The Washington herald., 1917-09-16
New Battle Tactics Replace
Trench Fighting in Flanders
By JOHN LLOYD BALDERsroN.

With the British Armies IN tne
Field, Sept. 6.-Since the commence
ment Of the great allied offensive IN
Flanders at the beginning Of last
month the writer has been following
the operations as closely as circum-
stances have permitted. During two
weeks battles of an intensity never
reached before have fiared up when
ever the heart-breaking weather has
permitted attacks upon the enemy.
The writer has seen as much of the
hottest of these combats. by day and
night. as is possible In the flat coun-
try where they are taking place. and
has talked to infantrymen just out Of
the furnace. to gunners and airmen,
and studied all available maps and
plans.
At this phase in the battle no pre-
dictions are possible or permissible,
and no general summary Of what has
happened would be of value in the
later stage OF the campaign that will
have been reached when this story is
printed. propose to point out what
this battle is like. wherein it differs
from any other battle ever fought. to
show how the tactics OF the Somme
and Verdun and even Of Vimy and
Arras have already become obsolete
IN lnlS war whose WnOl6 CndEdClc
changes every few months.
The only generalization possible now
Is this, that the German high COM
mand has accepted the allied chal-
lenge. because IL so desired or because
it had no choice, and that the struggle
now opening is developing into the
greatest combat of the war up to this
time, dwarfing last years Somme
ha
Ioos.
Trench warfare is obsolete. That is
the most startling discovery 1 have
made during this battle. The state
ment does not mean that thousands OF
miles of trenches along the Western
front are not still held by allied and
German troops; II means that so ter
ribly destructive has become the
massed power of guns and shells that
in a sector where a great action is
being fought trenches are pounded out
of existence at the very beginning.
Roughly. speaking, there are no
trenches along the front OF the Flan-
ders battle. Trenches exist on the
rest of the front merely because the
battle line south of the offensive Zone
is comparatively quiet; by comparison
with the annihilating drumfire in
the north the spasmodic cannonading
that goes on day and night elsewhere
represents perfect peace.
To the trench has succeeded the
shell hole. Before the war. trench
warfare as we have known it for three
years was unthought of; during the
trench period, few believed shells
would ever be concentrated in such
quantities that trenches along wide
fronts could be obliterated. That is
W hat has happened.
In the old warfare, soldiers dug
their own defense system. In the war
of today, the enemy digs II for them,
churning up the ground into craters
in which they take refuge. After the
trench and the shell hole, what will
be the next phase? The war of move
rnent, some prophets out here declare.
The day Is soon coming, they believe.
when the growing preponderance OF
fire power on the allied side will make
the German shell hole defense i'm
possible, for the reason that after
bombardnent there will be no survi-
vors to occupy and organize the
craters. II this comes true. the only
refuge from the bombardment Of the
future will be flight: battles must be
fought in movement, upon ground
which slow-moving heavy guns and
trench mortars cannot reach But
this is for tomorrow: my task Is to
deal with today.
The enemy was not slow this
spring to realize the menace OF the
British concentration in the north
Hindenburg sent to the scene OF the
gathering storm all the divisions he
could scrape together from the rest
frar q
Aisne region, where a secondary con-
centration was imposed on him by
IN offensive. In addition,
the young German troops,
and 10, are making theif.
--praga..-e in Flanders as they finish
rhsiv ;.a,1ing. and many Of them have
a1f-afv oeen classified in British
tr~sE re cages. An extraordinary
-rn ~-r { guns was also gathered.
ger ~ oss of the Messines Ridge in
rr. loved the enemy what was
-,s-faE , meet the great attack. On
ers front Germany now has
than were ever put in
or any battle of the past;
ga h and French artillery is
ea.rr .e numerous. and from all
hat IN gather much better in
evs-v way, more plentifully supplied.
more e. ective. than that of the
-r-y
sJt . would be poor justice to the
ezIt British soldiers who have
stood g ir ground and died under
heInsn and prolonged shell fire rather
than yield what they have won to
deny to the Germans credit for their
artillery work. The new German tao
tics, elaborated in the light IF the
fzNN he oil aSf
stan on the Somme and the Scarpe.
depend first of all upon great numbers
Of guns and shells to make untenable
the ground the Kaiser's troops are
unable to hold.
The German Tactics.
IN this battle no serious attempt has
been made by the enemy to garrison
their advanced trench systems, when
British drUmfire commences to de-
stroy them. During the process Of de-
struction. the trenches are held very
lightly. sometimes not at all. When
trenches disappear and the ground
becomes what the Germans call a
crater field" picked officers crawl
over the waste and station their men
in twos and threes, with machine
guns, in some of the holes. These
sometimes are Joined with other
Craters.
Cellars and villages and farm
houses. Te-enforced concrete and
held by desperate men with machine
guns. and small concrete forts con-
cealed in woods, are also favorite
centers of resistance. though most of
the latter are destroyed by lombard
ment before the British infantry ad-
vance.
The German idea in this fighting
is to sacrifice the men kept in the
forward areas. causing as great a
loss as possible to the attackers.