„Past events and future possibilities" geeft het verloop van de verrich
tingen van het Ilde Jap. Leger in den Russ.—Jap. oorlog, zooals die zou
den hadden kunnen plaats vinden, wanneer beide partijen de beschikking
hadden gehad over een luchtvloot t. b. v. de verkenning, van tanks, gep.
auto's, terwijl voor de rest alle art. met paardetractie, was gemotoriseerd.
In de beschouwingen treffen we o. a. aan: „It must not be forgotten also
that with M. T. large bodies of inf. can move rapidly, and that tanks
can easily drive in an ordinary outpost line. It seems, that
as the second duty of the outpost line is to delay the enemy long enough to
enable the main body to get into position to fight, and that whereas the
time required, the outpost occupation of a battle position cannot be ma
terially reduced, the outpost to fulfil their duty must either be placed
farther away or on the line of some natural feature which affords an
efficient obstacle to tanks and mechanically transported inf.1' En verder:
„As regards the air service much comment is not required, except a prepa
red position should generally be obvious in the photographs taken, alt
hough in a scrub-covered country a well trained army
would doubtless he very hard to locate from the ai r.''
„Some aspects of the work of the R. A. F. with the B. E. F. in '18"
geeft eenige interessante ervaringen omtrent den vliegdienst in den oorlog.
Omtrent het werk van de vliegeniers wordt gezegd, dat: „as a rule the
best was got out of a pilot by requiring only one flight per day, from
him on four days a week, two flights a day on two days, and resting him
on the seventh day." Het photographeeren schijntniet zoo
gemakkelijk te gaan als soms wel wordt beweerd; „Yet
photographic work, in spite of this enormous development, was, at the
end of the war, difficult in execution for the pilot and observer, was waste-
fully ordered, and did not succeed in helping the frontline troops as
much as it should have done. When the photographic machines had got
their orders, their oppertunity and had taken the air, the result of the
mission was still doubtful. Camera defects, clouds, E. A. pilots' errors
spoilt many boxes of plates and made it necessary to arrange a second
reconnaissance.''
En hoe lang zal het duren, voordat het opgenomene in beeld is gebracht
en ter beschikking van den betrokken comdt is gebracht
Omtrent de vliegtuigen welke de opstelling van de eigen troepen moes
ten vaststellen wordt aangegeven hoe moeilijk deze taak is; „the inf.
frequently were unable to signal either by flare, flags or disc", terwijl
zeer vaak de over het veld hangende rook de waarneming bemoeielijkte.
in „Inf. require cover from flanking machine-gun fire" geeft Schr. als
zijn oorlogservaring weer: „that the real value of cross-fire is the fact
that the unit it holds up is not the unit concerned in the actual attack on
the guns firing, and therofere the advance of one unit is often directly
dependent on the advance of another, and that a „blob" formation and
„soft spot" tactics alone will not overcome this difficulty, as the methods
advocated as often as not cannot be applied". Tegen deze mitr. zal men
Stokes mortieren, of veldgeschut, in werking moeten brengen„as a ge
neral rule, 1 do not think that one can fairly pit a Stokes mortar, with
its limited range and its great vulnerability against machine-guns, although
their value is immense when the situation is favourable." Secties veldge
schut en zelfs enkele stukken hadden meer succes, mits het terrein de
aantrekking ervan maar toeliet; dit geschut vuurde dan met directe rich
ting. Naar Schr.'s meening zal alleen de tank den noodigen steun kunnen
verleenen en is de bestudeering van dit wapen een eerste eisch.
Verder wordt gewezen op „Crossing of the Canal du Nord", Reflections
on the cav. campaign in Palestine" en „Jutland and the principles of war".
Art. Monatshefte Mei. Uit „Von der Art. vor Verdun", welk artikel
vermeldt welke verrichtingen door dit wapen in den strijd voor Verdun
Bij de dit jaar gehouden manoeuvres nabij Melangbong viel dit mede. Red.
80
