The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-11-10
Tears UP GERMANS
FRENCH FRONT SEES TERRIBLE
PLAN PUT TO ACTION
CHEWS Army To PIECES


German Spy System Becomes Aid to
Anies-Gen. de Castelnau Origi-
mates New Scheme - $500, 900
Shells are Hurled into 100000
Men in Four Days.
A new war strategy has develop
ed in France, strategy so terrible
in its purpose and so CHASTITY in its
success that it has seized upon the
imagination of the French people
and placed new aspect on the
war.
It lures and annihilates the enemy.
It forces the Germans to gather hun
dreds of thousands of soldiers right
under the French cannon and then
tears them to pieces with literally
millions of shells.
The new strategy is developed so
openly that it has made useless the
complicated system Of German es-
pionage. Here, as so often, the
French nimbleness of mind has coun-
teracted German thoroughness and
preparedness. 1t has made fools OF
the German spies. They have been
using all their circuitous and eXpen-
siye system of sending to Germany
information that the French staff
was eager for the German staff to
have. 1t has lifted and made joke
of the spy peril.
Gen. de Caste1nau, commander OF
the army in Champagne, conceived
the deadly new strategy, and the
enormous German losses before TIE
French trenches there are attributed
20 his military genius.
The strategy is his. He conceived
and presented the plan, and was al
lowed to carry it out. He had no
less a purpose than chewing the Ger
man army to pieces as 1t came under
his superior artillery. If the German
commanders threw in army corps al
ter army corps, so much the worse
for them. Eventually there would be
no German army left.
AS the news of the new strategy
has gone about Frence it is remem-
bered by every one that Gen. de Cas-
telnau has lost his two sons in the
war. He has presented stoical
countenance in the face OF these
losses, but his grief struck deep. Has
his bitterness framed the most de-
structive strategy ever conceived? Is
he going to annihilate the German
army to pay for the lives OF his sons!
Long before the recent advance
was made in Champagne it was
known everywhere that there were
900, 900 French troops on less than q
twenty-mile front between Fismes
and Rheims. 1t was whispered about
as a secret, but every one knew IT,
and every one felt sure the Germans
must know it too. They did.
Their spies undoubtedly reported
the movement down to the exact
number of regiments. ard that was
exactly what Gen. de Castelnau want
ed them to do. He also moved his
troops in daylight so that the German
airmen high overhead reported the
gathering Of the great army. There
was such fuss and to-do about the
Assem- bling of the troops that it is
surprising if the Germans were not
suspicious of some new move. Bat
it did not make any difference If they
were.
The newest aspect of this new
strategy is that it is matter of in
difference whether the enemy knows
what is going on. The more the
enemy knows, in fact. the more he
plays into your hands. He must eth
er stand and be torn to pieces or ''get
out from under" 1t was Indifferent
to Gen. de Castelnau which the Ger
mans did.
But there was one thing the Ger
mans probably did not know. They
could have had no idea OF the num-
sber of shells that were to be used
against them. In the "shows" the
French had previously given them IN
Artois and the Argonne, for each pro-
tracted artillery duel the French pro-
vided 100000 or 100000 shells. But
for this s'show" Gen. de Castelnasl
provided 1850, 900 shells to be used
in a four-day bombardment Of the
twenty-mile front in Champagne.
Such shelling was unprecedent-
ed. At the same time between
100000 and 100000 shells were
sent to the front in the Artois dis
trict. There the French cannon were
behind not only their own lines, but
the English lines, too. There again
the French rs and 105 millimeter
guns have won from the Germans the
name they were given at the begin
ming of the war-"the devils ~artil-
lery."
TO hold the great French army in
Champagne it was necessary for the
Germans to move forward at least
800, 900 men. But the more they
brought forward the better the grin.
old warrior de Castelnau liked 1t.
He wanted plenty CT food for his
powder and fodder for his canncnS.
He got it, too.
Nine German army corps ESQ.,
900 men) came under the fire
of the French guns in Champagne,
and a third of them were killed,
wounded or prisoners within four
days. The French also gained ground,
but that was incidental, even accl-
dental. It was not in De Castelnau's s
plan except as al afterthought. His
purpose was to kill as many German
soldiers as he could. He wanted to
wear down the German army faster
than it could be built up.
Captured soldiers brought to pris-
On camps are from many re eSlments
and large proportion of them were
never under fire before. This was
due to the purpose of the German
commander to keep their better
troops in reserve while the hellish
fire went on. 1t was obvious from
the first day, as the Germans gave
themselves up too easily for seasoned
troops. They began to break the
first day.
Seasoned troops would have held
out at, least three days under that
terrific cannonade. Many Of the pris-
oners also said they had been rushed
up to the front from Germany. It
was all one to de Caste!nau. All he