GERMAN STRATEGY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2251, 10 September 1914, Page 7

GERMAN STRATEGY

. -0 — . A FACTOR THAT WAS IGNORED. . Young officers of the German Army have their text-books of military tactics like officers of other armies. In these text-books are set out probable schemes of offence and defence, and there is a singular appropriateness about the first scheme issued in the book by Colonel von Moser, which is accepted;as a standard primer in the German military schools. "Germany and Austria are at war with Russia, France, and _ England," observes the author in sotting out his general idea of the'first scheme he pro- ' pounds, proceeding: "And at the end of June their armies aro standing face to face. The German fleet has succeeded in obtaining command of tho sea in tho Baltic, but in the North Sea, between' Juno 20 and 30, it lias been compelled, by the superiority of tho enemy to take rofugo in the fortified harbours. Simultaneously an English army has been landed in tho Zuyder Zee, and, having induced Holland to, remain passive, has pressed its advance in an easterly direction." _ Tho presumption is that all German officers now know how to deal with this hypothetical .situation, but it is very curious how Belgium was left out of tho reckoning, both in the text-book scheme, and. so' far as can bo judged, in tho actual scheme, too. \