Evening star., 1914-10-04
MILITARY EXPERT ANALYZES
BATTLES ALONG THE AISNE
No Crucial Moment Has Yet Arisen for the Contendng Armies He
Says EVENT. the Germans Are Driven Out Of France
With Germans Back in Their Own Country War
May Be Regarded as Begun Anew-he
Military Situation in France.

whereas the latter are not always un-
derstandable and may even be destined
to defeat for a strategical purpose. All
battle victories are. of course. agree
able results that tend to heighten the
morale of successful troops. But all
battle victories are not necessarily ma
tional triumphs. On the contrary. the
winning of an accidental battle may be
of purely local and passing effect and
may have no real bearing whatever
upon the general or final achievements
of a campaign.
German commanders fell into the bat
ties of the Aisne by accident. Hard
pushed though they were on that ex-
traordinary retreat which they stopped
on the north side OF the River Aisne. II
is safe to assume that they stopped on
ground previously selected by the Ger
man general staff, and that instead OF
being an accidental battle, or series OF
battles, that great fight, varying with
battle lines from 80 to 140 miles long.
was a battle deliberately planned Tor
a definite purpose known at the time
by the German general STAN only;
TT is yet to be developed whether
that battle was designed by the Ger
mans to be altogether victorious or
not Even if the Germans fall back or
are driven back across the Belgian
border, and into German territory. the
war would be decidedly not yet over.
on the contrary. with Its preliminary
chapter closed. 1T might be regarded as
lust beginning anew. On her own SOIL.
and the other side of her powerful
fortresses and fortified places. Ger
many is not to be pitied by friends or
underestimated by a foe.
=
Then who can divine the real rea-
sons for this jong-drawn-o battle
of the Aisne, or tell what the military
cid hn1dinC
their sleeves, so to speak? Beyond all
doubt both Germans and allies were
worn out and exhausted. but the Ger
mans were much worse off than their
enemies. A time for rest had come.
and it is easy in intrenched positions
to fight on the defensive with shifts OF
men, permitting one-half to rest while
the other half holds the enemy at bay.
And that is what the Germans have
been doing. AS a matter of fact IL is
likewise easy to fight similarly ~vith
attacking battalions. Who knows but
what that rest period could no longer
be postponed by either Germans or
allies?
1T is a wise commander. we are ad-
vised by the students of military char
acter, who always keeps his finger on the
pulse of his army. That was our Sher,
his men that he was about to cut from
the line of supplies. about to start his
| famous march to the sea through the
| enemy's country, and prepared them Tor
| the hardshipS of hunger and fatigue.
But never before have troops suffered
SO much from fatigue and deadly fire as
have those Germans who fought their
way through Belgium to the outer lines
been so suddenly rescued from the dis
couragements of constant retreat as were
the allies who recently turned tables
upon the Germans. Verify, it was time
| to give them rest and not force them
too much longer.
! Nobody really knows just how much
! fighting there has been along the Aisne.
| If the fighting has been as fierce and
constant as reported, then the losses
must have been tremendous But the
best military opinion, despite reports to
the contrary, seems to fix the losses At
a minimum. and the fighting is regarded
| as overdrawn.
| Another possible advantage, or reason.
involved in this long -drawn-out battle Of
| the Aisne might be found in the loss OF
horses from battle, fire and fatigue. Once
while in< command of the Army OF the
| Potomac Mcclellan found il necessary to
remount his cavalry before he could ad-
vance on the enemy. thereby subjecting
| himself to much adverse criticism, his
| delayed crossing of a river to attack the
enemy lasting twenty-five days in conse-
quence Of his broken-down cavalry. Az
a matter of fact, horses break down be-
fore men Men can endure more long
marches than horses: and, while men
may be recuperated by rest, many horses
after undue exhaustion have to be aban-
doned shot.
THE Germans had their severe strain
first by forcing the attacks for several
weeks, then fighting their way back
toward the frontier. fighting and retreat
ing. The French reversed their hard
IGhInS nd fight frpt,
north to southeast, and then Of sud-
den turning upon the enemy and push
ing forward to attacks which have out
numbered and outlasted the Germans
assaults. All this called for unusual en-
durance and literally wore out men and
horses. 1t was the great Napoleon who
said that he valued endurance as q
greater military asset than courage.
But there is a limit to endurance, as
both weaklings and physical giants
know, and an overworked army-as Ma
poleon and other lesser generals found
out to their sorrow-made up of weary
and disheartened soldiers, lacks the en-
ergy to strike and kill or to shoot and
hit 1t is an accepted modern military
maxim that. nowadays. military strength
implies the amount of effective fire a
contending army is capable of, rather
than its mere numbers of men.
The first and second line of selected
and trained soldiers of Europe up to
now have been doing all the hard
fighting in this war. and a time has
| come when commanding generals are
| forced to ponder seriously the conse-
! quences of attempting to continue tho
! nerve-wrecking, muscle-wearing, heart
| breaking methods that had character
lied the campaigns and fighting on
both sides in France as well as in East
Prussia and Galicia.
Gen. L. S. Grant, once forcibly re-
/ marked that no man is so brave that
he may not meet such defeats and dis
aster sas to discourage him and damp
en- his ardor for any cause. no matter
how just he deems it And in Wag-
I ner's Organization and Tactics. which
every trained military officer has read.
we find the admonition that the best
| Of discipline may be shattered by MAX
! ing demands upon the troops beyond
their capacity of endurance. Want.
/ distress and, above all, useless hard
4 ships and unnecessary and costly at
| tacks are destructive of discipline.
4 with all the knowledge of these
conditions, was it not the most nat
ural thing in the world for those con-
\ tending armies that had surged over
| France without even a portion of a
4 dav,s rest from marching or respite