The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1914-09-10
FRENCH DECEIVED BY
GERMAN STRATEGY
LOSE ADVANTAGE
Review of Campaign in
France Shows Ger
man Plan.
BIG ARMY INACTIVE
Germans Hold Large French
Force on Frontier While
Going Around Flank.
BIG ARMY INACTIVE

New York City.-The World pub
fishes the following splendid review
of German and French tactics in the
war in France.~-After less than two
weeks of actual fighting on French
soil the situation OF the allies seems
little short of desperate. Two weeks
of rear-guard actions following the
German successes at Mons and Cahr-
leroi, two weeks Of tncessant retreat
ing and enforced marches by night
| and by day, have brought the Ger
mans in enormous strength right to
the gates of Paris, and the only
question is, not when will they be
driven back to- the frontiers, but
what do they propose to do now?
The fact that such should be the
only question demonstrates more
clearly than anything else how un-
impeded the Germans advance has
been, and how admirably they have
preserved not only their lines Of
morale and resources of their armies.
What the German General Staff
set out to do it has so far accom-
plished with an ease and exactitude
that entitle the German army justly
to the title of the most wonderful
military machine the world has ever
known. fs
Doubtless one must accept the ex
PLANTATION OF the continued retreat of
the allies as being deliberate, we'll
planned and executed in an orderly
manner But it is interesting to ex-
anime some of the causes that must
have made it necessary and some OF
the results that must flow from it.
1t has become increasingly evil
dent that the French mobilization
was not carried out in the thorough
manner which had been anticipated
and expected. Neither in numbers.
disposition nor armament do the
French appear to have come up to
expectations.
The French General Staff evidently
never seriously considered the likli-
hood OF German main attack
| through Belgium and the suddenness
and mastery quality of the invasion
| from this quarter found in the
| French totally unprepared. BY the
| time they realized what had to be
done, they had already split their
armies into different and widely
separated sections.
Encouraged by Germans.
| This plan the willy German Cen
eral Staff first encouraged by pre-
| tense that they were not able to re-
sist the movements in Alsac and
Lorraine in force, and then made 1T
1 impossible for the French to with
draw these armies by throwing the
presence of very large German forces
which were prepared to march into
| France the moment the French forces
should be withdrawn.
| Thus the mistake became a con-
dition that had to be maintained, and
| therefore third, il not half, of
Frances finest trained troops are
| fiddling their time away in the
Vosges and Lorraine districts, unable
| to accomplish much on the offensive
| because they are not in sufficient
| strength and quite useless to the
| main army because they may not
| be withdrawn to take part in the left
and central operations.
| They are, of COURSE defending tho
| French frontier, but it becomes in
| creasingly evident that the Germans
have no intention Of forcing their
| way through at this point, but by a
demonstration in force every SO
| often they prevent the withdrawal
of the French forces. Such is the
| penalty for French official short
| sightedness. t4s gss
The great disparity in numbers
| that has made the German advance
| through Northeast France SO ire
| sistible now becomes readily appre-:
] ciable. The field armies for which
France had provided on the outbreak
| of war were calculated at 1,400.0OO
men, with an ultimate reserve OF
3,40O.OO0 more should all ablebodied
men liable for service be called
upon.
This makes the huge total OF A.
| 500 900, and in 1870 it was shown
that in the end France could gather
| together for home defense practically
every ablebodied man. But we need
deal at present only with the 1,4O0,-
900 of the active army and the re-
seryists.
The German war strength on the
mobilization; call, excluding the
Landstrum I'M; and forces intended only