Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-10-11
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lesson and that as in my opinion wars are inev
table the old idea of warfare based destruc
ton will he replaced by news military IDEAL this
imposition of will at the least possible general
loss. If this be so, then the means of warfare
must be changed, for the present means are means
of killing means of blood; they must be replaced
by terrifying MEANS means of mind. The present
implements of war must be strapped. and these
bloody tools must be replaced by weapons the
moral effect of which is so terrific that nation
attacked by them will lose its mental balance and
will compel it's government to accept the hostile
policy without further demur."
This strategy will endeavor to "petrify the
human mind with fear" and will send great fleets
of airplanes to make gas attacks the nerve
centers of the enemy nation. Colonel Fuller says
"a few years ago armies alone went forth to
battle today entire nations go to war. not only
as soldiers, but as the moral and material suppliers
of soldiers. This being so, we find that, while
short time back it was clearly possible to differen
tate between the military and ethical objective of
nations at war, today this differentiation is becom-
ing more and more complex so much so that both
these detectives are likely to coincide, and, when
this takes place, to attack the civilian workers of
a nation will then be as justifabe an act of war
as to attack it's soldiers"
Colonel Fuller then points out that the first gas
used in the World war was of a lethal nature
But at the third battle of Ypres the Germans used
mustard gas and disclosed to the world the posi-
bilities of gas warfare He says.
'sRespirators to great extent were now use
less for the persistent and vescant nature OF this
chemical rendered whole areas, for days on end,
uninhabitable and dangerous to cross. Men car
ried the oily liquid on their clothes, the mud
Of their boots, and infected dugouts, bilets and
rest camps far back on the lines of communication
Few died, but many were incapacitated for months
on end. Here, curious to relates is the true power
of gas as a weapon-it can incapacitate without
killing. A dead man says nothing and, when once
buried is no incumbrance to the survivors. A
wounded man will spread the widest of rumors,
will exaggerate dangers, foster panic and requires
the attention of others to heal him-until he dies
or is cured he is military incurlbrance and
demoralizing agent Gas is, par excellence the
weapon of decentralization and, as ii can terrorize
without necessarily killing, it, more than any other
known weapon, can enforce economically the policy
of nation on another.
IT believe that in future warfare great cities,
such as London, will be attacked from the air
and that fleet of 500 airpanes each carrying 500
ten-pound bombs Of let us suppose, mustard gas,
might cause 100000 minor casualties and throw
the whole city into panic within Aalf an hour of
their arrival Picture, if you can. what the result
will bel London for several days will be one vast
raving bedam, the hospitals will be stormed,
traffic will cease the homeless will Shrek for help,
the city will be in pandemonium. What of the
government at Westminster? It will be swept
away by an avalanche of terror. Then will the
enemy dictate his terms, which will be grasped-
at like straw by a drowning man. Thus may
a war be won in forty-eight hours and the losses
Of the winning side may be actually nil y
Colonel Fuller's conclusion is this: "That side"
he says, (which gains supremacy in invention and
design is the side which is going to win the next
war; And again: eff mechanicalls both sides are
equal then valor, obedience and seif-sacrifce
of the soldier will victory depend. But if one
side relies these virtues alone, and neglects
to safeguard them by the most powerful weapons
obtainable, then will they be of little value as
little as all the valor of the Sudanese at ON
durham"
History shows, of course that warfare has been
"revolutonized" a score of times by various nven-
tons in the ascent from clubs to 75-me range
cannon. But invariably the offense has been later
matched by the defense. Perhaps the airplane
has already temporarily been rendered useless
a story from London says that the explanation Of
the forced landing and conffscar1on of thirty
French airplanes in Germany is that the Germans
are using secret method of putting them out of
action. Will every gas have its arshdote?