FATE OF METZ.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16302, 30 November 1918, Page 8

FATE OF METZ.

„ AS A ROMAN STRONGHOLD. NOT TAKEN. IN 1400 YEARS. The American advance, beginning from the St. Mihicl .salient (states a communication by mail), is battering its way towards one of. tho world’s most renowned military' strongholds—Metz. Famous for its military strength even among tho Romans, it was known for hundreds of years among tho French as ‘4a pueelle,” the fortiess which could not be taken. Although scores of enemies covotcd.it during the furious wars of tho dark and .middle ages, few were able in the broken country which surrounds it to come close enough to test their strength against its solid ramparts. While it was exchanged in treaties between warring princes more than once, not a single time in 1400 years, between the invasion of Atti'la the Hun in 450 and the Fran co-Prus-sian war in 1870, was it taken by an attacking, enemy.

Caesar himself never took Metz by what could bo called in tho warfare of to-day a “frontal attack.” He paid it tho compliment of first conquering the tribe which held it, tho Mecliomatriei, on other battlefields, and gaining possession of it by treaty. In his “Commentaries,” ho refers to this Divodurum, or Modiomatrica, as Metz was then called, as one of the oldest and strongest cities of Gaul. His successors in Roman, rule added to its strength hy r building around it fortifications of the most powerful typo then known, and by linking it 'up as a. central point in the imperial road system. Tims it stood for centuries one of the mightiest outposts against tho barbarians of the German forests to the east.

So strong were these fortifications that even Attila’s genius for destruction could not seriously' damage them while the Hun leader held the town, and tho groat fortress passed to tho Frankish and Carlovingiau monarch? of France practically unimpaired. In 843, when the dominions of Charlemagne were divided by his grandsons ’Metz passed to Lothnir, King of Lorraine, who made it with Toul and Verdun the pivot of a practically impregnable western frontier.

Then followed centuries of quiet, during which. secure behind its walls and its natural defences while the rest of central'Europe suffered under countless wars, big and little, the town grew into a rich mediaeval city.

This period ended virtually with the Protestant Reformation. Metz enthusiastically espoused the new faith, only to see its gates thrown open by treachery of Catholic sympathisers to tho Catholic King of France. But these religious wars were clouded with secular motives. A year later when the Catholic Emperor Charles V. sought to legain his lost stronghold for the German crown, the Catholic French under Francis, Duke of Guise, stood firm under its new ramparts, now cannonproof, and the attack was beaten off. The course of the Thirty Years War in tho next century rolled east of Metz, and at the treaty of Westphalia, which closed that conflict, the French possession of the city was formally recognised.

For 222 years thereafter Metz remained incontestably French, and at lengtn became French in spirit and largely in language. From time to time its fortifications were improved. At the outbreak of the war of 1870 the forts which Napoleon 111. had almost completed around the city rendered it as mighty a stronghold as existed in Central Europe. Nevertheless, through a long tragedy of incompetence and error, inexcusable if not actually traitorous, tho French command after a short campaign of two months was forced to surrender Metz into tho hands of the Germans. FRENCH COULD HAVE IVON IN 1870. Three battles and a siege determined this event. In the first, that ot Colom-bey-Borny, August 14, 1870, Marshal Bazaino, the French commander, could have won an easy and perhaps a dedecisive victory over the German armies had he not been interested more in effecting the retreat which he had determined on. to Metz than in throwing tho wholo force of his command—double that of tho Germans—upon the enemy in a single engagement. In the second, Vionville-Maro la Tour, August 16, tile German command accidentally surprised Bazaine’s army of 130,000 men with a force of only 30,000. Yet by a superb “bluff,” by brilliantly charging the French as if his forces were superior, tho Gorman commander managed to gain the initiative and hold it until reinforcements came. The result, Vionville ended as a draw, when a. draw marked a virtual defeat for the French. Gravelotte, tho third battle, in which the full forces of both armies were engaged, should have been tho most crushing French victory of all. Tko Germans wore outnumbered. At all times whole divisions of them wore panic-stricken. Until the end of the battle tlfeir army was continuously on the verge of utter rout. But Bazaino lacked the initiative to strike at the decisive moment. The Germans actually gained some of their objectives. The day following Gravelotte. August 19, Bazaino fell back to within the circle of the Metz forts.

Still he had men enough and ammunition enough to make a sortie which would overwhelm the worn-out German besiegers and rejoin the command of Marshal M'Mahon, then rushing toward the deb a cio of Sedan. But Bazaine put off his sortie until the foe had recovered and received reinforcements, until his Frenchmen no longer had the superiority either in numbers or ammunition. When ho did sally forth, August 31, October 1 and 7. ho was overwhelmingly defeated. Metz was surrendered on October 27. 1

The Germans by the treaty of peace with which the war was ended took Metz along with the cession of AlsaceLorraine. and made it the capital of German Lorraine. Naturally they have strengthened ids defences, so that today. with its fortifications and its railroad 1 communications, it stands .practically as the bulwark of their whole western front.