770 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A FOREST IN NORTHEASTERN FRANCE. 



ON SUCH LAND AS THIS THE TROOPS OF BOTH SIDES FIND HIDING FROM THE SPYING AIRMEN, AND THE COMMANDERS 

 CONSIDER IT A GREAT STRATEGICAL ADVANTAGE TO THUS BE ABLE TO MASK THE MOVEMENTS 



OF THEIR MEN. 



clearer field and wider range for the 

 batteries. 



The value of a wooded cover in mask- 

 ing fortifications must also not be over- 

 looked. A correspondent with the 

 German army in describing the fortifi- 

 cations about Metz has stated that 

 they were so skilfully concealed by 

 woods and blended with the hillsides 

 that nothing out of the ordinary was 

 apparent. This is in striking contrast 

 to the forts at Liege which, being un- 

 protected in this way, stood out so 

 boldly against the sky line as fairly to 

 invite bombardment. The correspon- 

 dent further stated that in one particu- 

 lar battery which he visited overlook- 

 ing the River Meuse, the guns were 

 placed behind a screen of thickly 

 branching trees with the muzzles point- 

 ing to round openings in this leafy roof. 

 Even the gun carriages and tents were 

 screened with branches, while a hedge 

 of boughs was constructed around the 



entire position as a protection against 

 spies. This battery had been firing for 

 four days from the same position with- 

 out being discovered, although French 

 aviators had located all of its sister 

 batteries so accurately that they had 

 suffered considerable loss from shrapnel 

 fire. 



The present war is, of course, the 

 first in which the forests have exercised 

 this important function of concealing 

 the positions and numbers of the 

 various armies from the vigilance of the 

 enemy's airmen. In open country noth- 

 ing is more simple than for an aviator 

 to determine with considerable accuracy 

 the strength, position, and movements 

 of the enemy's forces. In a forest this is 

 impossible, and to the concealment 

 which it affords can probably be attrib- 

 uted mainly what few surprises the 

 strategists of the contending countries 

 have been able to bring about in spite 

 of aviators and spies. To the latter the 



