RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 2, 27 September 1939, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current

Events

(By Kicksh/VWS.j

All rowing, it is contended, should be called off for the duration of the war. All rowing with Hitler, however, is excluded.

Transport vehicles in Auckland, it is said, are being converted to run on gas. Some critics insist it is essentially a Parliamentary matter.

The editor of an American newspaper, it is revealed, believes in bookmaking as a hobby. Over here in New Zealand the law makes it a pretty fine hobby, too.

Regarding an inquiry about John Streets in Wellington in this column recently, Mr. A. Longmore, who has had expert knowledge of the sale of houses in Wellington for a period that started in the 80’s and 90’s, has supplied some interesting facts. In an old ledger which lists the sale of properties in 1898, there is listed the sale by Mr. Berti to Mr. C. W. Tanner of a house situated in John Street, Thorndon. There are several other deals in the same street, which make it clear that once there was a John Street in the vicinity of Molesworth Street. John Street, in that locality is now known as Guthrie Street.

A recent message from New York, to the effect that the Allies have settled down to the siege of Germany must be taken more in the light of journalistic licence than military reality. Undoubtedly Germany will be besieged, but it is unlikely that methods of siege warfare in their limited technical sense will hasten the desired end. A siege, strictly speaking, is action on the part of an army when, it invests a town or castle in order to cut off all outside communications, and, in the end, reduce or take it. This state of affairs usually has a prelude in which an attacking force with reserves not far away has turned the tables on the opponents, forcing the hostile army to seek refuge in some fortified area. If the hostile force becomes cut off or surrounded by the enemy a siege results. The siege consists in “sitting down” round the fortified area till the enemy get hungry. In a somewhat . general aspect this may be said to be the methods that the Allies will employ against Germany as a whole. A war of attrition, however, probably’ is nearer the mark than a siege.

It is most unlikely that the Allies in France will settle down to what is technically siege warfare if it can be avoided. There are many reasons why the best results are obtained from policies of activity rather than those of waiting. There is always the danger in a siege that one may allow the initiative to be taken by the enemy, who may break through. It is, moreover, impossible to predict events, political and otherwise, a long way ahead. Moreover, in the case of Germany that country is by no means invested. Offensive military action of some nature is desirable if similar action is to be denied the enemy. It will 'be remembered that in. the last war Germany made a spectacular military effort when she was at her last and most critical economic stage. If that effort had proved successful the siege would have been raised, and the war might have been .prolonged. The task of military experts is to try to prevent siege conditions prevailing. Modern methods of defence, however, demand methods of assault which are not unlike a series of sieges.

When the war of 1914-18 started it was necessary for Germany to lay siege to, and reduce, a number of forts that stood on the line of approach to the main French armies. In the old days a siege of a fort might well have held up an army for months. Yet Liege, with its dozen armoured forts, fell in 11 days. Namur fell after four days. The forts at Antwerp were untenable after only three days. This was proof that the days of sieges, where permanent forts were concerned, had passed. Modern artillery can reduce almost any. fort provided, it offers a ready target. The fort of Manonvillers, admittedly not the last word in modernity at the time, had casemates protected" by eight feet of concrete. A barrage of 17,000 shells turned it in-to-an inferno. The Germans captured it after two days of this treatment, with no loss to the attackers. The concentrated fire of 17in. howitzers overwhelmed the forts of Liege and Namur, and reduced the whole structure to ruins. Modern forts are more resistant. Forts Moulainville and Vacherauville withstood the shock of 400 17in. shells and 10,000 other shells.

In spite of the fact that some forts, like Verdun, resisted all efforts to reduce them, the modern outlook on defence has abandoned a rigid reliance on forts. This departure from the old military concepts of siege and defence has been caused partly by the machinegun,'partly by the artillery weapon, and partly by better cement The lastnamed has not been much in the limelight. It is now possible to make field defences with quick-setting cement which can be taken into the defence scheme 48 hours after completion. The use of ferro-concrete, moreover, has added enormously to the resistance of the defences to shellfire. Four feet of ferro-concrete will stop a six-inch shelL Six feet of ferro-concrete will stop a 15-inch shell, provided the concrete is used in masses large enough to resist the overturning effect of such a large shell. The tendency, therefore, has been to utilize zones of defence studded with inconspicuous concrete defences at suitable spots, linked if there is time by underground passages. The attacking artillery has no definite target. The annihilation of one target does not affect the others. Moreover, if the zone be deep enough, artillery fire from all the guns cannot hope to reduce the more-distant defences. * * «

Whatever form of defence has been adopted, it is unwise to rely on complete protection, in the case of the Maginot Line, the protection is almost complete. The Siegfried Line is less complete, as it was improvised in great haste. Indeed, this line was erected to gain time and economize force while the German units were busy elsewhere. It is improbable, even if the policy is to lay siege to Germany, that the Allied armies will sit in front of the Siegfried Line in hastily erected defences while the Germans spend a comfortable winter in their better-prepared defences. The Siegfried Line is not one hundred per cent, in favour of the defenders. Concentrated artillery action, specially with heavy guns of 12-ineh and over, will reduce the strength of the defence zone. Incessant artillery barrage will obliterate the anti-tank defences of concrete studs and pits. Offensive action by the attacking armies will reduce the morale" of the defenders. If this is coupled with intense air activity to make the transport of supplies and reserves and reinforcements very costly, it is to be expected that the Siegfried Line will disintegrate. There will l»e other lines, no doubt, but, each successive line will be more hastily improvised and more susceptible to attacfe