ill
try to destroy the successful troops with shell and shrapnel, before
the enemy's infantry makes a counter-attack. Whenever troops have open
ground to cross before they reach the intrenchments of the enemy, they
encounter a withering fire from machine guns, which is so effective
that assaults over open ground have, for the most part, to be
undertaken at night or in fog, or by some sort of surprise.

In general the defense has great advantage over the attack, as regards
expenditure of both men and munitions. So decided is the advantage of
the defense, that Germany can dismiss all those apprehensions about
invasion by the Russian hordes with which she set out on this war.
Success in military movements on a large scale depends on the means of
transportation at hand; and these means of transportation must include
railroads, automobiles, and horse wagons, the function of the
automobile being of high importance wherever the roads are tolerably
good. There is little use for cavalry in the new fighting; for
aeroplanes can do better scouting and more distant raiding than
cavalry ever could, and large bodies of infantry with their
indispensable supplies can be moved faster and further by automobiles
than cavalry could ever be.

The aeroplane also defeats the former use of cavalry to screen from
the enemy's view the movements of troops and their trains behind the
actual fronts. Moreover, cavalry cannot stand at all against the new
artillery and the machine gun. An old-fashioned cavalry charge in the
open is useless, and indeed impossible. Aerial warfare is still
undeveloped, but the war has proved that the aeroplane, even in its
present imperfect condition, is a useful instrument. The Zeppelin, on
the other hand, seems to be too fragile and too unmanageable for
effective use in war. Rifle fire is of far less importance than
artillery and machine gun fire; and, indeed, the abandonment of the
rifle as the principal arm for infantry is clearly suggested.

Elaborate forts made of iron and concrete are of little use against a
competent invader, and fortifications round about cities are of no use
for protection against an enemy that possesses adequate artillery. For
the defense of a frontier, or of the approaches to a railroad junction
or a city, a system of trenches is immeasurably superior to forts,
particularly if behind the trenches a network of railways or of smooth
highways exists. Wounds are often inflicted by jagged pieces