KILLING THE GERMANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1916, Page 5

KILLING THE GERMANS.

NEW FRENCH METHODS DE CASTELJfAU'S STRATEGY. A REMARKABLE DESPATCH. i A new and terrible war strategy, lieAre which the German armies and «piei alike are powerless, has been developed by tin; Allies on the western front, according to a remarkable special despatch from Paris wliic'a is published in the N'ew York World. The despatch reads in part as follow.?: A new war strategy has developed in France, a strategy so terrible in its purpose and so ghastly in its success that it has seized upon the imagination of the French people and placed a new aspect on the war. It lures and annihilates the enemy. It forces the Hermans to gather hundreds of thousands of soldiers right under the French cannon, and then tears them to pieces with literally millions of shells.

The new strategy is developed so openly that it has made useless the complicated system of ,4Bcrman espionage.Here, as po often, the French of mind lias counteracted German thoroughness and preparedness. . tt has made fools of the German spies, Thcv have been using all their circuitous and expensive system of sending to Germany information that the French staff was eager for the German staff to have. It has lifted and made a joTcc of the spy peril. General de Castelnau, cdmmandpr of the army in Champagne, conceived the deadly new strategy, and the.enormous German losses before the French trenches there are attributed to his military genius. The strategy is Oils. He conceived and ( presented the plan, and was allowed to carry it out. •

WHAT THE GERMANS KNEW. Long 'before the recent advance was made in Champagne it p was known everywhere tlisit there was a' large number of French troops 011 'ess than a twanty-inilo front between Fismes and Tihcims. It was whispered about as a secret, liut everyone knew it, and everyone felt sure the Germans must know it, too. They did. Their spies undoubtedly reported the movement down to the exact number of regiments, and' that was exactly what General de Castelnau wanted tliem to do. He also moved his troops in daylight, so that the Gorman airmen, boina; overhead, reported the gathering of the great army. There was such a fuss and to-do about the assembling of the" troops that it is surprising if the Germnas were not suspicious of some new move. But it did not make any difference if they were. The newest aspect of this new strategy is that it is a matter of indifference whether the. enemy knows what is ffoing on. The more the enemy knows, in Tact, the more he plays into your hands. TTe must either stand and he torn to pieces, or "get out from uwiev." Tt was indifferent to General de Cnstelnan which the Germans did.

WHAT THE ENEMY DID NOT KNOW. But there was one thing the German probably 'lid not know. The.t wAld have "iaii no idea of the number pi shells tlv t were to be used against tliem. Such shelling was unprecedented. There the French cannon were behind i;.>t only their own lines, but the English, lines, too. There again the French <■"> and 103 millimetre guns have won from the Germans the. nanio they >vere given in the beginning of the war—"the devil's artillery." To hold tho great French army in Champagne it was necessary fur the Germans to move forward at lea-t "nil,000 men. But the more they forward the better the grin) oid warrior do Castelnan liked it. He wanted plenty of food for his powder and fodder for hi» innnon. He got it, too. Nine German army corps—0(10,000 men —came under the fire of the French guns ill Champagne, nnd a third of them were killed, wounded or prisoners within four days. The French also gained ground, but time was incidental, even accidental. It was not in de Castelnau's plan, except as an afterthought. His purpose ws to kill as many German soldiers as ha could. He wanted to wear down the German army faster than it qould be built up.

EAGER FRENCH TROOPS. Captured soldiers brought to prison camps are from many regiments, and a largo proportion of them were never under lire before. This was due to the purpose of the German commanders to keep their better troops in reserve while Hie hellish fire went on. It was obfrom the first day, as the Ger- •>«* gave themselves up too easily for ;fu,-oned troops. T|iey began to break t':\e first day. Seasoned troops would have held out at'least three days under that terrific cannonade. Many qf the prisoners also said they had been rushed up to the front from Germany. It was all one to dc C'astelnau. All ho wanted was to kill *3 many German soldiers fis possible. The plan did riot work out exactly as -expected, as the French troops could noli he heli( their trenches. After a year of trench warfare they were anxious to push on, and General de Castclnau was forced to yield_ to. .their impatience. Another time' they will be more easily controlled, and as long as France lias plenty of sImIIj there is nothing to prevent the French ari'iy from blowing the Germans out of Franca five miles at a time.