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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



technical discussion of the French in- 

 fantry in attack, and only give the outline 

 of tactical changes in order to indicate 

 how the French people are fighting with 

 their intellects. They have no belief in 

 brute force in war ; if they had, they long 

 ago would have surrendered to the Ger- 

 mans. Their faith is pinned to their own 

 finesse — a finesse which exasperates and 

 thwarts the enemy. 



As instructors, French officers have 

 been of inestimable value to the English. 

 In the beginning of the war the British 

 army was deficient in artillery — a defi- 

 ciency which was rapidly remedied in 

 material, for England turned out guns 

 for the army from the naval-gun foun- 

 dries. But gunners, who are soldier 

 specialists, were not available for the bat- 

 teries. 



In this dilemma England turned to 

 France, the country that had developed 

 the finest corps of artillerists the world 

 has ever seen. French officers were de- 

 tailed to the English batteries, and Eng- 

 lish officers also were taken into French 

 artillery units and learned their art in the 

 actual practice of war under the tutelage 

 of the most competent teachers. 



I have referred to French artillerists 

 as the finest in the world. The statement 

 is made without qualification ; and were 

 I seeking the factor of greatest single 

 importance in the military strength of 

 France, I should decide upon the artillery. 



A HUMAN MACHINE: IN ACTION 



It was given me to see the French guns 

 go into action in one of the early attacks 

 of the war — the engagement at Dinant. 

 Aside from its spectacular interest, the 

 performance was one of the most perfect 

 exhibitions of artillery technique I have 

 ever witnessed. The guns were driven, 

 wheeled, and unlimbered with the pre- 

 cision of parade-ground maneuvers. The 

 men dropped into their appointed places 

 like the parts of a geared machine. Then 

 guns were loaded, aimed, fired, reloaded, 

 without an ounce of lost motion. When 

 the projectiles exploded, and I could see 

 the effect through my binoculars. I want- 

 ed to cheer for the gunners of France. 

 They had scored four direct hits. 



The guns of this battery were the 



"soixante quinze" caliber, since become 

 the most famous cannon of the war. 



The construction of this cannon was a 

 jealously guarded military secret up until 

 the time of the opening of hostilities. 

 Other nations knew that France pos- 

 sessed a field gun of exceptional proper- 

 ties, and while they had hints of its ef- 

 fectiveness, as demonstrated in peace, it 

 needed the brutal test of war to prove the 

 superiority of this weapon above all sim- 

 ilar makes of artillery. 



It is readily understood that, with a 

 cannon which shoots farther and faster 

 than the enemy, the French army pos- 

 sessed an asset of great military advan- 

 tage. 



I have heard French artillerymen state 

 that the superiority of their "soixante 

 quinze" batteries made up for the Ger- 

 man preponderance of numbers in the be- 

 ginning of the war, and that the destruc- 

 tiveness of these guns was so great that 

 they almost equalized the tactical value 

 of the forces of France and Germany 

 after several hours of actual fighting. 



The gun is a marvel of fitted mechan- 

 ism ; breech-block, recoil cylinders, sight- 

 ing apparatus, all the puzzling pieces of 

 hardened steel which open and close the 

 cartridge chamber, function with the 

 smoothness of a dynamo. 



In the process of loading and firing, it 

 gives the impression of some sentient 

 organism rather than a machine of turned 

 steel. This impression is heightened by 

 the short, dry sound of the explosion 

 when the shell is fired — a sound that awes 

 and electrifies when first heard, and which 

 has come to be far more characteristic of 

 battle than the conventional "boom" sup- 

 posed to convey the noise of cannon. 



GERMAN! BEATEN AT THE ARTILLERY 

 GAME 



As soon as the superiority of the French 

 cannon was recognized, the great arms 

 factories of France were enlarged and 

 worked to the limit of capacity, not only 

 to furnish new guns for the French army, 

 but also to supply the enormous demands 

 of the Russian army. Later Serbia and 

 Roumania were also supplied with field 

 batteries from French foundries, and in 

 these countries officers and men accom- 



