The wonders of Russia's military strength (combined).pdf

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extracted text: 10 GUARD October 1937 The Wonders of Russia’s Military Strength (Continued from last issue) OTHER nation, other forces, of tanks, armoured cars and balancing and counter-ba- air cruisers; just as the introlancing, will have part in duction of modern machinery the next world war, but the into industry during the last real adversaries, facing each century did not diminish the other directly and with con- number of the industrial pro centrated forces, are the letariat, but rather increased Soviet Union and Germany it immeasurably. and they alone can be matched It is probably that Germany directly with each other. will begin the war with a There are four aspects to firstline army of 1 800 000 the relation of forces, four men, consisting of forty six petential strategies, which regular divisions, and sevenheld the decision in modern ty-two irregular divisions, war. These are themat rial The irregular divisions will the operative, the aerial, and be made up of some 400,000 the social strategy. Each of Brownshirts, 200,000 Black thorn the have its own special shirts, 250,000 members of significance, its own answer, the Militarized Labour Serand only the sum can throw vice, 50,000 members of the ligth on the result. The strategy Militarized Nazi Corps of that reueals most simply the Motorists, 150,000 policemen, situation is that of purely and 50,000 of the “Frontier material force—men, weapons Defence”. and products, which all to- This is an impressive fightgether yield thejmodern fight- ing force of well-trained men, ing army. What armies are but Germany will be less Facism and Socialism array- fortunante in her second line, in agianst each other? A considerable part of the In any case a tremendous German nation will actively human mass must be set in be against Hitler and his war. motion, not only 1 to serve In no circumstance will the and move forward the huge assembly and addition of fresh modern machines of war and divisions go so smoothly for motors, but also in order, Hitler as for Hindenburg and with the thelp and under co- Ludendorff, and the longer ver of these machines, to the war lasts, the more will light, to attack, to storm and this be the case. to occupy. ' Russia will have the larger A “war wihout men” is army. 'The peace army of the the romantic fiction of the U S. S R numbers today modern m ilitary individualists. 1,300,000 men in 139 divisions, On the contrary, never will and now the age of military the demand for man power, service has been lowered so and indeed for trained, qua- that this number may underlified man-power, be so great go further increase. Russit as in this mechanized war should be able to throw 400 di"City Undertaker" “Private Chappel” A. G. DILLA Licensed Embalmer & Mortician Tel. 853—R Embalmer For the FUNERARIA LA FE 365 Martiros St. Cebu City Complete Funeral Services at Reduced Price visions into the war against that of sending some compen a maximum of 200 divisions sation for the possibilities of of Germans. the Red cavalrymen on the Will at least the Military wide plains and steppes of quality of, this human mass, inner Russia. that is to say its training, And what of the leadership, fighting efficiency and po- what is the Socialist corps wers of endurance, be inferior of officers worth compared to that of the German army! with the Fascist? Here again The theory of the “low the strategists of the old level” of the Russian soldiers school reckon that the 40,000 is an old piece of twaddle Soviet officers, young and The soldiers of the Tsar in “inexperienced” Red lieute1914 were incomparably worse nants and captains from the armed and animated by much villages and factories, will less will to victory than the fail miserably in leadership German soldiers; their po- compared with the lieutenants, wers of endurance were captains and generals of the greater. The Socialist soldiers classic military power of Gerof the U. S. S R. in 1936, many, the finest military in their level of military caste in the world. training, of tactical and tech- That sounds serious. But nical knowledge, of physical it is a comic fact that in fighting ability and adapta- 1793 and later precisely the bility, take their place at same thing was though and least in the ranks of the written concerning the young ranks of the finest armies in officers the French Revoluthe world tion before their encounters Today the Soviet infantry with the worthy generals, is not inferior in battle to princes and other hereditary the French. The Soviet ca- wearers of epaulettes in the valry is recognized even by Austrian and Russian armies Germans as the strongest in This is a very amusing Europe, and it is a direct thesis, deriving from those consequence of this recogni- who sincerely believe the tion that Hitler and Blom- military art to be a kind of berg have provided such a divinely inherited and inviosurprisingly high number of lable monopoly attribute of cavalry divisions for their a certain caste; instead of new army: twelve of them knowing that it is the proagainst twenty-four infantry duct and achievement of the divisions. This proportion is social class in ascendancy at not even approximated in any the time. other big European army, 'In history, in the long run, and its purpose is simply it is always the generals of NUMERIANO ESTENZO ABOGADO-NOTARIO PUBLICO Ups La Perla Del Sur (Platería —Agencia) Tel. 642-R P. O. Box 420 476-478 Manalili, Cebu City GflSLflH SUPPLY 171 Plaridel Street Cebu City, Philippines The Store Sells All Kinds Of Lamps, Steel Beds and Furniture. We Receive Orders From The Provinces October 1937 GUARD 11 the youthful, rising classes and their states who have been the victors; and always the socially declining*, reaction ary castes who have lost. The Socialist officers are the most youthful in the world. They have, however, on their side, not only the experience of the last World War, in which numuen of them fought; they have also the experience of the Russia i Civil War, which represen ted an extraordinarily extens re strategy with extraor dinarily small quantities. And 16,000 of them had training in one of the thirteen mili tary academies maintained by the Soviet Union. What of equipment? It has been estimated that Germany of spending twice as much on arms at present as did the Germany of 1931. German industry is already turning out monthly for the Hitler army up to 500 guns and 200 tanks. After the outbreak of war it will be in a posi tion probably to supply up to 3,000 guns every mouth, 25,003 machine guns, and 1,000 tanks. The new German army is equipping its division with 400,450 machine guns and 189 light and heavy guns. There are also special artillery formations for the different corps and army groups. It has created a special tank force under separate com mand, and, above all, ?is developing, as a new mass shock-weapon it light twoman tank of special design (with safety gun slit, revol ving firing seat, etc.) with which the of every Ger man motor works is packei out today. The new German machine gun is said to be superior to the French. When once again this con centrated destructive mass is trained on the Russian lines it will find more than lightly armed men opposing it. In the last war for every shrap nel shell fired by the Rus sians 300 were fired by the eveiny. That will not happen again. The Russian army is the most extensively motorized in the world, and its equip ment is thoroughly modern. The Russian tank-force is unequalled, and there is no army better prepared to wage chemical warfare. But the front line armies may not be enough. Which of the nations can endure morel The struggle will be so better, so intensive, that even the briefest period will be enough to create an urgent need for all the material that exists at present to be re placed. A modern “mechanical di vision”, which carries with it 180 200 light and heavy guns, 450 tanks, 2,000-3,000 motor vehicles, ammunition and rations for 20,000 men, telephone and wireless plant, bridging material and the rest—is like some giant octo pus, which must uninterrup tedly be nourished, put to gether, transported, and fi nally sent up in smoke. And all this material must be produced without pause in the hinterland. The slightest pause in the supply would mean that this mechanical oc topus would come to a stop, and at that moment it would be destroyed by that of the enemy. Every such division deve lops a demand for foodstuffs, metal, oil, explosives, vehi cles, and the raw material known as money, in amounts on which formerly not only entire armies could subsist— but entire nations. Russia should outlast Ger many. Compared with Ger many the Soviet Union today commands: 125 times as much petroleum, five times as much grain, three and one-third times as much live-stock, twice as much copper, the same amount of steel, rather more iron and electrical po wer, half-again as many work ers and employees, rather less coal. Against this Germany pos sesses in comparison with the Soviet Union a network of railways nearly twice as dense (in proportion to po pulation,), a mercantile marine three times as large. But the Socialist state can supply its troops with more metal weapons with incom parably more motor fuel, and will certainly be able to feed its forces better. Now at last the boundless Russian soil is being conquered. 650,000 tons of meat, 1 7 million tons of fish, 2 5 million tons of sugar, 43 million tons of potatoes, and 102 million tons of grain form the food-basis of the U. S. S. R. in the pre sent year. Meanwhile Germany still has to import foodstuffs to the value of 1.4 milliard marks a year. She has a chronic deficit on fats: even today her towns have not enough butter and her popu lation is being urged to con sume as littls tea, coffee, co con, rice and other “Semitic” and “Mongolian” produce as possible. And it must be remembered, when one considers operative strategy, that again geograp hy in the West as in the East, is on the side of the Soviets. The Fascists will find an effective penetration of Russia extremely difficult. They have based their hopes on a surprise attack in which their superior navy would play an important part. Until recently that surprise attack might just possibly have worked. Russia was weak, in transport. But now with ar terial roads built, with motor ears of all kinds being turned out in vastly increasing num bers, with the intensive imporvement of railway facili ties, the possibilities of fast, surprise movement on the part of Germany has decreas ed, for now Russia can bring up force to block it. It is a long road from the border to Russia’s vital points, and every week increased the difficulty of that road to an enemy. (To be continued] Platería Joyería y Relojería 150 PLARIDEL, CEBU CITY Recibe toda clase de trabajos consernientes al ramo» especialmente en los trabajoR de fantasia. FAUSTINO C. MENDOZA Manager FLORENCIO R. UROT Abogado—Notario Publico Upstairs Jureidini Bldg. 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