Evening star., 1939-10-12
British Expert Stresses
Importance Of Defense
Danger Of SeIf-Exhoustion
Seen in Resort to
Aggressive Tocties

Seen in Resort to
Aggressive Tactics
"The Defence OF Britain" BY Ltddeu
Hart. Random House.
The allies will win the war against
Germany by the simple tactics Of de-
tense. They may lose on the battlefield,
Just as they lost in the great German
offensives of 1918. But by these great
of1ensives, II the allies can resist the
temptation to attack aggressively, Ger
many, strangled by the blockade and
forced to achieve victories to keep up the
spirit back home, will wear herself out
trying to crush the enemy.
Thus, Capt. Liddell Hart, foremost
British writer on military strategy, sized
up the situation for the war to come, q
war which arrived even before his pub
fishers could get "The Defence Of Britain"
before the public Save for the Russian
determination to throw in their lot with
Germany, which he failed to anticipate,
Capt. Hart's book is q valuable analysis
of conditions which led to preparation
for the war, both from political and
military standpoint It might even be
considered text book for the war on
the western front, so exactly have the
allies thus far followed the program he
outlines.
He sees the allied armies sitting tight
in the Maginot Line, never attacking,
always defending; communicating, but
not with too much spirit. He believes
the French and British prolonged the
last war by the early offensive, designed
to throw the advancing German Army
out Of French territory. So exhausted
were the French after this move that the
Germans were enabled to drive on toward
Paris
Before the invasion Of Poland, little
dreaming that Russia would throw its
military and economic power to Ger
many, but still doubtful as to the neu-
trality Of Italy, Capt. Hart wrote:
80 1t would be folly for Britain and
France to attempt an offensive strategy
in the west, at any rate in the early
stages of another war. This should be-
come obvious by the simplest calculation
since on mobilization they could only put
in the field 60 to 10 divisions to about
l2o German. or 210 German and Italian
combined. No skill of generalship could
hope to achieve local concentration of
sufficient superiority in face of such gen.
eral odds. Only in a soldiers dream could
a 1-to-3 inferiority be transformed into
a 3-to-1 superiority. Even If the
might of Russia, Poland and Rumania
should be thrown into the scales, it is
improbable they could draw a proportion
OF the German strength to the east SUM-
cient to o1er a reasonable prospect of
decisiveness to an offensive in the west"
Driving home that defence is the best
attack" he says:
80 far as there is any scope for the
offensive in modern warfare between
more or less evenly matched opponents
it seems to lie in developing a super
guerrilla form of warfare = 1t is
easier to launch a nation into an aggres-
sive war than to hold together its COM
ponents in prolonged struggle. If such
an attack is met by attack the aggressor
government is enabled to consolidate its
people by representing to them that they
are f1ghting to defend their homes"
Hitler took page from this school
just last week in his peace threat
which at least for home consumption will
have the appearance Of shifting the ag-
gressor In continued war from Ger
many to the allies.
While in number Of pages the greater
part of Capt Hart's book is devoted to
the strictly British domestic plan for de-
fense, including the reorganization of the
army. in which he had quite part, his
approach to the war through the Ger
man absorption Of Austria and Czecho-
Slovakia, with, the inevitable knocking
of balance Of Europe's alliances, is told
in brilliant style.
Conscription adopted by Britain does
not in any way At Capt. Harts idea of
defensive attack. He included liberal
quotations from paper published in
October, 1888 Some of them follow:
Universal service is the wrong treat
ment for the present conditions. First,
because the need is for brains and ma
chimes rather than numbers of men. 80
Secondly, because of the spiritual folly
OF going totalitarian In the effort to
stand against it,"
War" he says, "is too serious a busi-
ness to be left to soldiers. = The
power to maintain war, if not launch it,
has passed out of the sphere Of the
soldier into that of business. AS machine
power gains a growing domination over
mere man power on the battlefield, 50, in
realistic view. does industry push the
armies at the front into the BACKGROUND
OF grand strategy. Unless the supplies
from the factories and oil fields are
maintained without interruption they
are no more than inert masses"
The victory of Franco in Spain with
the assistance of and implied pledges to
Germany Of air and submarine operat-
ing bases is viewed with the greatest
alarm by Capt Hart, who sees a DO
tential danger to the vital British life
line to the east through the Mediter-
ranean. 1t was Capt. Hart's repeated
warnings of Britain's utter unprepared-
ness for defense from aerial attack which
eventually brought about the intensive
training for protection of civilian popu-
lation now under way in the islands. It
is easy to imagine how vulnerable they