Advance. During the spring of 1917, the French Army had to pursue on a large front an enemy who had not only devastated the country behind them to a depth of from 30 to 35 kilometres, but had also accumulated in this wilderness all the obstacles their fertile imagination could suggest.
The 75 mm. field artillery alone, at the cost of great efforts and tremendous loss of horses, managed to overtake, though somewhat late, the advance of our infantry, which had succeeded in going forward everywhere.
The sections for the supply of munitions followed their batteries, but more slowly; and some batteries, which at the cost of great and continuous efforts, had come into position, had no munitions.
The only way to guard against such delays, in the future, will be to keep in reserve complementary teams of horses, to replace those that are killed, or to help the batteries and their ammunition sections through the worst passages.
We have not the right to give here in detail the difficulties encountered in the advance of the heavy artillery. We were informed of them by a confidential note from the High Command.
However, while this confidential note sets forth in detail all the difficulties encountered, it makes no recommendation whatever as to what should be done on such occasions in the future.
There is absolutely no doubt that wherever the Germans retreat, they will endeavour to accumulate obstacles behind them as they did on the Somme and the Aisne. The question of the advance of the different artilleries must therefore be very carefully considered. Means must be found to ensure it, while keeping within the immediate reach of each battery the requisite munition supply.
America, however great her participation in the war, will never be able to mobilize more than a small part of her immense population. Unlike France, she will not be forced to suspend the activities of ordinary industrial and commercial life. Assisted by technicians, she will succeed in training all the special troops required and in supplying them fully with material. She will even be able to lend some of them to France, who, having mobilized all her fencible men for service at the front or rear, experiences great difficulty in recruiting the technical troops she needs.
The problem of the rapid advance of the artillery is to be solved by increasing the road-making facilities. Whatever the difficulties encountered and the obstacles created by the enemy, we must be able to make, with the least possible loss of time, large and solid roads in sufficient number, and to repair or build entirely new lines of railroads of all gauges.
Withdrawal. We must always foresee the possibility of a defeat, prepare everything to lessen it, and leave as few guns as possible in the hands of the enemy. This problem is easier to solve than that of an advance towards the enemy, and in order to be able to withdraw the various artilleries rapidly, it will be sufficient, when preparing the attack, to have foreseen the number of roads and tracks necessary to remove the batteries from the front.