiercely ‘and suddenly has the attack in this direc- tion been carried on that during the week it was more than once reported that Czernowitz had fallen; Russian despatches positively declare that the Russians are bat- tering down the fortifications in the suburbs of Czernowitz with their heavy guns. Unless all Russian repo , , are terribly exaggerated, the Czar’s forces ¢ .’e not only driven back the enemy in both fields (which, by the way, are separated by a distance of about two hundred miles), but they have thrown the Austrian forces into actual demoralization. On June 13, for instance, Russian despatches declared that the total number of prisoners made in both operations was one hundred and fifteen thousand—considerably more, be it’ noted, than the entire army of the United States at home and abroad at its nominal full strength, and much more than twice our available army in this country. General Brusiloff is the Russian com- mander in the new offensive, and his’ latest reports, aS we write, declare that he is still pursuing a defeated enemy. As a counter-offensive there are reports that the Germans are attacking fiercely and steadily in the northern part of the long Russian battle-line—that is to say, in the neighborhood of Riga, the Baltic seaport, and near Dwinsk. Here Field Marshal von Hindenburg’s attacks have had some effect, but have brought no decisive result. Looking at the Russian offensive from the point of view of large war strategy, it seems more than probable that Germany had thought that Russia was so seriously engaged with the Turks that she was not likely to undertake a serious attack in the Bukowina district, and that accordingly Germany allowed the Aus- trian line there to be weakened in order to strengthen the recent Austrian drive on Italy. The amount of actual aid in men, guns, and munitions that Germany can now give to Austria is presumably far smaller than it was a year ago, and it is evident that Austria has not had the strength to carry on her attack upon Italy and at the same time to leave enough men in the trenches on the Russian front. ‘The Russians, therefore, have it pretty much their own way in the present attack ; they have rushed their men forward at the rate of ten miles a day or more for over a week ; they captured Lutzk and Dubno with a rapidity which formed a striking contrast to the slowness of the gains made by the Ger- mans at Verdun; from the Pripet Marshes in the north to the very border of Rumania in the south Russia has advanced triumphant and victorious. Politically, the question at once arises, what effect will it have on Rumania if the Russians occupy Czernowitz and both from that side and. from the side of Bessara- bia approach Rumania? Will not the latter 389