_If only we do not rob these great factories and
works of their men._
Upon this question certain things need to be said very plainly. The
decisive factor in the sort of war we are now waging is production and
right use of mechanical material; victory in this war depends now
upon three things: the aeroplane, the gun, and the Tank developments.
These--and not crowds of men--are the prime necessity for a successful
offensive. Every man we draw from munition making to the ranks brings
our western condition nearer to the military condition of Russia. In
these things we may be easily misled by military "experts" We have to
remember that the military "expert" is a man who learnt his business
before 1914, and that the business of war has been absolutely
revolutionised since 1914; the military expert is a man trained to think
of war as essentially an affair of cavalry, infantry in formation, and
field guns, whereas cavalry is entirely obsolete, infantry no longer
fights in formation, and the methods of gunnery have been entirely
changed. The military man I observe still runs about the world in spurs,
he travels in trains in spurs, he walks in spurs, he thinks in terms of
spurs. He has still to discover that it is about as ridiculous as if he
were to carry a crossbow. I take it these spurs are only the outward and
visible sign of an inward obsolescence.
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