The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-12

ed in exercises by formations of all arms, or on the ranges. The barrage was practiced with live ammunition, and the infantry trained to follow close behind it.
 Now. as ever, all commanders re- garded improved discipline as the foun- dation of our army and of all success It was rated the more highly when it was realized that the home influence on the army was bad. As. in peace, special importance was attached to in- dividual training; exercises were sell dom carried out by large forces of all arms.
 Just as in the previous year every thing had been done to train the army for defensive fighting. The country is indebted to the work of the officers and the well thought-out scheme of training for the fact that our losses in killed and wounded. though very great were much less than those of l the enemy.
 According to n rough estimate, Eng land and France have lost far more than 2,OOO,OO0 killed and Russia as many. Taking half the Russian casual ties having occurred on our front, which is probably too low m estimate, i the enemy had far more than 3,OOO,OOO killed as compared with 100000 Ger mans.
 ] have included those killed on other fronts, both our own and the enemy's. This makes the proportion more fa- vorable to us, and Ae more we know, the more favorable will it turn out to be. These numbers are terribly high but they prove that we tried to fulfill our responsibilities towards the troops
 STRESS LAID ON TANKS In preparing for attack we did not forget defense, as counter attacks were to be expected The principles of de- fense were retained; we only laid greater stress on anti tank measures Both in attack and defense the auxil- iary arms served this purpose also. In the artillery, especially in the case of field guns and light trench mortars training in direct individual fire at tanks was considered of decisive inn portance.
 The allotment of special ammunition to the heavy machine guns was in- creased more extensively. Experiments in destroying tanks with multiple grenades were carried out, and all ex- periences gained in fighting them was communicated to the troops, whose opinions were called for Our positions were examined as to
 
 and stops were made. barricades con- structed, mines put down and anti tank guns dug in at many points Naturally. the extent of these defen- sive measures largely depended upon the available labor and the views of the, troops as to the likelihood of tank attack.
 The war minister kept us informed d of the progress in the manufacture of anti-tank weapons, which is pushed on increasingly.
 Once more I spent much time at the front, and in active interchange of ideas with the various army head2 quarters on the tactics of offensive fighting. and on the attack itself Many proposals and counter proposals many can still recall the discussions about the barrage and the advanced zone TROOPS SLOW IN LEARNING
 As was my duty, I had to give the ultimate decision. The tactical prin- ciples were considered to be correct and readily accepted by the troops. They left room for individual action in all directions.
 I was present at various exercises. and had conversations with many regi- mental officers. It was evidenty not easy for the troops to adopt the nec~s- sary tpen formations. We urgently needed every moment of the time, right up to the middle ofMarch, which was available for training.
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