The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1913.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4002, 7 August 1915, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1913.

Although the more recent accounts oi the lighting around Warsaw were encouraging from the point of view oi the Russians it turns out that the earlier news which foreshadowed the probable fall of that important city were only too well founded. Warsaw is now in the hands of the Germans and the Austrians. So tar as the Allies are concerned., they may. however. console themselves with the fact that the enemy lias been forced to pay very dearly for his further territorial advantage whilst at the same time ho has seemingly robbed the Russians of but comparatively little oi their lighting strength. The grounds on which it was felt that the Russians might succeed in retaining Warsaw were, as is well-known, that the Grand Duke Nicholas occupied a position similai to that which Napoleon used on many occasions against the Coalitions of Europe with tremendous effect. It seemed—according to military critics —that the Russians were employing the best of tactics in operating against the enemy from interior or inner lines, which would permit, alternately, of attack or defence, and also of the distending or tightening of the main divisions of the army ill order to allow of sufficient room for manoeuvring to gain the most advantageous positions for a concerted frontal attack;. On the assumption that he had sufficient space to manoeuvre his main army, Napoleon, in a position similar to the Grand Duke, detached sometimes as many as four army corps on a mission of secrotiveness on either flank of the enemy, with instructions to debouch on to the field of battle at the moment when the enemy’s centre was weakening. The turning movement with fresh troops almost invariably brought* about the alteration of the battle formation of the enemy, with the inevitable weakening of the centre. Napoleon employed these tactics successfully at the battle of Montenotte, Dresden, Jena, Eckmuhl. Austerlitz. Wagrnm, and Friedlaiul, failing parti-' ally at.the Battle of Leipsig, owing to one army corps detailed for the turning movement being intercepted. The great battle of Mukden, which was decided on the eleventh day of the struggle, was brought to decisiveness in favor of the .Japanese over the Russians by General Nogi’s army debouching on to the field after a turning movement of no less- than 200 miles, the battle fronts of the opposing armies being 30 miles. The Japanese', true to Napoleonic tactics, absorbed almost all the Russian troops in a frontal attack, and then shook their morale and shattered them with the turning movement. The tactics by which the Russians wore defeated at Mukden wore then those which they hoped to successfully employ against the German and Austrian hosts. But no great turning movement by the Russians, with perhaps another immense army debouching which might

The Fall cf Warsaw.

havo been the salvation of the Polish capital, and a groat factor in final victory for the Allies turned out to havo been possible. The real ground of this big territorial reverse to the Russians is certain to be found to lie solely in the fact that the Germans and Austrians were greatly ahead in the matter of munitions. It is, of course, a defect that can easily bo remedied and, happily, there is every reason w believe that the day may not be far .distant when our Russian Ally will once again be able to resume the offensive. When that day comes round there will assuredly he a very different story to tell, that the whole Russian uniunt is determined to triumph no' njfftter what the cost in men or in material.