Evening star., 1914-11-14
GERMANS NOT AFRAID
+ Of A WINTER CAMPAIGN
Writers Declare Frozen Rivers and
Swamps Will Aid Teuton to
Invade Russia.

Correspondence Of the Associated Press.
BERLIN, November 1.-The prospect
of winter campaign in Russia pre-
sents no terrors to the German military
writer's. now dealing with the problem
of long continuance of the war. Far
from anticipating a repetition of Ma
poleon's disastrous experience in the
MOSCOW campaign, they look upon the
great Corsicans conquerors, Gen. De-
cember and Gen. January. as allies
who will remove for them two of the
greatest obstacles to operations against
the Russians. namely, the transporta-
tion problem and that of overcoming
the natural defenses of the country, its
swamps and rivers.
The expert of the Deutsche Tages-
zeitung points out, too. that the Rus
SLAMS, in order to stem the German ad
vance. have relied largely on intrench-
ments laid out on a tremendous scale.
Once the ground is solidly frozen the
construction of such works for defense
will be greatly hampered.
Every battle has demonstrated the
value to the Russians of the trenches
and other military field works. says
cases to take positions so protected,
and the Russian successes have been
mostly due to the laying out of forti-
fed positions in the open field.
with the ground frozen and no longer
easily worked with pick and shovel, the
laying out of earthworks will be made
extremely difficult, and the Russians,
whose forte from the times of Napo
leon to Mukden. has lain in the de-
fense of field fortifications, will thus
lose the most important factor in de-
fensive tactics.
The Fifth Element.
Troops operating on the offensive
must deal with the fifth element as
Napoleon called the Russian mud. In
the winter the bad roads are covered
with snow and may then be used by
sleighs, and the great rivers and
swamps which form the principal fac
tors in the Russian defense lines will
then be covered with ice, permitting
easy crossing everywhere.
The idea that winter was the best
season in which an attack on Russia
might be made is that of a genial SOL
dier of history, Charles XII of Sweden,
who afterward demonstrated the cor
rectneSs of his conclusion. He waited
with his advance into Russia in 1907
until cold weather had set in, and
after the rivers and swamps of Poland
mad been frozen over he crossed the
Vistula December 90 and advanced
tended to overtake the retreating Rus
sian Eylau was fought. Both Napoleon
and King Charles availed themselves
or the opportunity offered by harder
roads and frozen rivers.
Napoleon counted on the aid of win
ter in his campaign in 1906. But the
weather was against him. December
OF that year left the roads as soft as
they had been in the autumn, and the
French were obliged to quarter them
selves upon the Poles and wait for cold
weather. Frost finally came February
/, and six days later the battle at Prus-
sian-Eylau was fought. Napoleon, as
wei as King Charles. availed them
selves of the opportunity offered by
harder roads and frozen rivers.
Favor Winter Campaigns.
"As Carl Bleibtrau in his work on the
campaign of Napoleon in Russia in 1912
has shown, it was not the cold that
demanded the greatest sacrifices in hu-
man lives. Napoleon lost 100000 men
on his advance into RuSsfa and only