The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, NOVEMBER 16, 1901. MILITARY MANŒUVRES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 264, 16 November 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, NOVEMBER 1 6, 1901. MILITARY MANŒUVRES.

Lx view of Lord Salisbury’s recent Guildhall speech it is of especial interest to note some of tho communications that have como to hand by the mail. “ Nothing,” write* the Star correspondent, “couldmore effectively expose tho arrant humbug of the Tsar’s disarmament manifesto and proposal for a Peace Conference than his visit to France last week, the Apostle of Peace was greeted by his ally with a great naval review and a colossal display of military strength, and spocial stress was laid on the fact that the visit was intendea'not for the peaceful citizens, but for the army and navy. Universal disarmament forsooth ! Why, for tho past week the Continent has bristled with embattled armies. Russia, France, Germany, Switzerland have all been making mimic war with their legions. We have had to learn by the experience of real war the revolution in the methods of fighting necessitated by the long-range, magazine rifle, and by quick-firing guns. Other nations have looked on, criticised and gibed, often, it must be confessed, with reason. But slowly wo have been learning our lesson, the futility of frontal attacks, in dense masses and of shock tactics, the necessity of extension in attack, of taking advantage of every bit of cover, of skilled markmanship, of independent and intelligent fire, of real scouting, tho value of trenches in defence, of mounted infantry; in a word, i that the requisites of a good army are mind, piarkwanship and mobility.” The writer then goes on to make comparisons that are not acceptable to tho Continental officers. “ There is quite enough crass conservatism in the British Army to call for severe censure, but we are inclined to exaggerate the beam in our own eye and to minimise the mote in our ueighbor’s. The French and German manoeuvres at all events have shown us that in tactics the British army is far more up-to-date and progressive than its Continental critics. Despite the lessons of history, there is always a large proportion of Continental soldiers who look down with condescending contempt upon tho British • mercenary ’ army and its amateur officers. They have been staggered and angered by the comments of the British critics on their manoeuvres, for with one accord the beastly brutal Britisher has told both Germans and French that their tactics are hopelessly out of date and obsolete, that their generals have in the mimic warfare committed every blunder for wlucii ours were ridiculed in South Afiica, and more to uIW; an< i that if the cavalry and infantry were led to the attac.; in the method employed in the manoeuvres they would simply be massacred.”

The question of uniform is then touched on, the writer not being' partial to gaudy uniforms. “Many faults apparent in our own army are,” : wo pro told. “ glaring in the French and German. Gaudy uniforms, making the soldier a target for his enemy, glittering helmets, shining cuirasses and back plates obsolete as coats of mail, and reflecting the sun like mirrors, dying colors, all the pomp and panoply of war with which we are gradually dispensing, were a prominent feature of the German, and particularly of the French troops. The scouting was perfunctory andlfineffective. The men showed themselves on the sky-line, confined their operations almost entirely to open . roads, and left large tracts of woods uu-

touched. The cavalrymen on the lookout for the enemy mainly contented themselves with a study of the map, a ' dash across country and a few questions to peasants. The generals fell into traps and ambushes in the most unsuspecting fashion. But the chief features of the manoeuvres were the attacks in dense masses across open ground of both cavalry and infantry against well-defended positions. This procedure seemed to be taken as a matter of course by both French aud Gormans, but in British eyes it meant merely the massacre of tine soldiers.” Our old friend i; Srniler Hales” is i then brought on the scene, aud in his graphic stylo describes the movements. First, we have a German cavalry charge. “ fust as the Blue cavalry were breasting the last hill, men and horses knee to knee, stride for stride, like a solid wall, the Beds opeued upon them with quick-firing guns and devil's tatoo, completely staggering the advancing force. Had it been earnest few of that divinelydrilled aud madly-led body of cavalry would have lived to tell the tale. They halted, wheeled like a piece of superb mechanism, and tried to ride home. Like a thunderbolt the cavalry of the Bed army dashed out and into them. By all the laws of war not a man of the Blues could have escaped. Those that escaped shot aud shell would have fallen to lance or sword. If one of our generals in Africa had been guilty of such a piece of madness Europe would have laughed derisively for a month.”

Of a French cavalry charge we are told: “General Farny’s scouts failed to examine the Butcher’s Wood, and they showed themselves on the skyline in very careless fashion. When General Tremuller’s force appeared on the ridge between two great fortlike mounds of chalk, tho southern supports to tho advanced parties must have plainly seen them, yet they advanced calmly up to within tlireo or four hundred yards. Tremuller’s cavalry in mass, accompanied by four batteries of artillery, moved over tho ridge and down tho inner slopo for about 000 yards. The cavalry halted in its close, deep formation beside the guns, but before the latter could como into action the guns of Duchesne’s force opened on the acros of horsemen and the limbered-up artillery, who were also within effective rifle range. In the position they occupied oil the inner slope of the gently-vising ground the crowded horsemen must have been literally mowed down, and it is doubtI ful if their artillery could ever have come into action. However, as it was, tho gnus opened, and the great mass of nearly 7000 horsemen sat quietly for a few minutes under a perfect tornado of artillery lire from the opposite heights, at a range of perhaps a mile.”

A French, infantry charge is thus described :—• “ The Northern army held a long line of hills near Amicourt, and poured a terrific fire on the advancing enemy, whose attacking lines kept piling in on one another until six. or eight—probably nearly ten—thousand men had massed in the little sheltered hollow. Then, failing to drive their foes off the crest by riile fire, this mass of men received the order to charge. Bayonets were fixed, colors unfurled, and the bugles sounded the pas do charge. In one huge wave, half a kilometre wide, and having a depth of twenty files, the great mass surged out of the hollow and rolled up the slope, the soldiers cheering and singing to the bugle music as they rushed onward. They were met by a fire that would h,'ve swept them away as the veldt fire withers the grass oil' the plain. Not all the bravery that over pulsed in the heart of man could haue carried those troops within bayonet reach of tho lines of rifles pouring fire down the slope. It was a brave and a stirring spectacle, but the man who ordered that boyonet charge, like tho men who mad e it, has failed to realise even remotely the deadly nature of magazine rifle fire at point-blank ranges.” In other respects, however, there is a different tale to tell. We are informed that for the organisation, mobilisation, handling of huge masses of men, the mobility and marching of tho foot soldiers, for the complete and easy working of the commissariat, the British critics have nothing but praise. Tommy Atkins cannot hug the delusion to his soul that one Englishman is equal to two Frenchmen or Germans. The personnel is highly praised for its endurance, mobility, intelligence and adaptability to circumstances and contrasted with the weedy boys who form a considerable proportion of our army. The French army, in respect of equipment and organisation, is in a very different position from what it was in 1870. It has the finest artillery in tho world, and is quick to adopt motor-cars, balloons, wireless telegraphy, and similar modern aids to warfare. The German army continues the magnificently organised aud highly - drilled machine that it always has been. It is astonishing what lessons can be learnt from tho rough and ready Boer, for he is undoubtedly teaching the nations a great deal in effective warfare.