Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1918-06-21
OFFENSIVE ALONE
BRINGS VICTORY
General Foch Says Reserves,
Carefully Husbanded, Will
Deliver the Knockout.
BLUDGEON MUST Be STRONG
Used at the Finish With Surprise, Mass
and Speed, They viii Make the De.
eisive Attack, Destroying the Enc
my's Organized Forces.

Londonderry al offensive. charac-
terlaed by surprise, mass and speed,
can bring victorious results In warfare.
says General foch commander In chief
Of the allied armies, In an article which
he contributes to the Field weekly
journal.
Modern warfare, TO arrive ut its
end and TO impose its will on the en-
envy" General Foch says, recognizes
only one eans-destruction of the
encmy's organized forces.
"War undertakes and prepares this
destruction by battle, which brings
about the overthrow Of the adversary,
DISCREPANCIES his command. destroys his
discipline, and nulifies his units as
far as their fighting power is con
cerned.
No Victory In Defense.
"Our nrst axiom must be that to
achieve It's object battle must not be
purely defensive. purely defensive
battle, even well conducted, does not
result In victor and a vanQulshed. II
is simply Il game that must be begun
over again.
From this II is an obvious corollary
that an offensive, whether started at
the beginning OF an action or whether
L follows the defensive, can only give
results, and. In consequence, must al
ways be adopted at the finish.
ITO maintain our position Is not
synonymous with being victorious and
even prepares for defeat. If We re-
main where we are and do not pass to
the offensive to Fix the direction OF at
Jack. to guard against the plans OF the
enemy, and prevent him from carrying
out the same maneuver, we must un-
dertake to carry on and sustain numer-
GUS combats. each with determined
aim.
All Depends on Reserve.
But since there remains no doubt
hat decisive attack is the very key
stone OF battle. all other actions
VIZ u uuANlt must wv VII
visaged considered, organized, pro-
Vlded with forces in the measure in
which they will prepare facilitate, and
guarantee development of decisive
attack characterized by It's mass, Its
surprise its speed, and for which. in
consequence, 1t is essential that there
shall be the maximum reserve force
possible OF troops Of maneuver.
The reserve-that Is to say, the
bludgeon-is organized and
kept carefully instructed to execute
the single act of battle from which re-
suits are expected namely, the de-
cisIve attack.
Surprise, Mass and Speed.
Reserves must be husbanded with
the most extreme pnrsimony so that
the hludgeon may be strong enough to
make the blow as violent as possible.
Let loose nj the finish, without any
lurking idea Of saving them, with
yell thought out plan for winning the
battle al point chosen and deter
mined, reserves are thrown In all to-
gether In an action surprising In VIC
lence md energy oil other phases of
battle, an action with proper charac-
teristics surprise mass, and speed.
All our forces really participate. either
by preparing II or by carrying II out.
in this, our supreme aim. we must
not be deceived by appearances. Al
though theory fails when applied by
feeble hands and when accessories OBJ
scure the main principle, history and
reason show us that in battle there Is
4 single argument which is worth while
namely, decisive attack. which is
alone capable Of assuring the desired
result the overthrow OF the adver-
'ary."