Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-05-04
WAR LESSONS.
European Conflict Teaching Tactieians
Lot Of Things.

European Conflict Teaching Taetieians
Lot Of Things.
A library of military books based
on experience in the Russo-Japanese
and Balkan Turkish wars, in maneu-
vers and in garrison, will be written
when the present war ends. The
aerial phase Of this war will permit
a fair and just appraisement of the
aeroplane and dirigible as instru-
ments Of warfare, says the Washing
ton Star. Such appraisement was not
possible before the war. Men inter-
ested in aviation were prone to ex-
ultation over the military capacity Of
air machines, and men not particular
ly interested in aviation were in
clined to feel that this revolutionary
thing called aircraft might not, under
promises, for in every war things
promising revolutionary changes,
when put to practical trial, do not
change anything.
gressed. the aeroplane seems to have
made good all promises in reconnois-
sance work, such as securing timely
information of troop movements by
the enemy and the position Of the
enemy. AS a scout in obtaining data
concerning range and direction for
artillery fire and in observing that
fire, the aeroplane may be considered
as effective, If one be safe in judging
from the meager reports from the
theatre Of war. AS an agent Of Of
fense it does not seem to have per-
formed all the feats which aviation
enthusiasts believed it would, for
high explosives dropped from these
machines, flying at great heights,
were to smash artillery, rout cavalry,
wreck supply trains and decimate in
fantry.
But the aeroplane has proved in
the case Of land warfare, as the sub
marine has in naval war, that it is a
necessary part Of an army, and that
as a means for securing and trans
mitting information of the enemy's
large movements, and permitting
that information to be obtained by
trained and skillful observers, 1t Is
of wonderful efficiency.
The artillery phase Of the war has
set a shelf or sheaf of learned mill
tary books far out Of date. Before
the war, there were pro-artillery and
anti-artillery extremists. In the first
group were men who said that the
battles of the future would be fought
by quick firing cannon, with just a
sufficient force Of infantry to keep
them planted in position. The latter
group talked of the moral" effect Of
the noise of gun fire and bursting
shells and shrapnel, but they were
positive that not many men would be
hit by shapnell, while shell was too
local in it's effect to do much harm.
Results so far, so experts say, go to
show that the pro-artillery enthusi-
asts were nearer right than those
holding the contrary opinion.
The call in all the armies Is for
heavier guns and a higher ratio Of
guns to rifles. The ratio has been
steadily increasing in the European
armies throughout the years Of peace,
Notwithstanding that one gun has
come to equal the efficiency Of 20
guns Of a generation ago, yet now the
demand Is for more and more artil-
lery.
Transport Is another phase Of the
war which has unwritten many books,
and the dragging along Of monster
ordnance with field armies Is one OF
the unexpected features Of the con-
lict. All the lessons in transport
service are not applicable to the
United States, with it's great dis
tances, narrow soft and hilly roads
and relatively frail bridges along
those roads.
1t Is in the trench warfare-al-
most subterranean warfare-that
the war in Europe has gone farther
astray from the theories constructed
in peace and from the practices Of
other wars. This war has developed
new ideas in cover, in trenching, in
counter-trenching and in the care Of
the health Of the troops living In
these long burrows. The problems
of sanitation for troops in permanent
and semi permanent camps, in biv-
ouac and on march had been solved,
but the problems of guarding the
health Of troops cooped up for weeks
in covered bitches and in holes in wet,
cold earth, were new, and the solu-
tion Of these problems-if they have
been solved-will make new chapters
on military sanitation for America.