OCR Text |
Show TACTICS SHOWN BY ARMY MOVES Strategical Problems of Warring Nations Are Now Becoming Becom-ing Apparent. KIEL CANAL IS BIG FACTOR Capture of Waterway by Enemies of Germany Might Prove Turning Point of War Importance of Paris and Berlin. Notwithstanding the rueagerness of details from Europe, the strategical problems for Germany and France j have become more apparent during the last few days. Prance must protect her frontier against German invasion and at the same time she must proceed as fast as possible towards the Kiel canal. That canal is apt to prove the turning turn-ing point in the war if the triple entente en-tente gets control of it, according to a military expert writing for the Chicago Chica-go Tribune. Germany, on the other hand, must protect her French border and the Kiel canal and drive her forces into Russia as fast as possible. The question now presented to Germany Ger-many and France is where to attack. The capture of Paris alone at present pres-ent probably would not bring about a cessation of combat on the part of the French, as the sinews of war have been well provided further to the south. Berlin is not Germany even to anywhere any-where nearly as great an extent as Paris is France. The straight line distance dis-tance from Namur (the fortress before which the Germans have established touch with their French antagonists) to Paris is 150 miles; to Berlin, 400 miles; to the Kiel canal, 300 miles. The distance from Mulhausen to Berlin Ber-lin is about 400 miles; to the Kiel canal, ca-nal, BOO miles. But the distance from Paris to Mulhausen Mul-hausen is about 250 miles, and from Namur to Mulhausen is 220 miles, and almost straight south by east of it, therefore away from Paris. While a opportunity and advance on Namur, Mulhaus'aii, Colmar and the little strip in Lorraine, which were not defended, as .it might be possible that the en- i thusiasm and popular clamor of the French would force an invasion of Lheir lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine. But it is highly improbable that a determined advance in force will be made on this line even should popular clamor demand it. The German Plans. Germany on the other hand has not only France to attend to but Russia as well. In considering her plans she also must take into account Austria. Should Russia be allowed to mobilize fully and concentrate, it is probable that she wotild be able to overwhelm Austria, first attacking on the Lem-berg-Rucharest (Roumania) line. It is probable that Germany is acting with rapidity aetnst Russia. What press dispatches have drifted through indicate that 40.000 Germans landed some three dayB ago between Mango and Helsingfors in Finland. This force, in all probability consisted of one army corps and one cavalry division, di-vision, soir additional heavy artillery, engineers and aeronautical troops. From Warsaw to St. Petersburg there are 12 Russian corps, but as these are. not fully mobilized one Ger man corps is probably as strong in men as two Russian corps just now. The German corps which landed in Finland and therefore behind St. Petersburg Pe-tersburg is undoubtedly designed to hold the four Russian corps in that vicinity to keep them from going to the assistance of the other Russian corps further to the south. Again it was reported that the Russian Rus-sian government has decided to evacuate evacu-ate Warsaw, whic'- was officially denied de-nied at St. Petersburg. Weighing this evidence, it seems probable that there has been a German advance from Intersburg in the direction of Vilna to hold the four Russian corps stationed sta-tioned in that district from doing any harm or going to any other place. Possibly three German corps, whose stations are close To Vilna, are engaged en-gaged in that operation. If the vigorous fighting of these four German corps, the one in Finland and the three against Vilna, is strong enough, eight Russian corps might probably be isolated and fully occupied occu-pied with their own affairs an-l not ' able to move or concentrate anywre else. Austrians Invade Russia. It is reported that 150,000 Austrians had been assembled in Galicia and that THE FRENCH FRONTIER i BRUSSELS ulcmatxlle: , l&e 1GERKA.NY HAPfflR j v. ( vL? "lIJXEKBURG " UJKJB0H F R A T!JZl march or line of operations directed on Berlin would involve a defeat of the German main army and such a great penetration of German territory probably would paralyze the defense the distance is 400 miles. Every mile will be bitterly contested and every miles means thousand of lives and millions of money. Kiel Canal Big Factor. The Kiel canal is the deciding factor fac-tor in the control of the sea. It is 300 miles from Namur. Many of Germany's great supply points are in the interval between. An advance on this line would be near the sea, where England could help with her ships. Once the Kiel canal is captured annihilation of the German fleet might result, which would give command of the Baltic sea to France and her allies and allow the unrestricted transport of Russian troops and material of war to the north German coast. Tt therefore would appear that the strntegy of France will a'm at the capture cap-ture of the Kiel camil, because it is the most important point strategically which Germany possesses. By this line of action France would utilh'.e to the utmost England's gicat sea powi r. In addition, by a direct Invasion in the direction of the Kiel canal France would cover Paris and her communications communi-cations better than by any other route. An advance via Mulhausen and Siras-burg Siras-burg would be extremely dangerous and just what the Germans would I'i.p i to see France do. Hence e M-t w'-iy Germany seized I.iege at the earliest j 44,000 of these were cavalry. This means that the three Austrian corps stationed in Galicia, or a little less than 100,000 combatants, with nine divisions di-visions of cavalry, about 44,000, have gone into Russia, but just where is left to the imagination. Six corps, three German and three i Austrian, and from 50,000 to 70,000 cavalry are probably advancing towards to-wards Brest-Litovosk. By the time these arrive there it is difficult to see how the Russians ean have more than three full corps and 10,000 to 20,000 cavalry. Austrian troops have advanced ad-vanced along the eastern frontier that is Just north of Roumania. It seems probable that on the French frontier at the present time Germany has nine corps of the active army, assisted by one Austrian corps on the German extreme left, near the Swiss border. There probably are nine more corps of the first reserve and nine more of the second reserve also on the French irontier, which with all their auxiliaries amount to well over 1.010.000 fighting men. It appears that if these million Gar-mans Gar-mans care to remain on the defensive on the French hord r it will take a pretty goodly number of attackers to get them out of their intrenchments, U they ever can do it. Providing Austria Aus-tria and Germany are directing thir main attack apalnst Russia, France to reap any advantage must strike quickly quick-ly p.nd hard on a. line as short, in a niil-i.'nry niil-i.'nry way. as possible toward the Kiel canal. |