CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 189 



the study of military geography, and while the subject does 

 not appear to be adequately treated, I found among French 

 officers in general a lively respect for geographical science and 

 for its value as a military weapon. General de Castelnau, 

 whose genius saved eastern France at a critical moment in 

 the early days of the war, manifested a profound knowledge of 

 the topographic details of the cuestas and lowlands of the 

 Nancy region when he explained with the aid of maps how he 

 reversed the traditional theory of French military writers that 

 Nancy could not effectively be defended, and demonstrated 

 that the peculiar topography of that area made it possible for 

 an inferior number of French troops to defeat the attacks of 

 superior enemy forces. General Hirshauer, with the relief 

 models of the Verdun district before him, gave me a clear and 

 accurate account of the river captures in the Meuse basin 

 which caused the peculiar features of the valley in which the 

 fortress city is located. General Le Rond, of General Foch's 

 staff, was selected as the French expert on military and fron- 

 tier geography at the Peace Conference. 



It is not necessary to trace in detail the uses made of 

 geography in all the Allied armies. In Italy the map-making 

 equipment was of a high order, and both in the Military 

 Geographical Institute at Florence, under the direction of Gen- 

 eral Gliamas, and at the General Army Headquarters near 

 Padua, beautiful cartographic work on a great scale was car- 

 ried on. The Italian photographic section far excelled the 

 best work of the other Allied armies in the scope and excel- 

 lence of its product. Italian soldiers were sent to the Paris 

 laboratories to learn of the French their methods of making 

 relief models, and later constructed a complete series of large- 

 scale models for all northern Italy and the east Adriatic Coast. 

 Colonel de Ambrosis of the Italian General Staff, a professor 

 in the Military Geographical Institute at Florence where he 

 had, before the war, begun the publication of reports on the 

 physiographic provinces of Italy especially adapted to the 

 needs of army officers, accompanied me along the Italian front 



