The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-07-29
MODERN WAR NOT ENORMOUSLY DESTRUCTIVE Of LIFE
Iuecctiveness OF High Explosives i'll Boer Warnceased
Cost OF Ammunition and Equipment
The Rifles Value.

Cape Town. South Africa. July From
I time 10 time during the decade just past
many inexperienced theorists AMI some 'm-
/ iu'ntly practical men have .nd.avorcd 10
depict conditions under which the next mod
oru War would b. fought While d.fferin.;
| As to many minor matters, these writer's AMI
| commentators. with 10 exception that cali
I To mind. have agreed that the next great
! war. owing In the use Of agazine rifles o.:
! immense range. qu!ck-frInS artillery and
] high explosives. VIII he certain To result in
/, friEhiful slaughter and horrors uuthnkahl".
| The war between Great Britain ana the
| two small Bocr Republics scarcely be
| considered great war" Yet It's opera
! lions have he.n extensive enough and of "A
! character To afford AN eS""Ilau; practical
/ test Of the results Of modern armamer;s and
! eq'!iprents ~ far they relate to hard
{ .s.,r-4--. -. -.-..-r- I-'-
and even for IN" practical sNpvr- ua," ,..-
| suited. I intend To- take uiyaut.gr g a
quiet day TO describe the effects Of mod,'rn
! military coutriyances as evidenced IN This
! war.
! T" begin with my conclusion. and proceed
| crawfish fashion. / viii state that the results
Of this war seem TO prove beyond cavi that
! war in general III i."f more destructive To-
| life than when combatants fought with
| sword and buckler- In fact. IL is even less
! so. Mannheim and Naussr rifles. Maxim
ard Calling guns. lyddite and cor.iite shells
| have contrary 10 expectations. not been at
| tended with the terrible execution - conf
IDENTIFY anticipated A man may face all
| these latter-day inventions to destroy life.
| and yet enter a war with as much hope of
| living through il when the soldier shou!-
dered a smooth-hore fiint-lock muske;, and
the best cannon WAS short-ranged and threw
nothing more deadly than solid shot.
i remember reading. prior to the Spanish
American War. imaginative slit by
clever writer. in which he depicted with
innumerablc corruscating adjectives the ter
rible destruction done by modern projectiles
when hurled by thousands into densey
packed bodies of troops. l have no doubt
that thousands Of such projeciiles fired into
masses of men would produce results very
similar 10 those described. But what General
Is going TO now attack II. masses? OR. II a
large body of troops in close formation.
through inadvertence of its own command
ers or skill OF opposing Generals, should be
subjected to such fire, how long would 1t
be before surrender or flight would termi-
nate the slaughter? The only conceivable
circumstance under which such thing
might Willingly occur is where one COM
blatant Is ignorant OF the power of modern
weapons, as was the case OF the followers
Of the Mahdi at Omdurman and with the
blacks in the Zulu and Matabele wars.
But why speculate when the facts are
batants are Of presumably equal intelli-
sence and information regarding the new
appliances. Both are armed with modern
weapons and understand their use. What
are the results?
When this war began the British brought
into the field high explosive. lyddite,
which was expected 10 wreak unparalleled
destruction among the Beers. The antici-
pations of the British regarding the deadly
character of this explosive We're fully
shared by their opponents. who looked for
ward 10 encountering 1t with dread.
So far its effects in destroying human
life is concerned. lyddite has proved
complete failure. The war will mark the end
of the use of extremely high explosives
against troops in the open field. They are
cordite blow the shells into infinitesimaily
small particles-particles too small 10 MAIN
lyddite is SO violent that frequently a great
er part OF that contained in shell is scat
seeA Boer positions which have been sub
jected to fierce lyddte bombardment liter
ally strewn with the yellow substance.
which had failed to explode
Their first fearful anticipations failing re-
alizstion, the Beers quickly grew TO desp!se
the power Of lyddite. which contempt holds
good to the present time.
So the effective artillery ammunition of
the present against troops upon open or
lightly intrenched battlefields has not ma
terially advanced beyond that used in the
American Civil War and the Franco-Prus-
sian War. The scattering shrapnel and the
more forclbe impact shell used by field ar
tillery continue to do the most execution.
True. there has been development OF this
class Of projectiles which. had it not been
discounted by extending the fighting order /
OF troops. would have resulted in greatly |
Increased destruction. Both impact and |
more particles. each capable of destroying /!
life than formerly, and sweep much wider /!
area.
But the defensive instinct fully keeps !
pace with this increased destructiveness. |
i might quote loss figures in this war to /
prove these statements. but that is scarcely /
boil hal
this time be sufficiently well Informed on |
those points. To sum it up. it amounts to
modern Sroecties has ,neseased npohsbIv
hundredfold, the precautionary tactics of |
troops have also SO developed that it now
requires hundred times much expend-
ture of ammunition to kill or disa BILE a man
as IT formerly did. Thus. the expense of
maintaining war has been enormously IN
In power of execution.
From what have seen of the work of ar
t ,isery IN this war ! am convinced that the
than larger guns. The Beers have had as
good artillery Though not equal in quanti-
tD as the British. and. as far as | have |
been able to Judge. have used 1t with bet
ter effect. This is because the Beers have
generally. In engagements where their ar
the defensive. The Maxim Nordenfeldt has
proved their most effective weapon not
Mithstanding its inferior range compared
with the British field guns.
Tommy Atkins has become noticeably
afraid of the ''putt-putt'' gun. which rakes
he advances to the attack and which the
lence
of course. there should he supply Of
putt-putts' for auxiliary work For bat
tering down and preaching heavy fortifica-
lions a much more powerful gun is re-
CURED Such guns. although employed in !
this war. have not been actually needed I
and consequently have been of little real
use
This war has not been without its tactical
lessons. Some old calculations have been |
overturned Modern weapons particularly |
modern rifles. for the Boer artillery has !
been TOO weak numerically to be consid- |
cred decisive factor) have greatly in
creased the effectiveness of troops acting
on the defensive. While IL was formerly |
reckoned that successful assauit!ng force |
should outnumher the defenders two ar ,