The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-02-21

runs railroad, capable of doing grea
service.
"The enemy is fortifying the terrain
has established concrete foundations TO
heavy guns, is assembling batteries o
heavy artillery, builds underground shell
ters for his auto trucks and auto trains
and magazines for ammunition, food
stufrs and forage.
"The enemy's front is literally pro
vided with machine .guns--for each 20 &c
25 yards two of these have been installed
while there are also meehani'
cal rifles which fire ten shots automat'
ically and without reloading Out OF
every part of trench, % yards long
100000 projectiles may be fired in "a
hours, or 10000 in an hour. One must
bear in mind, in addition TO this, the
barbed.wire entanglements, and then try
to obtain an estimate of what it would
be like to break through this wall of
steel"
The article in question rs remarkable
for the fact that it was evidently writ
tten by a person of none or little military
experience, and that it passed the Rus
sian military censors.
While the German Austro- Hungarian
troops have thoroughly utilized the long
spell of inaction in Russia to fortify their
lines to an unheard-of degree, the Aus
tro- Hungarian troops have done likewise
on the Italian front in the face of an
almost continual onslaught by the Ital-
ian forces When the war with Italy
broke out, the present Austro Hungarian
front, contrary to what has been said,
was not prepared for the position war"
which has since then obtained there. The
result of this was, that, owing to the
rock surface of the terrain which had to
be chosen, and because of the Italian
artillery superiority, the Austro- Hunga-
rian troops had hard time of it. 1t
was impossible to dig trenches and bomb
proofs with the pick and spade Rock
drills and dynamite had to be used.
But to-day the Austro- Hungarians are
declared to be well entrenched and housed
ding the entire front. Where water
was hard to get reservoirs and ducts
were established. Everywhere field raif
roads were laid outin one Isonzo sec.
tor over l25 miles alone. Steep grades
were conquered by means of cable rail |
roads, SUBMITS have been made Access
sble by the building of elevators. Up
to December l., 1915, 227 births had been
built. What has been done to make the |
troops comfortable is shown by the use
IF 200 railroad carloads of lumber in a
single month last fall
Meanwhile, barbed wire entanglements
md other distractions have been laid
NJ
mines have been laid. In fact nothing
ending to give the Austro Hungarian
,roops technical superiority over the Ital-
ans has been left undone.
Though the Serbs fought WE'LL they
rapidly to the technical SUI
'eriority of the central powers. AT first
t was artillery superiority which har
assed the Serbian troops and prevent
d them from interfering with the cross
ng of the Danube Incident to this
vas the efficiency of the Austro- Hunga-
ian and German pioneer and engineer
roops. Any one of the four pontoon
ridges thrown across the Danube would ,
ave taxed the capacity of the best en- {
ineer troops. To meet this task four g
ines, and during a season of high winds
nd food stage in the river is looked /
pom as monumental performance even l
4 German-Austro-H Hungarian army cir ,
les where the fairly good" and even {
he decidedly good, job, have failed to I
ring more than recognition that those a
ssponsible for it have merely done their
uty.
The rapid reconstruction of the perma- {
ent Semlin- Belgrade railroad bridge, r
lasonry and steel structure, which has i
cen completed by German Austro- Hun b
arian engineer troops must also be b
'oked upon as very creditable perform I
nee, though neither shot nor shell moles- t
I'd the builders. G
With the Serbs driven from their main z
ositions in the north, and east, they fall F,
reg of the technical superiority of Ger
IAN, Austro- Hungarian, and Bulgarian
A series of brilliant, "old
yle," open field manoeuvres, inaugu L
ted against them drove the Serbs from
he position to another, and finally into
lbania and Greece without even the
ant consolation which might be ad- a
iced from saving the heavy equipment. G
Conditions in the western theatre of #
ar are not sufficiently understood here A
permit treatment of the subject ;,
,nerally, it is accepted, however, that al
ere, too, the Germans enjoy technical d,
periority in man and material. other s
se the French, English and Belgian m
oops would have been more successful, z,
is argued. Unlike the Russians, Serbs &C
ID Italians, the French and English ii
We quickly benefited by experience. m
iich highly developed war industries" u
ade possible without loss of time. As st
rule, the application of new device lie
method has been quickly adopted there is
the other side, so that the use of =
nd bombs, bomb-catapults, asphyiating
ses, and scores of other innovations has
come general now. Il