Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1913 — WARFARE OF OTHER DAYS [ARTICLE]

WARFARE OF OTHER DAYS

Described In Lecture by Professor Delbrueck of Berlin University. London. —Warfare of other day* was described in a fascinating lecture on “Numbers in History,” recently at the University college by Prof. Hans Delbrueck, professor of history at the University of Berlin. Professor Delbrueck said the first point to which in any history cf war they had to direct attention was the number of the warriors, it was a recognized fact that Moltke displayed great genius in 1970 when he directed a monstrous mass of his troops from one center, drew them up abreast and made them act together in battle. To direct such a mass unitedly was, even with railways, roads, telegraphs and a general staff, an exceedingly difficult task. Armies, however, demanded not only to be moved, but also to be fed, and even for this side of campaigning later war history, such as the provisioning of Bazaine’s army in Metz, gave us measures of which we could make use for older times. Herodotus related that 5,100.000 men was the strength of the army of Xerxes. If that were true one might calculate that the last men could only have left Susa beyond the Tigris when the first arrived before Thermopylae. The plain of Marathon was so small that 50 years ago a Prussian staff officer who visited it wrote with some astonishment that a Prussian brigade would scarcely have room there for exercises.