New Britain herald., 1917-03-02

will be acting on the principles of Na- poleon and Lee.
 The men over in the trenches, seeing only brief and intimate part. of the actual operations, are inclined to assert that the major principles of warfare have changed, but this Is true only of tactics. which, according to Napoleon. change every ten years, period which, had he been alive to- day, he probably would have reduced to five. This Is due to the increase in inventive power over the time when Napoleon fought. In the tact.cs' of this war are seen three tremendous innovations which probably can be r'aced in the following order: First. airships: second, improved heavy ar tillery with highly explosive shells; third, machine guns.
 "In strategy the immutable prob, lem of time and space still prevail and were Napoleon or Lee alive today the genius which made them great would find an outlet.
 Strategy vs. Tactics.
 'In paragraph. the defense be- tween strategy and tactics may be ex- plained to 8 lay reader as follows:
 Strategy consists of plans for the maneuvers of armies seeking def mite result, while tactics are the oper- ations when two forces are in actual contact. The victory of the Marne was the result of high strategy. as the Germans swept through Belgium in their encircling movement about Par is. The trench warfare prevailing since has been purely a matter of tac- tics, without either side being able to I,~ Sva< 1~ra'e e<@P strategy. Stonewall Jackson suffered won strategical success by forcing the Union commanders to move great forces in all directions.
 People who wonder frequently why, with the superior resources in man power undoubtedly possessed by the Allies, more progress toward vic- tory is not made. The reason lies in the form of strategy which made your Civil war so long and enabled Napol- con to keep his back to the wall so long when he had coalition of Eu- rope against him. Lee and Napoleon were operating on interior lines from central position and they had the genius to make the best possible use of the great advantage this gave them. The Germans understood this form of strategy so we'll that even in peace times their economic necessities are frequently sacrificed to military needs. In their transportation system alone the result of this policy can be seen. Lee and his small army held back greatly superior forces for four years and there is no reason to anticipate. on purely military grounds an early conclusion of the war. Lee operated n in while the present fronts extend almost 8 continents breadth
 Germans Shortening Lines.
 'T see no indication of what has been asserted. that the Germans are withdrawing at some places along our front because of a desire to force open fighting. This movement is retire. ment for the purpose of shortening their line. They do not like any more than we did when, after the sec- ond battle of Ypres, we had to retire shorter distance to straighten our line. You may be sure no army likes to retire and 1t is certain that the Germans will make a determined of- fensive somewhere to restore their lost ground. We are now merely gathering the fruits of OCT winter operations. Our raids on the Somme front gave us command of the posi- tions from which our artillery nre was much more effective. They also probably counted on making our pre- parations for an offensive over this ground abortive by giving up their front line and compelling us to alter our plans.
 Germans Can Still Fight. .The Germans still are capable of, and will put LID a strong fight. From a purely military standpoint I see no reason why the war should not go through another winter, but condi- tions outside the military zone may operate to end 1t sooner. How far the shortage of food in Germany has af- fected the physique and morale of the latest recruits cannot say, but some deterioration for this cause is almost certain and will become more and more effective with the passage of time. Without morale even the genius of Lee could never had won his vic- tories and in our armies believe that we have the manhood. as we'll as the material superiority which will result In ultimate victory
 Gen. Maurice belongs to a family of military students. His father was professor of military science in the war staff college and was famous as & military historian. Gen. Maurice was engaged in writing a history of Robert E. Lees military exploits but on &C., count of the war it had to be aban- doned.