Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-05-19
GUARD AGAINST AN
ATTACK IN REAR
Secretary Garrison Shows Flu
tility of Fortifications With
out a Mobile Army.

WASHINGTON, D. c., May 10
This sea coast defenses of the United
states will not be utterly unpre-
pared TO meet rear attacks by land in
the future, If plans formulated by
Secretary of War Garrison are car
fied out
Admittedly the present sea coast
defense is of single-type construction.
Il is built only for the purpose of re-
pelIing frontal attacks from the
enemy's battleships. To guard city
or a garrison against an invading
army (which has landed at some un-
protected spot along the American
coast, to meet all emergencies of this
type. is o necessity which appar-
entity the military strategists of the
past two decades have overlooked.
Attention is being devoted to
making each individual group of
works reasonably secure against land
attack, even though unsupported by
troops other than It's own garrison.
Certainly. says Secretary of War Gar
rison. the construction should be OF
such a nature as TO enable q defense
sufficiently long to permit the ar
rival of assistance from coast guard
troops. The War Department is, now
considering the installation Of guns
IN to six-inch calibre with all-round
firei with view to helping out In the
defeuse OF the works from land at
tacks1 and 1t has paid great attention
TO the CONSTRUCTION of batteries which
have as weli-thought-out system OF
defense against land attacks.
MA Garrison's Statement.
Secretary Garrison has issued this
statement regarding the situation:
my attention has been directed TO
a recent article respecting the land
side defense of our coast defenses.
ut is perfectly true that many OF
our seacoast defenses would find
serious difficulty in defending them
selves by their own garrisons against
4 land attack by numerous force;
and it is also true that they have
been constructed. in many instances,
without any reference to an attack
coming from the land side
ct can be said of many of them,
n fact most of them Except those
which are on islands), that their de-
Tense in case of any serious attack
from the land side must rest upon
bodies of mobile troops assigned to
his duty. Such mobile troops would
probably be drawn. to a great ex-
.ent. from the militia. The coast
artillery troops. while available for
, certain amount of work as infantry,
ire primarily trained for service with
the big guns, and cannot well be
assigned to other work without
the efficiency of the
work for which they are maintained:
an that. as stated above, in case of
/ land attack it will be necessary
10 assign considerable bodies of mo-
bile troops to defend these works.
with a. view to correcting this de-
feet, lines of land defense works have
been laid out and necessary instruc-
tions prepared for their prompt con-
struction in case of threatened war.
IN future construction it is believed
that much more attention will be de-
voted to making each individual
group reasonably secure against land
attack even though unsupported by
troops other than its own garrison.
Certainly the construction should be
Of such a type as to enable a defense
sufficiently long to permit arrival OF
assistance from coast guard troops.
but. after all, this whole situation
brings up very forcibly the folly of
depending upon fortresses alone.
Their usefulness is very much re-
stricted unless there is an adequate
mobile army
FortifIcatfons Alone Not Enough.
.In short, all systems of coast de-
Tense which look to security through
Notifications alone are destined to be
Of little use in time Of real war. The
fortifications are only part of the de-
tense, and while they are entirely
adequate for the purpose for which
constructed, they are fixed defenses,
effective only over the area within
range of their guns; beyond this
range an enemy is entirely free to
operate unless he is opposed by
mobile troops. 1t was to demon
strate the fact that the great mass
OF Notifications defending Boston
was helpless to prevent the capture
of that city by land attack that the
Massachusetts maneuvers of 1909
were held