WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 172, 29 December 1914, Page 7

WAR NOTES.

T!!.r PRE LVPHON OF WARSHIPS. , When the I'vitish Government at the beginning of the war exercised a-pre-empt.!.n , u (h.- two "J i.i kish battleships a group of Chilian flotilla leaders, and three Brazilian monitors, the Gentian press made, the most of the incL m lit. in order to poison the minds ol neuiral nations. In particular, they great use of the purchase of the I.urkish battleships in order to influence the opinions of the peopl,. at the Porte, ■lt was urged that in seliing these ships t |M 'it committed ..!> Ui!wa , -;';;.;!.,f act, {dating Turkey at a serieus disadvantage. Then followed the e-.e.1p0 ol tile Goebeu and the Bresiau, iinu Me report that Germany had sold them to Turkey with the object of winning the good opinion of the Turks, injuring the British cause, and at the' same time saving their ships from internment during ihe period of the war. We now have the other side of the picture. V, in-ii war opened, four torpedo heats w-r.. being built by the Vulcan Works al, Stettin for the Dutch Government. 1 liey were vessels displacing Mall tons and provided with four torpedo tubes. Germany made a great flourish in announcing that the Greel: battleship Salamis, which was still far from completion, would be handed over to the Grecian Government when she ■was ready for sea; but the four Dutch torpedo-boats building at Stettin, which can be got ready for sea in a comparatively short time, were immediately seized, and thus Germany will be able to make good at one stroke the less which the Undaunted, with a number of British destroyers, recently inflicted upon her. DIGGING IN. The soldier's art of digging himself in, a jifiase of warfare that is exercising the muscles and the into!i : genee of vast hosts of belligerents st this moment, never was so much practised in European fields as it is to-day. But it may be worth recalling the fact that the rabbit-burrow method of defence long ago reached a high pitch of development in our own country of New Zealand. Hone Heke's celebrated stockade at Ohaeawai, near the Bay of Islands, was an excellent specimen of the Maori's skill in quickly adapting himself to warfare in which field guns took part. The , occupants of the Ohaeawai pa retired into their underground holes as soon as big gun firing commenced. This pits were closely covered over with thick branches of trees and upon this roofing was thrown the earth taken from the excavations, forming a secure covering from three to six feet in thickness, ijuite impervious to the artillery projectiles of those days. The underground dwellings communicated with each other by passages of two or three feet in width, constructed in a similar way to the caves themselvcV. The "mas," as they were called, were entered by an opening in the side of a roof just big enough to admit one man at a time. After the place liad ben deserted by the Maoris, Colonel Despart, astonished at the cleverness of the construction, declared that the natives must have bad some European amongst them skilled in the art of fortification; but he was mistaken. The military engineers were the brainy old warriors themselves. That was seventy years ago. The "digging in" art was revived after many ■ years of peace in New Zealand, and perhaps the best example of underground defence was at the Tau-ranga-ika pa, , not far from Wanganui, wdiere the Ilauliaus of ISO 9 made themselves so secure that the colonial soldiers' shells and bullets fell harmlessly. The place was J a network- of trenches, with connecting passages, roofed over with timber and ; raupo and toetoe reeds and earth. The ; defenders when attacked, could liter- : ally take to the earth like rabbits.. ' Their descendants who are going to the 1 front in the Maori Contingent may have a chance of practising this, trenching, science in which the men of the last, generation were so expert. THE MONITORS The three monitors which have beenoperating off the Belgian coast were built to the order of the Brazilian Government. They were ready in all respects for sea, and their departure was merely delayed in order that thy might take with'them to South America full reserves of ' ammunition, The British' Admiralty purchased these vessels immediately on the outbreak of war.- The three ships each mount two Sin. guns, two 4.7 in howitzers, and four G-pound-ers. Theoretically, each can throw one and a half tons of metal a minute, and in actual "fact they kept up a-dqvast*. ' ing bombardment of the Germans. Drawing. only 4ft. 7in. of water, and provided' with armor.for their vitals with a thick-, ness of 3in., they have been able to pro- . ceed : close to the coast and fire far more accurately than any ships,. of'doap. draught could have done. GERMAN NAVAL TACTICS., ] Light- is thrown upon German naval - : tactics ,by General von Bernhardt'S ■ J book, ''How Germany Makes War." In I a chapter divoted to considerations of' : naval warfare, the German-writer says:: ; "It is a principle in naval warfare- to unite the forces, in space and tilue. ! From this point of view, one can eas-- , l ily understand why tire English have ! lately concentrated the bulk of their fleet in the North Sea. Owing to the ; o>stent of their colonial possessions, land the necessity of having to guard the ten -route to India,, they are obliged to divido their fleet.. But opposite, that State which they intend to fight fivst of all tliev want to littJt this division to the smallest possible minimum. Concentration of the forces in space and time must, of course, not be understood to mean that there ciiould be no detaching at all. Locally-limited and' isolatedofftnsive strokes of cruisers of torpedobeat flotillas, wil often be imperative, partly for reconnaissance, and party for taking advantage of any particularly fa\ orable opportunities the enemy may oiler. Especially at the beginning of the war, and' -lOinctimes in peace even —if there is no other n ?ans of defending oneself apirnst a, superior force—it will be advisable to attack the enemy by torpi'd'o and <-!. l marine boats, and to inflict upon him unexpected losses."