BELGIUM'S NEW ARMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1917, Page 7

BELGIUM'S NEW ARMY.

■■ HBp HOW EVERY BRANCH PREPARES FOR FINAL VICTORY. King Albert's army has now Leon completely re-equipped with very much the , same outfit as the soldiers oi' the French ■ army. The Belgians have now established numerous fact»ries, not only 0115 . the remnant of Belgian soil that* still : remains, to them, but also in 1.-ancs, | , where they are now manufacturing' ■ themselves much of the clothing aiii • other supplies needed by the army. This ■ also serves the purpose of giving cm- . .ployment to thousands of Belgian refugees who would otherwise be without t means of making a livelihood. Another - thing that will lessen the hardships of - the Belgian army during the coining win t ter will be their practical immunity [• from all German infantry attacks ow- • ing. to the never diminishing system of 1 Belgian inundation defences. On the entire Belgian front the Belgian army is now separated from the Germans' by over a mile of water. The cavalry has now been entirely remounted, and almost without exception on American horses, bought largely in Texas. The artillery brane.i of the ■ 'Belgian army has likewise been developed to a point where the Belgian army can perhaps boast of the most formid- . able strength of any army of its size in the vjorld. No small contribution t has been made to the Belgian artillery ]>y the Germans themselves. When, in V; the early fighting of 1914, the Belgians as a last' resource opened the flood ~ gates that inundated great porti&ns of their soil occupied by the Germans, the ~ latter were unable in their hasty retreat to take with them their heavy and g even much of their lighter field artillery. Since then the perfection of the Bo'l- „ gian inundation defences has made it possible for the Belgian army to let off sufficient of the water to enable them to recover the German artillery and use J it against its former owntra. e