Austro-German Success
By Major E. Moraht.
Major E. Moraht, the military expert of the Berliner Tageblatt, discussed the operations on the eastern war front as follows in the Tageblatt of April 30:
Austria-Hungary, through its latest decision to create a supplementary Landsturm service law, has given notice that it desires under any circumstances to be able to wage the war for a longer time, if conditions should compel it to do so. Thus are contradicted all the reports spread by ill-informed correspondents of foreign newspapers, who sought to create the impression that Austria-Hungary was tired and had not the energy to face the situation such as it is. Furthermore, the acceptance of the supplementary Landsturm service gave testimony, in the Hungarian Parliament, of the unanimity in which the Hungarian Nation unites as soon as it is a question of furthering the armed preparedness of the army.
The Landsturm law heretofore had two defects—it included in its scope only the once-trained men liable to Landsturm service up to the age of 42 years, and restricted the use of certain Landsturm troops to certain areas. Hereafter it will be possible to use the men capable of bearing arms up to the fiftieth year, though, to be sure, only in case the younger classes have in general already been exhausted. It will also be possible to draw Hungarian formations and Austrian Landsturm troops in such a manner that the area available will offer no more difficulties. Even though the new law will presumably hold good only during the present war, the impression created by the decision of the Austro-Hungarian Government on the enemy and on neutrals cannot be a slight one. We in Germany can only congratulate the peoples of our ally, so willing to make sacrifices, upon this resolve, and no one among us will be able to deny recognition thereof, the less because we ourselves, according to human calculations will not have to adopt such an extension of Landsturm service.
Our northeastern army has again been heard of. After a considerable time the situation has again changed, and that, too, in our favor. The battles northeast and east of Suwalki have again revived and have given into our hands the Russian trenches along a front of twenty kilometers. Between Kovno and Grodno, both situated on the Niemen, we must note in our battle line the towns of Mariampol, Kalwarya, and the territory east of Suwalki. This front has opposed to it the two Russian fortresses mentioned and between them the bridgeheads at Olita and Sereje. Owing to the brevity of the latest report, it cannot be told whether our attack found an end in the Russian positions. It may be that the attack went further and won territory at least twenty kilometers wide toward the Niemen. Moreover, we have learned that the Russians still held on north of Prasznysz, where on April 27 they lost prisoners and machine guns.
No answer is given by the sparse reports from the eastern army to the question of the entire foreign press: "Where has Hindenburg been keeping himself?" Wishes and speculations may thus busy themselves as much as they like with the answering of that question. In the Russian version of the war situation there is reference to advance guard skirmishes in the territory of Memel, a brief interruption of the quiet southeast of Augustowa and before Ossowicz. The Russians are clearly worried by the possibility of an undertaking of the navy against the Russian Baltic coast.
The territory of the fighting in the Carpathians still claims the chief interest—especially because everywhere where the general position and the weather conditions and topographical conditions permitted the Austro-Hungarian-German offensive has begun. As has been emphasized on previous occasions, the eagerness for undertaking actions on the part of our allies had never subsided at any point, in spite of the strenuous rigors of a stationary warfare. As early as April 14 an advance enlivened the territory northwest of the Uzsok Pass. The position on the heights of Tucholka has been won. The heights west and east of the Laborez valley are in the hands of the Austro-German allies, and each day furnishes new proofs of the forward pressure. Of especial importance is the capture of Russian points of support southeast of Koziouwa, east of the Orawa valley. The advance takes its course against the Galician town of Stryi. The progress which the Austro-German southern army made has so far been moving in the same direction, and one can understand why the Russians instituted the fiercest counter-attacks in order to force the allied troops to halt in this territory. The counter-attacks, however, ended with a collapse of the Russians, and the resultant pursuit was so vigorous that twenty-six more trenches were wrested from the foe. Daily our front is being advanced in a northeasterly direction, and there is little prospect for the Russians of being able to oppose successful resistance to our pressure. For it is not a matter of the success of a single fighting group that has been shoving forward like a wedge from the great line of attack, but of a strategic offensive led as a unit, and everywhere winning territory, the time for which seems to have arrived.