The Petrograd official _communiqué_ of June 27, 1916, stated that the prisoners and trophies captured by the armies of General Brusiloff between June 4-23 amounted to 4,031 officers, 194,041 men, 219 guns, besides 644 machine-guns, 196 bomb mortars, 146 artillery ammunition wagons and 38 searchlights. The enormous importance of the Russian victories of June, 1916, as a step in the attrition of the enemy forces was patent; the losses suffered by the enemy on the Eastern front during those three weeks were about equal to those he had suffered at Verdun in 130 days of fighting. _Times History of the War._ [Illustration] _CAPTAIN FRYATT_ * * * * * Captain Charles Fryatt, master of the Great Eastern Railway's steamer _Brussels_, which was captured by German warships on June 23, 1916, and taken to Zeebrugge, was tried by German courtmartial at Bruges, July 27, condemned to death by shooting, and executed immediately. The charge against him was that of attempting to ram the German submarine U-33. His Majesty's Government find it difficult to believe that a master of a merchant vessel who, after German submarines adopted the practice of sinking merchant vessels without warning and without regard for the lives of passengers or crew, took a step which appeared to afford the only chance of saving not only his vessel, but the lives of all on board, can have been deliberately shot in cold blood for this action. _British Foreign Office._ [Illustration] _BEFORE THE SOMME_ _William_: "_Why are you so heavily bombarding the remains of that 'contemptible little British army?_" _Prince of Bavaria_: "_I am afraid the remains are bombarding us._" * * * * * The German view of the situation at the end of June was well shown in a typical article by the military correspondent of the "Berliner Tageblatt," Major Moraht, actually published on July 1. The writer began by declaring that "all the belligerent armies were now at a critical stage." The Allies had undoubtedly increased the energy and the uniformity of their conduct of war, and their great resources in money and men and their command of the sea would enable them to do everything possible "to hamper Germany's final victory." The British offensive was about to begin, and "without a serious settlement of accounts with England on the battlefields in the west the Germans would not come a step nearer to peace." Major Moraht and the other German writers betrayed no sense of the immensity of the coming events, and it was clear that the Germans had not begun to dream of the defeats that were about to be inflicted upon them. _The Times History of the War._ [Illustration] _THE GERMAN TANGO_ "_From East to West, and West to East, I dance with thee_" [Illustration] _The Wolf_: "_Is it not time to stop all further bloodshed?_" * * * * *