SUPREME EFFORT AGAINST FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15686, 13 August 1914, Page 7

SUPREME EFFORT AGAINST FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

ENORMOUS MOBILISATION OF GERMAN FORCES. FULL STRENGTH OF ARMY EXCEEDS ONE MILLION MEN. By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright ; , (Received August 13, 12.30 a.m.) * London, August 12. The Times military correspondent says the present disposition of the Germans shows that 20 army corps are ready to advance. This force includes eight divisions of cavalry and tho Fourteenth Austrian Army Corps. At a low estimate it comprises 1,275,000 troops, armed with 783,000 rifles, 65,000 sabres, 4416 guns, and 1488 machine guns. The first line consists of eight corps, of which the seventh, ninth, and tenth are about Liege. The fourth is at Rochefort, and tho nineteenth at Bastognc, and both arc entrenched. The eighth is at Luxemburg and the Sixteenth and Second Bavarians at Thionville. The second lino consists of nine army corps, and includes the eleventh and the third at Verviers, the Twelfth and Third Bavarians in echelon behind the Eighth Army Corps at Luxemburg, on the railway from Mersch to Troisvierges, the Thirteenth and the First Bavarian at Saarbruck. Guards are probably advancing from Coblenz, the eighteenth from Mainz, and tho fourteenth from Baden. This gives seventeen corps, aggregating 1,000,000 men, which" the ' Kaiser is able- to launch against Northern Franco and Belgium. The majority is advancing through tho Belgian Ardennes in vory close ' formation. The Gormans probably believe tho woods will make it difficult for the French field artillery to assert its pre-eminence. The Twenty-first German Corps is between Metz and Saarburg, tho fifteenth between Strasburg and Ncubreisach, while the six corps are defending the Russian frontier. The latter consist of the first, second, fifth, sixth, seventh, and twentieth. Franco and her allies should be able to place in line more men, sabres, guns, and rifles, than the attacking forces. Tho German plan has the supreme merit of enabling tho mass of the army to act together in any direction. The natural line of advance is against Verdun, Mczieres, Namur,