New Britain herald., 1916-06-19
YON MOLTKE DIES
 IN THE REICHSTAG
Was Chief of Supplementary Gen.
 eral Staff Of German Army

Amsterdam, June 19.-Lieut. Gen. Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the Supplem entary General Staff of the Army, died of heart apoplexy yester- day during service of mourning in the Reichstag for Field Marshall von der Goltz, says a Berlin telegram.
 London, June 19-F. w. Vile, writ ing in The Daily Mail of von Moltke, says:
 T can testify to the literal accuracy of piece of history not generally known which identifies von Moltke with a clique which compelled the Kaiser to abandon his remaining doubts as to the immediate wisdom of war.
 "On the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 1, 1914, the generals wife paid visit to a certain home in Berlin. She was in a state of irrepressibIe excitement
 "'Ach! what a day I've been through she said to my informant. My husband came home just before I left almost the first I've seen of him in three days and nights. He threw himself onto a couch, a com
 
 had finally accomplished the hardest task of his life. He had helped to induce the Kaiser to sign the mobil- ization order.''' ''
 During the fall of 1914 there were repeated announcem ments of General von Moltke's illness, and it was said that he had been removed as Chief of the General Staff. These however, proved to be false, but in December of that year he retired, his failing health, it was said, preventing him from returning to the front. General von Falkenhayn was then appointed Chief of the General Staff, while Gen eral von Moltke, during the following January, was appointed Chief of the Supplem entary General Staff.
 Nephew of Great von MoItl<e.
 General von Moltke was born in Mecklen burg -Schwerin, and was in his sixty-seventh year. He was a nephew of the late Field Marshal von Moltke, the great strategist, who was known as the Organizer of Victory" and who directed the movements of the German armies during the Fran co-Prussian war of 1870. He served as Adjutant to his distinguished uncle on the General Staff from 1881 until the Field Marshal'S death in 1891.
 While escorting the Field Marshal to the grave, Emperor William in formed the then Major VOn Moltke that he had decided to elevate him to the rank of personal aid-de-camp and he served for five years in this position. Following this, General von Moltke held regimental and di- V1s1ona1 commands in the Guards un- til 1904, when the Emperor created a Quartermaster Generalship on the General Staff, hitherto filled only during war, and designated General von Moltke to fill the post.
 On Jan. 1, 1906, General von MoItke succeeded Count von Schlieffen as Chief of the General Staff His career in the army up to that time had been exceptional As a young man he had won his lieutenancy and the Iron Cross during the Franco-Prussian war and had acquitted himself with distinction until he was made Lieu tenant General in 1902. When ap- pointed to succeed von Schlieffen, both those in the army and in civil life criticised his elevation. They said he owed it prim arily to the Elm
  and his desire to have the magic name of Moltke at the head of the brains department' of the German army.
 His critics had only their eyes open ed at the first "Kaiser Manoeuvres, held under his orders before he had been Chief of the General Staff for ten months. This great autumn cam paign had been distinguished bv op- erations that the oft-quoted Marshal of France would have called "magni- ficent, but not war; The Kaiser, had a passion for thrilling cavalry charges over bare fields, which made splendid moving pictures, but which would cost the lives of divisions in | real war. With the taunts of his | critics ringing in his ears that he was | a Kaiser Staff Chief" von Moltke's | first innovation was to obliterate ruth | lessly the picturesque from the man ! oeuvres. He substituted what is now 1 real war, the tactics of the German 1 armies. He gave the troops grueling
 practical operations-night fighting | forced marches, and all those exer-
 cises that have made the German
 army formidable.
 Count Schlieffen. who had attempt | ed to oppose the Emperor's will an6 l substitute real war" for the pictur.
 esque, had been finally forced to leave the General Staff. Won Moltke, witt l a will of steel, succeeded where he had failed, and his growth in the
 esteem of the army was rapid there
 after. As an example of the powe,
 he eventually held, it was through hi
 insistence that O,OO0.00O was spen 1 | the war.