Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-09-08
GUNS. GUNS, GUNS.
SECRET OF VICTORY

From the Kansas City st,

From the Kansas City Star.
When kovno fell before the German in-
vaders, a part of the booty was an artill-
cry park Of 400 guns.
Two such disasters to the United States
army would absolutely wip out it's active
and reserve mobile artillery.
BY utilizing every cannon In the United
States that has a rified bore and can be
muster exactly III pieces of artillery.
Eighty of those would. be 2.95.in. old style
munition. They are classed as obsolete.
Four would S-inch mountain I'M 5O4 g.
Inch field guns. eight s.S-inch field guns.
field guns. So 4.7-inch field howitzers, and
80 6-inch field howitzers.
That is absolutely every piece OF mobile
authority is the report Of the secretary Of
war last January. 1t includes every gun
IN active use by our six regular regiments
organized militia battery and every re-
serve gun.
Those figures are a striking commentary
half SO graphic. 1t takes no military ex-
pert to realize that artillery. in modern
W%arfare. by its lack or plentitude means
The German drive at Paris was stopped
when Joffre succeeded in establishing a
superiority in artillery fire. The Germans
was fatal. The German retreat stopped
when the artillery line was reached:
promised to be a brilliant campaign in the
Carpathians because its artillery gave out.
The allies on Gallipoli owe every foot
they hold to their mobile guns.
H%indenburg whipped Rennenkampf with
guns. guns crushed Liege. made Antwerp
n%ntenable;, Namur an eggshell and Maui
Russians from Cracow with guns and the
snap of artillery Is still at their heels.
Italy. regardless Of the bravery of its
frn0nS noVor vyOr,1d hovo oIvo,oa1 M
inch into Austrian territory without guns.
God fights on the side of the heaviest
ao1fai,ery'1 w Is 3 phrase as attribnted to Ma.
Charles XII or Wellington said it. It was
true-and 1t is true. more than ever before
in the history of the world.
All of the patient heroism of Washing
toms little army at Trenton would nave
availed nothing had he not surprised the
a ee artillery park and turned the guns
weighed a thousand men. Artillery SCI
cured Little Round Top for Meade at Get
t t9Isb,ag ~, and %revente Longstreet from
stopped Pickett's charge, the most magni-
fcent example of heroic sacrifice of men
his way into yicksburg with guns and
Port Arthur might be In Russian hands
today had stoessel outweighed Nogi in
guns.
1t was Capron's battery more than
Rough Riders that stormed San Juan. In
The Last Shot" no less an authority
lHdii rTeoer1ck rainier mas guns win a
war. humble a nation and wreck a dy-
nasty.
Nc guns; no v%ictory-it- is an axiom.
1t takes somewhere between 100 and $50
guns to hold a mile of trench in France.
But say 1t takes so. or %. At the lowest
figure the United States could defend %
miles. The battle line in France alone is
near $50 miles.
Bulgaria has more uns than the United
States: so has Canada, Australia. Greece.
Holland and perhaps Switzerland and any
field army now operating in Europe.
by the most conservative estimates
Uncle Sum couldn't go to war without inn
mediately, adding $500 field guns to his
army-and 1t takes months to make them.
Our largest field gun are 10 inches
smaller in bore han the German 42-centi-
meter. Had Germany used American ar
man soldier would nave crossed the Meuse.
An army without artillery is like a mo.
tor car without an engine: 1t looks pretty,
but can't get anywhere.