Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1917-12-13

tinss b PIT - hses 81 h - 0seal
apestssaty q ~ tssspA ~ u ~
eesial supsgiseiU. NJ 'iscsapa1Ass
oght1ng stssAgtA e ~ 0eenan ~.
dief was to be hrokea. and mast -
brokea. By . tresneadoas developmeas
ce D~echanieal veapoas and he m
heard 0e accumulatioa at gum. ammu-
nitio0. mlDss. sAsea. arDesed ears. and
the IKE. THIS u an IN sccsedascs
With The EasiisA way Il thinking, for
their battle h fundamentally Q hattie
of money.
Nsessaiss oeavsry q British.
The natural dislike. mingled with
contempt. which We Germans have for
this way Of thinking. must not pre-
vent n from understanding that the
conception IL 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
10 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
the English, and we are far from want.
Ing to deny It; on the contrary. we
should be dimlnishing the achieve
ments Of q own men II We did %.
"Even earlier the lighting was well
described as q 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 un.
occupied, and especially the area OF
Ypres and Poperinghs. has become
really n enormous war camp, cross.
ed In every direction by a close net.
work Of strategic railways that have
sprung out Of the ground.
Sees French Activity.
"There was Il further considerable
expansion of all this recently. Fever
ish activity could be seen among the
English. Bridge after bridge appeared
across the ipres canal, new roads
crossed the country. branch lines ad.
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-.
equipments already were. As regards
troops as welt 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 Il new tactical
scheme to meet the Hindenburg-Lu.
dendorff defensive tactics. This is not
the place to 90 into details about that.
But n feature Of the scheme was 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, hut also because
of its peculiar employment in the rear.
1t was not, as formerly, an almost un-
broken thunder, but Il 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 n 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 1t took some time before
we hud caught up with the numerical
superiority. The enemy airmen tried
to advance In swarms over our lines,
hut 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,
II 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.
Stone Age eIetter.
Instead of blotting paper we soon