GERMAN RECOGNITION OF DANGER OF INVASION OF ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2754, 25 April 1916, Page 8

GERMAN RECOGNITION OF DANGER OF INVASION OF ENGLAND

■ * . Major von'Schreibershofen, ouo of tho best-known military 'writers of Germany, has (says "The Navy") written an interesting book considering, from the German point of view, the possibility of an invasion of England. The book sets forth tho inimenso difficulty attending such an ■ attempt. The gallant' Major deals in detail with the subject of transport!'.-' One battalion, according to him, with its impedimenta, requires a vessel of 8900 tons register ; a squadron of : cavalry, one of 2300 tons; a battery of'artillery, one of 2000 to 3000 tons. Then there is the question of munitions nad the munition columns. For one infantry division 28 ships of about . 1000 tons would be required; while for threo infantry divisions, one cavalry divir sion, and tlie necessary troops of communication, 120 ships, with a gross .tonnage of 400,000' tons, would be required. One voyage would not be sufficient- and the army must bo transported. in instalments. Major Schreibershofen recommends an open coast as tho most convenient landing place, as it would meet with less opposition. Tho transnorts must l>o brought as near the shore as possible, but four fathoms of water would bs required. The shore must bo flat and low with protection from wind and weatlier. A ton»ue of land should act as breakwater. At least two kilometres. of coast are necessary for the landing of an infantry division. Much isays the Major, depeuds on tho weather! Under favourable circumstances, 25,000'. infantry, 1000 troopers, and GO guns' might be landed in six hours. Major Schreibershofen selects the South Coast as a landingplace, but can favour no particular point. The landiug force must possess a strength of several hundred thousand men. The writer of this interesting work admits that ' the success of a landiug depends on vavi- I bus circumstances, one of which is the German supremacy of the sea. Wo await < thia latter oiroumat-ane without trepida- '