The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." NEW FRENCH TACTICS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16892, 8 February 1917, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." NEW FRENCH TACTICS.

We first board of what was described as " a triumph for the new French tactics" when tlis French made the attacks north of Verdun by which they recovered, with small casualties, a great portion of the important ground lost during the prev.ioxis' months. But no hjnt was given as to the nature of the new tactics. They were supposed to be a re-arrangement of and closer cooperation between the artillery, "the infantry, and the air service. An American journalist, Mr. A. D. Fleurot, after visiting Verdun, contributes " The New Warfare at Verdun," to a recent issue of "Land and Water," and '.ac declares that the recently developed system.of the French "will undoubtedly become the accepted method of rooting out an entrenched enemy." Before the advance on Douaumont began v the new French heavy artillery — the lack of which in the -previous traeic months had cost France at Verdun fo many thousands of ncr bravest sons— fired more than one million shells, and literally blew every piece of barbed wire and trench oif the plateau before it. The surviving Germans remained there with their machine guns, crouched in the shell-holes arid craters. At the exact minute, to schedule, a line of infantry, not,too thick, moved out. Over their neads there descended, from the', smaller French descended, from the smaller guns, a terrible ban-age, \vh\eh caught the front lines of Germans in .their shell-holes. The.Frenchmen followed their barrage, walking right at ,the back edge of-it. Not a German escaped. Immediately behind the front French line came anotner line, "the cLeaners of the trenches," whose business was to capture oi- destroy any enemy elements in shelters or dug-outs by tlie barrage and the front line. Behind the "cleaners of the trenches" came the main body of infantry, supported by big! machine guns. There was a fixed distance between each line} and the whole Organisation moved forward slowly and steadily. The barrage was advanced at the rate of 80ft. (25 metres) per minute, and the front line of infantry had to remain just behind it. The commanders of the artillery/ two cr three miles back," and the commanders of the first, second and trfird lines lof infantry, worked with their eyes on their watches. • The great machine moved forward at the rate of 80ft. per minute, one-enemy-line after another withered away, and Douaumont was recovered. The writer adds: ," Carried out on a wide front, so rapid an advance as this can only be guided from the air. Aeroplanes, must hang immediately over the advancing troops, reporting the progress back to the artillery commander. They -must aiso fly low enough ,to see in detail what is going on." He also remarks that in an attack like this there is no place for "cannon-fodder."' The unskilled soldier lias disappeared. He must be an expert at something, and all must be expert bomb-throwers. The only possible defence against this new type of French attack is said to be the deep dug-out, or its improvement, the underground si'ort. Trenches and barbed wire cannot be relied upon; they disappear before a sufficiently heavy fire. Thati is the most significant thing about this cew kind of warfare. Even forts, when not connected with works as strong as the forts, cannot be held. The French simply swarmed all round Douaumont, and later on they returned and took its defenders prisoners. Vaux was threatened with the same fate, and the Germans evacuated it. Of course, j while an attack based on the new system is proceeding, there is nothing to prevent the, enemy defending himself with artillery fire as powerful as that 'being used against him. The French believe that that would add to the difficulties of the' attack, but they say it would not disorganise their system. When the new tactics were tried north of Verdun, the Germans, for. some reason, ddd not place a barrage in the*way of the French—did not, indeed, use their artillery in any way that was expected. The result was that the French casualties were astonishingly low, when the nature of the advance and the value of the captures are considered. The Germans, always quick to Learn, may apply the lessons taught them by the French in these advances. The French tactics, it is said, are the result of a study of the Germans' system of attacking. The German plan, brought at Verdun as near perfection as it has yet been developed, was a - hurricane bombardment by concentrated heavy artillery, and then an overwhelming infantry attack in mass formation. That preliminary bombardment was not its effective as the preliminary bombardment that now precedes the French attack, the Germans have no gun to give them the perfect barrage with which the "75" reinforces, the attacking Fr-"ch infantry, while ' \ji& German mass attack was simply an invitation to unprecedented slaughter. The Gernifins at Verdun attained their earlier objv.....ves, but the cost in men was appalling. The French substituted With© mass attack the advance of three

open lines behind a barrage, and reduced their casualties amazingly. Since the French successes at Verdun, there have been indications that the hew tactics have been tried, with satisfactory results, by both British and French at different points on the Western front. We heard one day recently of an enthusiastic British soldier who declared that the barrage which he and his companions followed into the enemy's lines was placed and advanced with such precision that it was almost possible ijo light _a cigarette on the edge of the line of bursting shells. There is evidence that great efforts are being made to make each soldier an expert bomber, to make each battalion expert in advancing over shelltorn ground on enepry positions, and to secure the closest possible co-opera-tion between expert soldiers, artillerymen, and aviators. And this is only one section, although possibly a most important one, of the colossal preparations now going forward in France.