Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 200, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1915 — PLAN LIKE BUILDER [ARTICLE]

PLAN LIKE BUILDER

Germans Prepare for Battle With Great Precision.

Decide on Certain Plan, Provide Necessary Soldiers and Equipment With Margin for Miscalculation, but No More, Never Less. Petrograd.—ln an interview with a correspondent a Russian general who fought In the Galician battles has just explained the German . plan of campaign which has resulted so successfully this summer. He said the Germans plan battles as builders plan houses. A builder gets together his blue prints and his estimates, engages a sufficient number of workmen and a certain quantity of material and sets to work. He doesn’t try to build a bigger house than he has materials or labor for. Of course, accidents or bankruptcy may prevent the execution of the plan. Similarly the Germans plan that a certain thing shall be done; they bring up the necessary soldiers and the necessary guns, shells and bullets, with a margin for miscalculation, but no more and never less. s They may, through accident or miscalculation, jail. But they never start fighting on the principle of doing the best with the men and shells they have. To revert to the house parallel: The house. may collapse during construction, owing to a mistake. But the builders will not decide suddenly that they have not enough material and dock the house off one story, nor will they „ abandon the house half built, because of lack of workmen or material. They know what they want to do. The battle planned and prepared for months In advance is a precise work. The whole eastern campaign shows this., When the Germans won at Tannenberg they planned the march on the Lower Vistula, which ended near Warsaw. Hardly bad they retreated when they tried a new vast and clearcut operation from Thorn. When that stagnated on the Bzura they were preparing the battle of the Masurian lakes, which was a great victory. »nd

hardly was over when they were sending their armies south to assault the Dunajec. “The Germans, In short,” said the general, “never start fighting on the prinfciple that would make them say we have so many men, so many guns —let us have a shot at the foe and do him as much harm as we can with these men and guns. They plan the shot first, see that they have the me® and guns to execute the plan, and dt not touch a plan which is from thf flrßt plainly beyond their strength. “Thus, they never once tried t» crush our army as a whole. That is beyond them. Even admitting their technical superiority and good muni tion supply, they would want, in ordei to crush us by one operation, at least as many men as we have. Their way is to plan relatively small operations, which attack only one section of our front, in the hope of destroying this section before we can strengthen it. “The battle of the Dunajec shows that the enemy planned to take these lines and to reach the San. He prepared everything for this, and something over.Jaut did not intend to march straight to Lemberg. When he reached the San he had to stop—apart from our attempts to counterattack. “Then he brought up, no doubt, shells, food and men for his next operation. He treated the next operation as a self-contained thing, and until it succeeded or failed he would attempt no more. Also he will not attempt a modified plan. If he feeli too weak he will try something new, which, according to his judgment, la within his strength.”