The Alaska daily empire., 1915-04-24

,,,ois however. nov held by tho Al.l lice the possession Of any one of
 which by Germany would force the
 Allies to yield many miles of Terri
 tory, .,,,...
 wing along the iser River and Che verdun section, which includes the ,yedee at St. Mlhiel lt Is extremely nrobable that one of these two partsl of the Allies line will be selected by the German staff
 success along the Yser would prob ably result in the turning of the Bel.
 eian.Brltish section of the line and
 would certainly Insure against any future danger of an operation against theGerman right. It Is a difficult
 point at which to attack because of the low. level country which affords
 no commanding positions for artillery.
 At the present time in fact 1t would
 practically be impossible to advance against 1t due to the fact that it has
 not yet been dried out by the Spring
 sun. but is still a sea of boz,
 The object of attacking in the Yer
 dun district would be to encircle Yer ldun and its ring of forts Such a
 move would enforce the entire French line from st. Mihiel to Thann to re
 tire Westward about to line from the Argonne forest through Foul, Epi
 nal and Belfort. The German oper.
 aslon in this case would be, working
 from st. Mihiel, to drive northward
 toward the eastern edge of the Ar
 gonne forest against the yerdun line
 of communications. the principal of
 which is the yerdun.Parls railroad
 The valley of the Aire river would
 make an excellent line of approach
 The principal difficulties here would
 be. first. the strong line of permanent
 Notifications around and Go the south
 of verdun, fortificatnons which dur ing the last six or eight months have
 been greatly improved and strength
 ened against just such contingency
 Secondly. the country between the
 Argonne forest and the Mouse river
 on which Verdun is situated, is a per
 feet network of railroads, by means
 of which the French could rush rein forcements to any part of the line where a break was threatened.
 Up to the present time there is nothing that really indicates where the German attack will fall About week ago. it is true, Germany caus- ed to be circulated report that the right wing of her line was to be with drawn from in front on the-Yser rly- CT to a position further east Several days later, as fl to test the effect of this report, a bombardment of Nieu port and the Belgian line near the mouth of the Yser was begun. But no weakness was disclosed and the bombardment ceased.
 In the verdun district the principal recent activities have been initiated by the French, and all on the south side of the wedge around Pont-a-Mou. sson. But this is no indication of what the Germans will do. One fac tor. new in warfare that win bear strongly on the result of an offensive | movement by either side, is the aero planes The army which can domin- ate the air win have great advant- ! age The effect of this was iliustrat- ! ed in the last two offensive moves 1 of the Allies at Newo Chapelle and | in the Champagne In both cases, as Is always done. the German trenches ! were subjected to an intense. prolong 1 ed. and terribly destructive artillery fire before the infantry attack was launched, Especially at Neuve Cha belle this fire was directed from a very small area. Necessarily. there fore. a great many guns and vast supply of ammunition had to be hast ened up to the place of concentration. Tnie movement Of artillery and of ann muntion trains could have readily been seen by air scouts, and Che en- tire move defeated If the Germans had control of the air: This. too, will have a greater effect on Germany than on the Allies because of the diff ference in her tactics
 lt was shown in the Champagne fighting, that in order to oppose the French attacking force with equal numbers. the Germans had to draw from their forces facing the Allies trenches to the north. There was no reserve behind their line to feed up to 1t. If therefore an attack is begun on verdun. for example. the German line near the point of attack must be reinforced by drawing troops from other sections of the llne which sec tions will be correspondingly weaken ed 1T then. he German airmen can. not keep those Of the Allies away from the scene Of these changes. not only will the point of attack be disclosed, but the weakened points in the line wlli also become apparant. The Al lies will then have an opportunity to strike the weakened line before the German attacking force can be rein forced. The entire offensive opera ton will thus be ieopardized.
 STIFF. F.ANSSON'S