NEWS OF THE WAR.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 155, 6 August 1914, Page 10

NEWS OF THE WAR.

(Continued from page 8.) TO INVADE BELGIUM. GERMAN STRATEGY. It was stated in a previous article appearing in Tuesday's issues that Germany had for several years past been preparing to make her next attack on France through Belgium territory. It . is her best mode of entrance, and though it means conflict with England, the German military authorities have evidently decided that it is the only way if they are to get" their troops across the French frontier swiftly and in large numbers. As suggested in the article referred to, Germany has attempted to gain Belgium 's consent to the passage of her troops across the country, now, having failod, she intends to put them across without regard to Belgium's neutrality. Her preparations go back before 1896, but in that year an important move was made —Germany established a summer training camp for the Coblenz troops at Elsenborn, near the Belgian frontier, and as it was without any railway communication at all at the time it was a most natural-seeming thing to connect it. Therefore a new railroad was constructed from Aix-la-Chapelle to St. Vith, a single line, with loops at the stations, and passing within a mile of the military camp at Sourbradt. For ten years the line remained a single light traffic line—it was even then more than the sparsely populated country-side required—but. in 1908 the Government decided to double the line and to make sidings capable .of holding big trains at each of the little stations on the route. It was an expensive work, for it required the building of high embankments, and it was so contrived that at no point did it' cross a bridge as a viaduct. Aix-la-Chapelle has always been an important concentration point for German troops, and therefore has innumerable sidings capable of holding, trains carrying an entire army corps, but it was ah indication of the real purpose of the line - - when there grew up, a network of sidings at every small station adjoining a military -camp, and with the new double line it became easy for Germany to concentrate an army corps near "Weismes in a few hours. MALMEDY-STAVELOT ROAD. "Then, though there was no population to demand it, Germany conceived the idea that it was necessary to build '•ii railway from the quiet little towns x>f'• Weismes and Malmedy into Stavelot,. iu Belgium, and as Belgium is in the habit of taking German requests as orders, the Malmedy-Sfcavclot Road was ■;. built, with . Belgian assistance and x despite Belgian hostility, and laid double. Belgium yielded because she could not resist without adequate sup- • port, and neither the . authorities in France or England seemed to see any ' reason for making this strategic line, in itself a violation of.Belgium's neutrality, a cause for war. This activity in railway construction along the frontiers is part of Germany's - principles of strategy—Germany has ' been first to see that by the substitution of nations for standing ■ armies, new ;eonditioiis have /been created; and for prompt action citizen -soldiers require railways near their /homes. The ElscnboriT- vamp is now 'v.connected with toTrailway by a military- -r©ad levelled for the passage of The first principle of modern "", German strategy is invasion of 1 a neighbouring State should no longer j

be executed by troops in garrison on the frontier, but by troops conveyed .., from the interior to the points of attack by well-planned'railroads. It is '■' noteworthy that the German routes into i .Belgium are-so arranged as to avoid the well-fortified town of Liege. DALHEIM OF STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE. North of . Liege German ra i I way • operations have also been actively carried out. -The town of Roerinoihkj, *•? -on the right bank of the Meuse, fa '■' the point of interest. It is a station on the direct railway from ' >'■'■ Cologne ■to 'Antwerp, and the intervening country is flat and ungarfisoned. That an invasion of Belgium from that point might be easily effected was --■■ pointed out by one of the foremost Ger- «•■ man generals twenty years ago, before ' the railway existed. The German township of Dalheim is on the route, .and the double-line railway has been built; with a multitude of sidings at Dalheim. So, from an unimportant town, Dalheim has become a point of concentration of the greatest strategical importance. The town of Eoermende has only a small garrison, and no near supports. Nowhere along the railway line is any possibilitv of serious resistance being offered to the passage of a large body of German troops. LINE OF ADVANCE ACROSS BELGIUM. The arrangement of the lines permits of large forces being drawn from Central Germany to the appointed places of concentration, and in a .single night Germany could secure the junction of the Meuse at Rocrmonde on one side, and the junction at Gouvy in the Ardennes 'on the other. Every detail has been carefully thought out to permit of the overrunning of Belgium in the briefest possible time and with the greatest amount of certainty, but some ■checks certainly have been applied, for, within the last two years. Belgium, subsidised by 'England it is believed, has strengthened her" defences and built forts at probable points of attack. It remains for the German advance across Belgium to .-diow whether v the foresight of the German military authorities has been hampered in its object by Belgium's belated preparations.