LITERARY NOTES ON THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2333, 15 December 1914, Page 3

LITERARY NOTES ON THE WAR.

| ; (By Liber.) —■— FAMOUS LAND FIGHTS. As a popular, rutlg&'y l&tory Mr. r A. Hilliard Atteridge's new book, "Famous Land Fights" (Methuen and Co.), shculd appeal very strongly to the "pre-sent-day taste of the public which, so it would seem, is insatiable in its demand for books dealing with warlike subjects. Intended as a companion volume to Mr. J. E. Hale's popular account of the evolution of naval warfare ("Famous Sea Fights, from Salamis to Tsu-shima"), it is an attempt to trace the development of land fighting from the days of early tribal warfare to the great conflicts of nations in arms in.our own time. The author very wisely passes over with some brevity the battles of ancient and mediaeval times, although he adopts to a very Sartial extent the theory of Professor lelbruck that the armies engaged in many famous battles of antiquity and of the early mediaeval period were mustered in much smaller force than that consigned to them by the usually accepted tradition of history. After all, it is with-the invention of gunpowder that the regular soldier attained increased importance as a factor in the making of history. Even in the earliest days of gunnery the '.gunner was a man of importance. For centuries, it appears, there waß a kind of freemasonry among the gunners, who had or pretended have, secrets, which they imparted to their proils only under solemn oaths of fidelity to. the craft.- The man behind the gun ran serious risks from his own weapon as well as from the stone shot which at first were the missiles. James the Second of Scotland, for instance, wae killed, at the siege of Roxburgh Castle, by_ the bursting of a. Flemish gun in his .own lines. It was built up of iron bars held together with hoops and wedges. The gunner overloaded it and the_ unlucky monarch was struck by a flying fragment and killed on the spot. Even the introduction of muskets did not oust the pike, whose place is now taken by the bayonet. When Alva, in 1567, brought a' Spanish army from Lombardy to, -Brussels to coerco the audacious NetherlauderSj • mzen remarked with surprise .thatone regiment consisted entirely 'of-'musketeers. At) a rule .the proportion of musketeers was only ■ one-third.., To the pikemen were always allotted the chief fighting honours, muskets being principally employed for defence work behind walls or earthworks.

Mr. AtteridgeV account of the warb of Louis the Fourteenth is specially interesting.. War' in that day had a prominently theatrical side. Not infrequently in these wars of the Grand Monarque was' the fall of a fortress made a show for the Court. Vauban would announce that by a certain day ho would have carried his 6iego works up to the body of the place, and a breach in its ramparts would be practicable. Then His Majesty would.journey, to the besieging lines, with a.crowd of fine la'dios and gentlemen, a host of lackeys, and a long train of lumbering carriages. A review of the troops destined for the assault would be held, but before it was delivered a last. summons to the garrison 'would be . answered by an offer to surrender on honourable terms.. Then, there would be the, fine spectacle of the garrison marching out "with the. honours of war," drums beating, and colours flying, to lay down their arms after exchanging salutes with the royal 'troops. Then would come, the state entry of the victorious King into the captured town. ',''.■' :.'..' Just now, one of the most interesting chapters of the book should be that in which the author writes of the battles of Frederick the Great, with whom the self-styled War Lord of the Honenzollerns would fain claim much more than a facial resemblance. . Rossbaoh and Leuthen would,. alone, 'says 'Mr. Atteridge,.be enough to esiablish Frederick's claim to be placed in the foremost rank of battle leaders. As to Leuthen,. of which the author gives a long and detailed account, Napoleon, it may be.remembered, wrote:_ "The battle",of Leuthen is a masterpiece of movements, manoeuvres, and resolution." After Frederick's death the Prussian Army fell back into a period of unintelligent routine, the drill book becoming the sum of military knowledge. It was to recover its prestige and power later on, but for the time being' it' ceased to count. .

"The Battles of the French Revolution and the Empire"'is the title of a chapter in which first -Napoleon, and then Wellington, and finally both these ■that generals, throw all other figures into, the background. . Next follows an account of the Crimean Wax, followed by a resume of the principal military struggles of I the period between 1859 and 1870, including specially'interesting descriptions of the Sadowa campaign and of the Franco-Prussian war. It, is to be regretted that Mr. Atteridge tells us so little of the American Civil war. He does, however, give us the useful reminder that it was from that fratricidal and bloodthirsty struggle that' Europe learnt to adopt the system of rapidly entrenching the fighting line, "not only in the defence but the attack." f '.' "Everyone," he> 6ays, "had heard of the aptness shown by both the Federal and Confederate infantry for improvising the defences of a position with trenches and breastworks of felled trees. But. less was heard of the practice that grew up in the later stages of the war, of hastily providing some shelter from fire during.the advance of an attacking line by the men lying down or kneeling, end digging themselves into the earth and throwing up a low bank in front of | them, working with entrenching ' tools ,if _ these were available, and if not with knives, bayonets, mess- . tin 6, in a word, with ianything that couldbe made to serve the purpose. On some of the 'American battlefields every stage'of. the advance , was marked by the ridge and fur- ■ row of these improvised entTench- : mentsTrthe "shelter trencF'—that • the soldiers of every army in the world are now regularly taught to excavate. . ' :..■'

Mr. Attendee's two final chapters deal with the Turko-Russian, Egyptian. Cuba, and South African wars, and with the chief battles of the twentieth century. Entirely new tactics ■ came to tho front in'the colossal contest twixt Russia and Japan on the plains. of Manchuria. Around Liaoyang the battle raged for twelve days, over 400,000 men being;". engaged. .' Still larger was the array of combatants at Mo ukden, where there were 600,000 men in action, the fighting front extending over eighty' miles, and the struggle lasting nearly three weeks. Even in the light of the battles of the Marne, the Aisne. and the Ysor, these are formidably heavy figures. A valuable- feature, of Mr. Atteridgo's interesting work', a copy of, which by the way should bo found in every school library, despite its not being primarily intended for youthful . reading, is a series of diagrams ilustrating some of tho most famous battlefields described in the text. With tho aid of these plans the reader can follow with quite reasonable ease tho author's descriptions of the course of tho flglitiug. (Now Zealand prioo, 7«. 6d,).