The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-08-01

I has been sporadic lighting between
Turkish and British troops. Turkey
sent an army to attack the Suez canal,
but the main body of troops failed to
| reach its objective.
! In Africa French and British troops
| occupied Iogoland and part of the
| Kamerun, German possessions. A Brit
ish attack on German East Africa was
| defeated.
| The insular possessions of Germany
| iii the Pacific were captured by Great
Britain and Japan.
Using tau, the German fortress in
| China, was captured by the japanese,
aided by a British contingent
On the seas there have been no
| great battles. Great Brltain's suprem-
| scy, owing to the overwhelming size of
| her fleet, has not been disputed to the
ultimate issue, the main German fleet
having remained In home waters. Two
| German cruisers which were in the
Mediterranean when war began went to
the Dardanelles, and were acquired by
Turkey. few German cruisers and
! converted merchantmen, including the
famous Emden, and the Karlsruhe
Kronprinz william, and Prinz Eitel
Friedrich, raided shipping of the al
| lies for a time, but were eventually
sunk or forced to intern in neutral
ports.
The Austro- Hungarian fleet has re-
manned in the Adriatic and the Turkish
feet has been kept from the Aegean.
| Germanys merchant marine has been
| swept from the seas.
Naval Battles of Importance
There have been several naval bat
| ties of Importance, however In the
| first month of the war Rear Admiral
Bee tty's squadron dashed into Helgo-
| land Blight near the great German
Ir,o yaI CT nd nj aof,
cruisers and two torpedo boat destroy
ers. In January occurred a battle In
the North Sea between British war
ships and a German squadron which
presumably was attempting a raid on
the British coast. In this battle the
German cruiser Bluecher was sunk.
The German far east squadron de-
feated Vice Admiral Cradock's British
squadron off the Chilean cost on No
vember Z, sinking the Good Hope and
Monmouth. The British obtained their
revenge in December when. off the
Falkland islands, powerful British
squadron defeated the Germans, sink
ing the Scharnhost, Gneisenau, Leip
eff and Nuremberg.
German squadrons have twice at
tackled the English coast. causing
some loss of life and damage to prop
erty English towns. including London,
have also been attacked by German
AIRCRAFT, WHICH nave I1du6 several sue
cessful trips across the North Sea,
raiding points on the east coast
Methods of fighting have been altered
radically in consequence of the lessons
learned in the first year of the war.
1t has been pre-eminenty war of
machines. The resources afforded by
modern scientific development have
been taxed to devise new instruments
of death and destruction more potent
than ever had been employed. 1t has
been also a war of surprises. New
problems have arisen, necessitating
reconstruction of the theory of war.
Plans and methods heretofore approved
by authorities on military affairs were
discarded. and the staffs of the various
armies were compelled to grapple with
situations for which there was no pre-
cedent.
The first great surprise of the war
was the German 42-centimeter Q6R-
inch) gun, which hurls for some Is
miles q shell weighing almost a ton.
The great Notifications which were the
pride of Belgium. and believed to be
almost impregnable. were battered into
ruins by these guns in comparative
ly short time. Two of these guns,
stationed 10 miles from Antwerp,
wrecked It's elaborate defense works.
Liege and Namur fell similarly.
The use of artillery and machine
guns, In fact. has been one Of the prin-
cipal features of the war Great exc
cution was done by the new Krupp IL
inch howitzer, weighing nearly 40
tons, with a six-mile radius. The Aus
trian 12-inch howitzer also has proved
exceptionally efficient. The French 75-
millimeter gun is regarded as one Of
the most effective field pieces.
Artillery Main Reliance
On all the European battlefelds ar
AZ ,eof oil nf
the various armies. Trenches bristle
with machine guns, which military men
say bid fair to relegate the rifle to q
secondary place. 1t was with artillery
that the Austro-German forces blasted
their way across Galicia a few weeks
ago, making what was said to be the
greatest concentration of heavy and
light field pieces even seen. With ar
tillery the British won at Neuve Chap
pe,ie the Germans at Scissors. Every
considerable movement of infantry Is
preceded by heavy artillery lombard
bent, and frequently the infantry has
little more to do than occupy the po-
sitions Of the enemy made untenable
by artillery fire.
The deadliness Of machine guns ne
cessitated recourse to trenches, for no
troops in exposed positions could live
within the range of the rapid firers.
Consequently, trench warfare has de-
VelOpaG to an extent never DelOre seen.
Whole armies moved into underground
quarters, with elaborate labyrinths of
passages and subterranean living and
sleeping quarters.
The result of machine warfare was
the use of ammunition on a scale for
which the world was unprepared. Eng
land recognized 1t as her greatest prob
lem. and made David Lord-George Min
lister of Munitions. with power to mobil-
lie the nations workers for the pro-
duction of war munitions on a colos-
sal scala Franco took similar meaa-