The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1917-12-27

tinue to put his hope not in the moral
superiority of his troops, but in ma
terial superiority. The Incompatible
fighting strength Of the German SOL
der was to be broken, and must be
broken, by a tremendous development
of mechanical weapons and the un-
heard of accumulation of guns, ammu-
milton, mines, gases, armored cars, and
the like. This is all IN accordance
with the English way of thinking, for
their battle is fundamentally a battle
of money.
Recognize Bravery of British.
"The natural dislike, mingled with
contempt, which we Germans have for
this way of thinking, must not pre-
vent us from understanding that the
conception is exceedingly serious. Any
body who formerly followed English
Colonial wars, English voyages of dis
covery, and English sport, knows how
much of the successes of the English
in these spheres was always due to
brilliant preparation and equipment.
OF course all depends upon whether
there are behind the material and the
machines real men to use them. But
we all know that this is the case with
ing to deny it; on the contrary, we
should be diminishing the achieve
ments of our own men If we did so.
"Even earlier the fighting was we'll
described as a supernatural battle,
but since the end of August it has be-
come quite plain that the English in
tended to increase their efforts still
further by still more gigantic guns
and still more enormous masses of mu-
nitions and all the engines of war. On
our maps OF the ground behind the en-
envy front, upon which we mark from
time to time his new camps, batteries,
strategic railways, and so on, one sees
how all of Belgium that remains I'M
occupied, and especially the area Of
Ypres and POperinghs, has become
really one enormous war camp, cross
ed in every direction by close net
work of strategic railways that have
sprung out of the ground.
Sees French Activity.
"There was a further considerable
expansion of all this recently. Fever
ish activity could be seen among the
English. Bridge after bridge appeared
across the Ypres canal, new roads
hn mo ~
vanced further, the enemy artillery
was brought closer to the front, and
new battery positions were prepared.
New munition dumps were laid down,
new aerodromeS, and new encamp-
ments, thickly sown though the en-
campments already were. AS regards
troops as well as material, the Eng
lishmen hopes to get his results by the
employment of masses.
During the period of preparation
the bombardment of our front was in
cessant. From the methods of the
new artillery, it was realized that the
enemy had thought out new tactical
scheme to meet the Hindenburg-Lu-
dendorff defensive tactics. This is not
the place to go into details about that.
the enemy tried constantly to broaden
the zone of his artillery destruction
behind our front. The increasing fire.
quency of the bombardment, which
often developed into drum fire, and
was directed against our lines of ap-
proach and command positions, grad
ually showed that the new attack was
near. The drum fire assaults on the
whole battle front increased so much
in strength that they were obviously
preparing for the new infantry storm.
Attacks Nerves of Defense.
.'The drum fire was different from
former drum fire, not only in its more
terrible mass effect, but also because
of its peculiar employment in the rear.
1t was not, as formerly, an almost I'M
broken thunder, but series Of fire
storms Of tremendous violence but of
limited duration, alternating with Pc
RODS of comparatively small activity
both the fire storms and the pauses va
ried, so that one could realize the in
tention of destroying the nerves of the
defense, by the element of uncertainty.
"Of airmen also the English had pre-
pared masses in excess of anything
known before. This development was
sudden, and it took some time before
we had caught up with the numerical
superiority. The enemy airmen tried
to advance in swarms over our lines,
but the perfect bravery of our men
was able to force them back, and in
the main to keep them behind their
own lines"
So much for Professor Wegener.
The Herr professor doubtless knows,
if his readers do not, that the "unheard
of accumulation" Of material, the
masses" of airmen in ''excess of any
thing known before" will next spring
be still more unheard of, and still more
in excess Of anything known before.