FACTORS WHICH MAKE FOR SUCCESS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15198, 19 April 1917, Page 4

FACTORS WHICH MAKE FOR SUCCESS.

The success of a modern major movement depends on a number of factors, all of which interlock. Primarily, it i« a question of artillery preparation. This involves also extensive air work on the part of the aviators. In order that these two arms of the service may work in proper co-ordination, the weather must be fine: in order that effective flying can be done, the atmosphere must oe fairly clear so that signals from the air scouta can reach the artillery commanders, and so that the latter also may see and follow the results of their fire. The unfortunate set-back experienced by the Australians in their magnificent attack on the Hindenburg line a few days ago was due to t&e colonials being caught in a snowstorm and being deprived of aircraft observation and artillery co-operation. The ground must also be dry and easily passed over so that when the infantry leaves the trenches they will be able to move rapidly so as to minimise the time during which they will be subjected to fire without cover or protection of any kind. It is, as may be the most scientific and accurate co-ordination that has made the work of the Allies so effective. In particular does this apply to the work of the artillery and the infantry. The French have always been credited with having the finest field artillery in the world, but the British have brought thiß arm of the service up to at least an equality with our Allies. The French work in this arm has always stood out prerainently above that of the other natjons of Europe. It is, in fact, traditional. Napoleon was an artillery officer and he developed artillery, in which he placed the greater faith as to values more than he did any ot'her branch of the service. The supremacy which the French artillery achieved in his day has been preserved, and is now probably challenged by the British, and it is due in large part to the skill with which the Allied artillery has been handled that the AugloTFrench | forces have been able to make sueh. sensational advances against the Gennaa positions. The power o£ the British artillery has been ia«*«asiiig: constantly. The gratters have come into their own. Bad weather may prevent infantry or airmen from doing much, but the- gnus fceep-at it, day in aid day ont, dropping

their tons and half aaid quarter tens of high explosive upon targets mapped and registered for them some other day. It is all good practice for the gunners, and it worries the enemy exceedingly. These gunners are good shots, too, as their hits on moving trains would bo enough to show, if there were not other good evidence. Not the least of the marvels about the new British armies is that it should have been possible to create the gunners for them. Nor are they good lAots merely; a captured German officer the other day complained that they knew too much. His detachment had been cut up by "howitzer shells while on its way to the trenches which the same shells afterwards wrecked. Yet British artillery officers say that there is nothing wrong with the German gunners either. One declares that, man for man, they are a.s efficient as they were in the early days of the war. Whatever may have happened to tfle infantry has left them unaffected. We would be blind, indeed, if we did not gather inspiration and hope from Germany's proved and admitted inability to defend her lines. She is now faced with the most titanic task that ever fell to the lot of a nation to performjand cannot for a lengthened period stand the terrific blows which are being so skilfully and scientificallv delivered.