The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1916-01-05


fantry and artillery training doesn
vary among the different armies
much as we think. No country in tn
modern world has any war secret
that all the other countries a-en'
familiar with.
OF course the German troops ar
trained to obey orders implicitly, an
in tight place they will act like
machine-without thought or will
and the French and English are al
lowed liberty Of thought and actioI
which sometimes results in costl
blunders, and sometimes in impos
sible victories; and Russians ar
dogged, terrible fighters under goo!
leadership, and stupid under bad off
GERS, but taken as whole in train
ing and in military equipment boil
sides are equal.
But you will insist that since thi
is a question of mere numbers o
men, the Germans will take the de
fensive as soon as they are pressed
and that the cost Of attacking Ger
many will more than offset tht
numerical superiority of the Allies
That would indeed be partially true
if the character of defensive warfare
had not materially changed.
Many officers in active service il
every one Of the countries / visited
told me of this change. In the frs
six months of the war the proportion
of casualties in the attacking force
was about seventy per cent. to thirty
in the defending ranks. This was
now modified, they said, on account
of trench mortars and other new fac.
tors; so that ffty-five per cent. or
the attacking side were lost to forty:
five per cent. on the defensive.
Then, too, such is.now the condi.
ton Of things that at. the present
time any side can take a trench by
superior concentration of artillery
and infantry at a given poiIt, and
the enemy's counter-attack can regain
the trench by the same means-botb
sides now counter-attacking inYari-
ably-so that one side loses approx
mately what the other side loses.
Of course, if these things are true,
the numbers OF fighting men avail
able are the important thing, and we
shall not see the Germans impreg-
nably intrenched beyond the Rhine
when the day comes that they with
draw from the conquered lands.
I think it will be generally ad-
mitted that that first great German
army which poured down over Bel
GUM and France like gray ava
lanche is gone. The best the Ger
mans can muster in fighting men is
some eight millions and that includes
many incapables. The official Ger
man lists of dead, disabled and pris-
oners totals almost four millions.
Grant that the Allies have lost as
many men as the Central Empires:
still Russia and England have un-
touched resources in cannon food.
A German military attache in a
neutral capital Informed me that the
Central Powers losses in the drive
against Russia were twenty per cent.
permanent losses OF twenty-five hun
dred thousand men. And I know OF
cases where men past military age,
who were exempt on account of ply.
sical infrmities, and even scientists
needed in the work of making army
have been called to the
colors and are already dead in the
front trenches. Germany is certain
ly getting short Of men.
The progress of the war So far
shapes Itself, to me, in three desper-
ate attempts by the Germans to
smash their opponents power. At
the beginning they drove at France,
and the battle of the Marne marked
their failure After a minor blow at
England in the vain attempt to gain
Calais they tried to smash Russia;
but the very essential of any at
tempt to cripple the northern empire,
the destruction of the main Russian
army, also failed on account of Gen.
Alexieff's mastery retreat from War
saw
Then followed the drive on Serbia
and the entry into Constantinople;
and that is nothing more nor less
than blow at the British empire.
For Constantinople is of no value in
itself; it can only be the stepping
stone to a much vaster project-an
against Egypt and. the
Suez canal, or against India by way
Of Bagdad, or both.
But in the final show down, where
could Germany find the men to hold
open the line from Hungary to Con-
keep a strong hold over
European Turkey, and advance to
or to EgFpt-besides the
Of workmen needed to
build railroads across trackless coun.
tries, arrange for provisions anc
water, organize new army units; flat
ter and fight the Arabs, and run the
Turkish Empire as she is now doing?
Where could Germany get these
millions of men? She can not
withdraw troops from the western
front, where every month sees the
French and English grow in
strength, organization and power.
She can not take them from her
eastern front, where the railyinS
Russians are already making her
reel. Even the Italian front is
keeping busy a steadily greater
army all the time. SO, in order to
beat England, France and Russia.
Germany must conquer the world,
which it can not do.
When I was in Constantinople the
Turkish newspapers published about
a column of peace Lews" every day.
Every rumor of peace, every whisper
of Cancellation, was given the widest
and most serious presentation
Bryan's reported peace trip, Ford's
plan, the utterances of the Pope, an
interview with a Cardinal and procla-
nations by the various German socle-
ties outlining their idea of the con-
ditions under which peace should be
concluded by Germany.
Now, all the news Of Europe
came through the German embassy
and was controlled by it. And it
was evident that the. subject Of
peace was an absorbingly interest
ing one to the Central powers.
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