The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-01-03
And after Lule Burgas the next step

And after Lule Burgas the next step
would nave seemed the storming of
| Adrianople. When peace negotiations
should begin, it was a vital point in
| their favor in the negotiations to have
| Adrianople in their possession.
| The Bulgarian treatment Of the cor
| respondents is one of the many IN
! dications that the Bulgarian staff did
| at one time expect to take Adrianople
| by storm.
1t was argued by serious CORE
| spondents who did not feel that they
| ought to waste their time or the
money of their papers in idleness,
that the Bulgarian government ought
not to have received any correspond
| ents at all But this was not logic to
| the government. The press repre-
| sented public opinion. 1t could serve
a purpose, and all the college profess
ors in the land. who spoke any for
| eign language found their work in the
common cause, no less than GRANDPA
Their found his in driving an OK cart
! and the women in making bread.
The plan was well thought out, and
| the regulations, which would I'LL
column, left nothing that occurred to
officers or college professors out OF
consideration. No mention was to, be
| made of the wounded, nor even Of the
weather if it were bad, for bad wealth
er might tell the enemy that the roads
were bad
While many an imaginary account,
because it had the similitude Of mar
rative which characterizes all con-
vincing fiction, was hailed as real
war correspondence, the Bulgarian
staff, when it came to actual reports
of actions Exclusive of massacres),
was scrupulously exact and exasperat-
ingly late and brief.
All praise by the press kept the ball
Of the prestige of victory rolling. 1t
helped to convince the powers and
the Turk that the Bulgarian army
was irresistible. The stage climax
Of the whole campaign would be the
fall Of Adrianople. Therefore were
the correspondents moved to Musta-
pha Pasha just as Lule Burgas was
being won; and Constantinople, being
then supposedly defended only by a
demoralized army, which could not
make stand, every report from Mus
tapha Pasha which showed that
Adrianople was on the point of capt.
ulation added to the stage effect of
Bulgarian triumph.
Turks Defy the Bulgars.
AS the first Bulgarian army drew
near the Tchatalja lines, the mise en-
scene was complete; but Nazim
Pasha, making use of the elapsed time
to fortify the Tchatalja lines, rather
than submit to the humiliating terms
offered, babe the Bulgarian hosts
come on"
Success had turned the heads even
of the Bulgarian staff. They had be-
gun to think that the old fighting quail
ity was out of the Turk, and so willing
was the Bulgarian infantry to under
go slaughter that it was only a case
of recording another charge of flesh
against shrapnel and automatic gun
fire. and the day was won.
Alas, an old principle of war, deal
ing with an impossibility of the same
order as squaring the circle in math-
ematics, was now to bring generalship
back from the clouds to solid earth.
You can take strong positions in
front only with time by sapping and
mining and all the weary operations
of siege, as the indomitable Grant
learned by the failure of his f1rsh rush
at Vicksburg and the indomitable
Nogi learned by the failure of the first
rush attack at Port Arthur
In week, any army that has
spades and a few of the resources of
material which should be part of the
storehouse at its base should make
such a position as that of the series
Of rising hills back of Tchatalja fully
tenable against any but siege attack,
unless there was room for a flank at
tack
Turks Turn the Tables.
And the breadth of the position
open to infantry approach in any at
tempt at storming was only Is miles,
while from either sea side of the mar
row strip Of peninsula the Turkish
navy could bring into play more pow
STlul guns ludu any DomSCr1SH ldQ at
his disposal.
At the same time there Is to be
kept in view the generally accepted
tenet that you must not send in
fantry against any well entrenched po-
sition until it's batteries are silenced
or 1t is known that they can be kept
under control during the infantry at
tack by a well concentrated fire of
your own batteries.
Demetrieff used his guns for a day
in trying to develop the strength and
location Of the enemy's batteries. But
the Turks would not be drawn. At last
the tables were turned.
Meanwhile Adrianople also was tell
ing. You may discuss as much as you
please whether the original plan of
the Bulgarian staff was to mask this
fortress or to take it by storm, the
fact remains that the only result was
to mask it, and the lesson was that
any garrison in the rear of an advan-
cling army, though it is neld securely
in investment, remains a mighty force