Eight heavy assaults were delivered against the Canadians at Lens by the Germans during the night of the 21st, but in each case the enemy was thrown back at the point of the bayonet and by afternoon of August the Canadians had consolidated all the new positions gained. During the battle of Lens up to this time (from August 15 to 22) the Canadians took 1,378 prisoners, 34 machine guns and 21 trench mortars. The number of prisoners taken bore only a small ratio to the losses inflicted on the Germans, who appeared exhausted when the assaults ceased.
On August 22 the British launched another fierce attack on the enemy in the Langemarck sector of the front and forced their way to a considerable depth in the neighborhood of the ridge known as Hill 35, strongly defended by Irish troops against Prince Rupprecht's Bavarians. At the same time a new battle at Verdun was in progress, but the French held all their gains against reserves massed by the Germans for desperate counter-attacks.
ITALIANS IN A GREAT OFFENSIVE
On the Isonzo front the Italian commander, General Cadorna, launched a great offensive while the British were active in Flanders and by August 23 had broken through the whole Austrian line, capturing the town of Selo, which was the pivot of the Austrian defense, and considered impregnable, and inflicting upon the enemy, in this eleventh battle of the Isonzo, the greatest losses he had sustained since the capture of Goritz. More than 13,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners were captured during the battle, with thirty guns, and all counter-attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. The whole Selo line fell before the heroic onslaught of the Italians, and the loss of this important position was a serious blow to the Austrians. On August 22 Italian warships were showering shells on Trieste, the big Austrian port on the Adriatic which was the objective of the Italian campaign.
HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN!
"In the welter of the conflict an emperor of Austria-Hungary has died, full of years and of sorrow, a czar of Russia has stepped from his throne, and a king of Greece has lost his crown," said a well-known publicist, reviewing the war up to this time.
"Not one of the prime ministers or ministers of foreign affairs who conducted the diplomatic maneuvers preceding of immediately following the beginning of the war in the six most important countries of Europe is still in power. In Russia, Goremykin and Sazonoff are forgotten behind a line of successors, equally unstable. In France, Delcassé left the foreign office and Viviani ceased to head the cabinet, following the collapse of Serbia in the second autumn of the war.
"The tragedy of Roumania a year later contributed to the overthrow of Asquith and his foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, in Great Britain. San Giuliano of the Italian foreign office and Salandra, the prime minister, have passed. Count Berchtold, foreign minister of Austria-Hungary in 1914 (the empire has no prime minister), has passed into oblivion, while Von Jagow gave up the management of Germany's foreign affairs last autumn. Von Bethmann-Hollweg, the last of the group to lose his grip, has just gone down, despite the fact that he was not responsible to any elective body.
"Ministers of war in the belligerent countries have not been more stable. Kerensky follows a long procession in Russia. France has had four war ministers from Millerand to Painlevé, inclusive, while Lord Kitchener, organizer of Great Britain's most marvelous war achievement, a volunteer army of some 4,000,000 men, sleeps below the waters of the North Sea.
"History has as ruthlessly brushed aside most of the army commanders of the early days. Von Kluck, who led the Germans on Paris, is retired. Rennenkampf, with whom the Russians meanwhile swarmed into East Prussia, is a memory only. Sir John French has been recalled to England. That little group of generals who saved France and Europe at the Marne is decimated. Foch and Castelnau, and Manoury are no longer in command, while Galliéni, worn out in the service of his country, was borne on his last journey through the streets of Paris on a sunny spring day in 1916.