Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-04-02

whether this success was due to Ger
man improvements on our tactics or
TO the Russian lack Of ammunition.
but the question is of no practical
Importance since that system of
lighting is now wholly obsolete
III II were not for the regulations
Ia let you sign my name to the stAte-
ment that the art of war has pro-
gressed further since the battle OF
Neuve Chapelle than it did from the
invention of gunpowder to the battle
Of Austerlitz.
Our attack in Champagne in Sep
tember followed our failure. in Artois
In May, TO successfully initiate the
German stroke against Russia. We
thought. by widening the front of the
attack and by conncealing the sector
aimed at by means of general bonn
bardment. that we could break
through. The battle of Loos was
Fought simultaneously on the same
theory The English even went so far
as to lombard the Belgian coast and
spread rumors through their secret
service that "A landing near Ostend
was in preparation. in order to dis
tract the attention Of the enemy from
the point where the blow was COM
ing. | happened to know that the
ruse was successful, and that the Ger
mans kept four or five divisions on
the Belgian coast during the Loos
battle. The man who started that
rumor was an artist. for he counted
on German belief in the British mud
ding any big campaign and letting
their plans leak out, and actually had
information conveyed to German Sc
cret agents by British traitors who
got paid for their trouble by the Ger
mans. the money going into the Brit
lsh secret service fund.
Vcrdun the Standard.
"Verdun, the next step after Cham
payne, is the standard battle. until
something new is discovered. Cham
pagne and Loos have become out of
date. for the new German attack Is
much more formidable than any sys-
TEN tried up to this time, and our
method of defense is infinitely supe-
rior to the German attempts to hold
on to the first lines in the past. Since
the Germans, in the next great battle,
will, as l have said, take leaf from
our book and give way slowly before
the storm, we must devise something
new.
And that will be-" hardly seri-
ously, to receive the inevitable an
swer. II l knew, do you suppose I'd
tell you?
"'You will observe, my friend re-
marked later, that all these military
revolutions we have been discussing
are tactful revolutions, that is, they
deal with methods of actual combat,
not with strategy. Strategy adapts
itself to changing tactics. but its prin-
ciples remain unaltered. Alexander
or Hannibal would have no difficulty
in correctly appreciating the strategy
of the German attack on France in
1914, Of the battle of the Marine, Of
the great enveloping movement from
north and south, varied by blow in
the center across the Vistula, by
which the German staff tried to en-
trap the whole Russian army last
summer. This Verdun operation,
consisting in IA violent blow in the
center alternating with operations on
the extreme wings. bears strong
strategical relation to the battle of
Chattanooga, which the German mill
tary authorities regard highly
The opinions of this officer | be-
lieve are sound. although he may be
little inclined to give the French
too much credit and the Germans not