[49] Under average conditions it is possible to land 25,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 60 guns in six hours.... In the Crimean War 45,000 men, 83 guns and 100 horses were disembarked and set on shore in less than eleven hours, without modern appliances.—“Over-Seas Operations.” See also British and French records.
[50] This quotation is a literal quotation from the War Department report on “The Organization of the Land Forces of the United States,” August 10, 1912.
[51] This point has been emphasized in practically every War Department report on organization for many years back. Congress never has acted on the matter. The Chief of Militia Affairs, U. S. A., was forced to report in his last report that: “Little or no progress appears to be making toward correct Divisional organization.”—Part III, 1914, Report on Organization. Only two States have approachably organized their militia in correct proportions.
[52] The Division is the fundamental army unit.... The mobile elements of the Regular Army should have a Divisional organization in time of peace.—Office of the Chief of Staff, U. S. A., January 20, 1914.
[53] Tables 17 and 18, pages 228, 229, Annual Report Division of Militia Affairs, U. S. A., October 1, 1914.... “The States which send their Infantry into active service without having made every possible effort to supply it with an adequate Field Artillery support, will see in the needless sacrifice of that Infantry the cost of their short-sightedness in time of preparation.”—A. L. Mills, Brigadier General, General Staff, U. S. A.
[54] Page 26, Organization of the Land forces of the United States, U. S. Army report.
[55] “While the men who wish to spend the Army and Navy appropriation upon unnecessary army posts or unfit navy yards have such a voice as well as a vote,” i.e. in the Houses of Congress, “a great deal of waste and extravagance is sure to result.”—Henry L. Stimson, former Secretary of War.
[56] Only the most perfectly organized intelligence department can extract from the incredible mass of reports that come in during army movements, the few true and important facts on which the final orders of the commander may be based. An inadequate scouting service is worse than merely weak. It betrays its own forces to disaster.
[57] The Long Island Sound defenses are built to prevent the entrance of a hostile fleet into Long Island Sound. By thus closing Long Island Sound they protect all the Sound cities and the City of New York; but they cannot and do not protect all the possible landing places. Long Island, the land highway to New York City, is entirely undefended. The War Department desires to erect proper defenses on or near Montauk Point, but has still to get the authority.
[58] Trinitrotol, now being used in Europe largely for under-water work, is one of the most violently acting explosives known to-day.