Evening star., 1897-03-06
MODERN WARFARE
campaigns Will Give Place In
single but Decisive Encounter..
From the Pail Mali Gazette. ...


Summing up the whole ouas,to, a a,
tween any two European peace-iraincd
armies OF the present day. the pxtreo.
percentage of loss to be anticipated Ioc.u,,
Le-, on particular brigaaes and di, ,is,o,s
VIII not exceed one i'm three ,or which 49,,
Is Killed to four wounded. whereas for
whoie armies of quarter or a million ard
over one in ten is the very outside punish-
ment We may reasonably expect
compared to the slaughter or the seven
years war and the best contested fields of
tne Napoleonic period this is very little.
indeed. Al Zorndorf the Russians left ~
oo0 out of -. 600 on the ground and tbis 10
undoubtedly the bloodiest battle recorded
since the Introduction of portable firearms
kyiau. Friedand, Wagram and Brodino
all exceed the figures for any pitch,d hat
lie since the breechloader appeared in the
Held Moreover, the horror of the whole
thing Is not TO be measured by figures of
percentages only. but by the density in
which the killed and wounded lie and the
fate of the latter afterward. In a modern
battle 10000 men would fan OH an area
OF about twenty square miles: at Zorndorf
the 2l.W1 Russians and 12.ooo prussans
lay on single square mile, and of tho
wounded not one in three survived: wher-
as, in 1870 nine out OF ten recovered. and
the Prussian medical staff anticipated even
better results next time.
But death on the battlefield is by far tie
least of the two evils the soldier has to
face. There is death on the line of march
and In hospitals along the road. Whereas.
formerly, particularly under Napoleon. ten
would die by the way for one who fell in
action In the last F'ranco-German war
only one man died of disease for two killed
in action. Indeed, the health of men I'm
the full prime of life was actually slightly
better in the field than in quarters.
1t may. however, be argued that even
granted that battles and marches may be
less destructive. there will be more of
them. because every able-bodied man being
trained by war. the resistance will be more
longed endurance is only conceivable under
the supposition that the leaders on both
sides are hopelessly incompetent. and both
fear to stake all a single collisions
supposition that nothing tends 10 justify.
On the contrary. every leader brought up
in he modern school is taught 10 under
Sta nd the vulnerability OF all modern mill
ta.y organizations, and is penetrated With
the conviction that one downright knock
OUT blow effects MORE ,han weeks OF pur-
poseless sparring. and where both start
determined to bring matters to climax
the decision cannot be long delayed. Judg-
ing from what we know of the relative efi-
cheney of continental armies. we believe
that the first rocnd Of the great encounter
will also be the last, for the momentum
of the blow which decides will simply par
alyze every nerve OF the opponents body.
and. adding up all sources OF casualties
that can occur in a short campaign OF this
description we conclude that at the very
worst the actual cost in human life to the
powers engaged viii not amount 10 more
than > per cent of their several pCpula-
fiorS