THE MAN WE ARE FIGHTING.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 167, 20 April 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE MAN WE ARE FIGHTING.

GOVERNING THE ROiMTiC CAREER OF GENERAL VON FALKENHAYN, THE HOPE OF THE CENTRAL EMPIRES.

Contemporary with the Great War as we are. says the "War Illustrated," it is almost impossible to pick cut the leaders of genius in these gigantic days. Frequently the thought occurs: Wfure is the Napoleon, the Caesar, the Hannibal of 1915? Only will the light of history reveal the men who really mattered in the greatest of racial feud.-. The enemy, however, possesses one man who. e career is as romantic as it has been so far ttivmphant. That man is General Von F.ilkenhayn, on whom now rests the fate of the Central Empires and all the territories occupied by the Teuton pec pies. Originally the son of a poor Austrian nobleman. Falkenhayn now towers far hove Mckensen. Hindenburg, the Crown Prince, and even Wilhelm hinise'f. In the following article .Mr. Edward Wright, who is known to our reader:; as the brilliant author of the "Great Episodes of the War." gives an interesting study of this General's amazing "personality.

Though the Germans do not think much of tho fighting qualities of tne Austrians, they have had to go to Aim tria for a leader; for since the German Emperor and his first Chief of Staff, Helmuth von Mo'tke, failed to break through to Pans in September. 1914, the direction of all the campaigns has been undertaken by Erich -on Falkenhayn. He is by race a Bohemian Austrian, about fifty-three years old, and he owes his position largely to his southern qualities. There is nothing of the stoic pose of the Prussian about him: a tall, handsome, and still young-isli-koking figure, with bright eyes and mobile face he has all the charm of temperament of the Viennese type.

ill an admirable manner, he succeeded in making h;s pupil iiis frienc and admirer. Falkenhayn, besides being a charmer, was very greov on strategy, and though all Germans then reckoned that General von Haeseler was their | supreme military genius, yet Falkenhayn managed to win a high, sound position for himself oy his talent for I diplomacy. In the quarrels between the Crown Prince and the Kaiser, Falkenhayn, by acting as intermediary, gained the confidence of both parties. As is known, there were Haeseler and the war-makers behind the Crown Prince, and Baliin and other ',-erman industrial magnates behind the Kaiser. Falkeni liayn pleased the war-patty by the overbearing manner with which he put down in the Reichstag the agitation , over the Zabern affair; and at heart, of course, he was as eager for war as any man on the German General Staff. ! FALKENHAYN BTJftY ON ALT, FRONTS. Yet lie succeeded in retaining the confidence of the Kaiser, and when the Eincpror was won over and made to strike before ho wanted to, Falkenhayn became his factotum. Instead of remaining at Berlin and watching personally over the administration of the Army, Falkenhayn travelled from front to front in the Kaiser's company. Tho administrative machine was so well con. strutted that it worked automatically, . leaving Falkenhayn ample leisure to

PERSONALITY THE SECRET OF SUCCESS. And it is by his personal charm that this son of a poor emigrant Austrian nobleman has made his way in life. His people left Austria about the same timeas the Moltkes left Denmark, and after being educated in a cadet corps, Falkenhayn served as a subaltern in 18?0 with an infantry regiment at Oldenburg. Se\en years lat.'r he entered the Academy of War in Berlin, which he left in 1890 with such distinction that he was given a position on the General Staff. There was no doubt that he was a man with a brilliant mind; hut, like thousands of young German captains of merit, he would have risen very slowly in his profession had it not been for liis great personal charm.

A "DKKUi KIIIGHT." r.En.ITTiA'C KKKGKAM": "i - iigJtt that chap was a sia T:cv. I) ■; ;he want to join? . . ONE OF THE BOYS: "He was :>•:.; ,:er, seigeant, hut were hail .i s oit o : <liMi» b.n with him an' persuade;! him to vcluntcei. i.c s come ru'itc iviHin"!" From "Tit Bits.'

THE FIRST LI'NGS

study the mistakes of his rivals. And their mistakes were tremendous. Haeseler. who was supposed to be the greater Napoleon, failed in ins great stroke at Bethel on September 2nd, 11)14. and went to pieces in the Argonno Forest. At his command was the most powerful of all the German armies, consisting of six corps under the nominal leadership of the Crown Prince. The Kaiser in person, with Heeringen and Rupert of Bavaria to help him, made a bad failure at Nancy ; and Helmuth von Moltke came near to smashing up the whole German campaign in the Battle of the j.larne.

After sixteen years of work and «tucy he was only a commander of a company of infantry at Thorn when Ins fine drawing-room manner enabled him to climb out of the rut At tiiat time the great man in Germany was Count von Waldcisoc, the favourite of the eider Moltke, and his successor as commander of the forces. Waldersoc was the principal intriguer agamst nislrarek, and it was mainly duo to his influence that the young German Lmperor threw over the old Minister, and began to prepare for a stnigg" Britain. Fdkenhavn made himself useful to Waldersee, and by way of reward' the voting captain was sent to China to help in the reorganisation of the Celestial Army. His handsome face and graceful ways helped him wonderfullv at the Court of Peking. iho Dowager-Empress liked his company, the Manehu Princesses made tea for lvm with thc-ir Royal hands, and the Order of the Double Dragon was conferred upon him.

THE MAX WHO CRITICISED WILHEI.M. Falkenhayn, as .Minister of War, uith no responsibility f. ■ any operations, was able to criticise, and according to German rumour he showed himself, during the break-up of the original scheme of attack, u man of great moral courage; for it is said that lie turned on the German Emperor, and cave him some very candid' advice About not interfering in the technical business of the battlefield. Falkenhayn regared the French held, in October, 191 !, as a lost campaign. He had no desire to hack a path to Calais; and when the Calais coup failed. Falkenhayn was made, by one of the most surprising turns of destiny, the practical master of Germany and AustriaHungary. He had completely subdued 1 the Kaiser, and the Crown Prince regarded li:m as the only possible saviour of Germany.

THE COriVITER-SOLDIER IN THF ORIENT.

For two vears Falkenhayn remained at Peking helping to instruct the army whii-li Yuan Sin Kai was afterwards to use with such surprising effect. It .s said that Falkenhayn's fame m China spread to Japan, auc. that he was asked to come +-> T'okio and work tor the Japanese Staff. The tale, however, seems iir'ike'Y Falkenhavn -vent to Berlin for a brief period of work on the general Staff, and then returned with the rank of mainr to China, where, after workin-' at Kiao-Chau. he mined Ins old uatn.ii Waldersee when the German Expeditionary Force arrived dur.r.g the Boxer troubles. In 100") Falkenhayn was a lieutenanteohuiel and six vears afterwards he v.-is given command of the -Ith Regiment of Guarr.s. All this time he was working on General Staff problems and in the ordinary way he would have become one of those solid, well-experi-enced oflicor« to whose obscure yet magniticent labours the efficiency of the German war-machine is due. But in ](i;o ] l€ r os 0 with an extraordinary rapfditv that amazed tho German public.

Hindenb'urg alone stood in the way. id though Falkenhavn de-ired to see

his brilliant friend, Mackensen. in supivinc command on the en-tern front, lie had to put up with continual interference from the oicj Field-Marshal, who had become, by reason of h.s victory at Tnnnonix rg, the idol of the public. Tt was not" until Hindenburg failed before Warsaw, and allowed the Russ : an Army to stride the Carpathians and menace the ivheatfields of Hungary, that Falkenhayn rot a free hand. What he then did with Mackonsen :.s Jin »pearlicad, is a matter of history. COULD HAVE TAKEN CALAIS. It was Falkenhayn who organised- the new munition factories in Germany and \ustria. more than half a year before the Powers of the Trplo Entente saw tlearlv that shells and puns would win the struggle. As early as the winter of I!H4 the Germans were using fifteen shells to Russia's one. But Falkcniiavn artfully restricted the number 01 rounds per gun on the western front, <„ a- not to alarm the French and British commanders. When, at the end oi \pril, Falkenhavn was ready with two thousand new pieces of heavy artillery. and a shell output of a quarter ot a million n day, he conic have won Calais with at least as much rase as lie won Warsaw. F\T,KENHAYNS BID FOR A NEW EMPIRE It was his personal predilections that largely determined his point of attack; and it was as an Austrian by race that he struck at Russia. His scheme was

THE ZENITH OF FAME

U 11k. bpjrinning of the year he was appointed Chief of Staff of the rourtu >..',,,,. C O .-n S ' in April of the same yea; he was made Maior-Oeneral: and m t,1,0 summer of 1913 he became Minister of War. He edipsrd all re.ords Nerer |, n , Ocrmanv had so yming n Minister of War. Then, on December Ist. IHTI, wli'le still retaining his as Minister of War. no became Chiei n the General Staff. Even Roon and the elder Moltke had to split up the won; of forming the armies and directing th* o-.vrations: but Falkenhayn alone a:.l

ev ivthing. . . The explanation of in- surprisinc rise re«ides in his relations with the frown prince Ow'np to his Chinese reputation, he had been rhnrcofj with the military instruction of the he.r to the ti-rone' and while c-arying out this task

! as grandiose as anything that Napoleon ever attempted. He estimated that in fifty years' time Russia would have three hundred million inhabitants, and Germany only a hundrec million. With a view to preventing the Teutonic Em. pirc from being crushed in the next war, Falkenhayn designed to create a new European Power of the first magnitude. It was to consist of Poland, Lithuania, Courland. and Southern Russia, with Odessa as its Black Sea port and Riga as its Baltic outlet. This new State was to be called "The Eastern S'av Confederation, and Falkenhayn, with the blood of the Bohemian Slavs in his veins, was to be its virtual founder. He won over the Kaiser to his way of thinking, but while he was still trving to overcome the dislike of the Austrian Court to losing their Polish territories, Russia created a new army and resumed the offensive r<x \ months before Falkenhayn thought she f would he able to airain strike. EDWARD WRIGHT.