Page:"The next war"; an appeal to common sense (IA thenextwarappeal01irwi).pdf/55



let us take up one by one the new factors in warfare introduced by the Great War of 1914–18, and see what effects they had on that war, what inevitable or probable effects on “the next war.” To make it all easier to follow, let us begin with that factor which we can grasp most readily—the business of killing. Here, in treating of the past, I shall take testimony of the war itself mostly from my own direct or second-hand observations, extending from the Battle of Mons to the Battle of the Argonne; and in speculating on the future mostly from the sayings and writings of professional soldiers, many of them—though not all—thorough believers in militarism and “the next war.”

After the Second Battle of Ypres lifted the lid, those men of science, those high technicians, who had put themselves at the service of armies, experimented with new methods of killing. Liquid flame—burning men alive—was introduced on the Western front. This proved of only limited usefulness. The British introduced the tanks. These were important to the general change in warfare, as I shall