Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

STRUGGLE FOR DVINSK AND RIGA. 103

failed, against the unbending facts of nature. The great attack must thin and slacken till it became a stagnant defence. It was an ill day for Germany when her armies followed the flaming track of the Russian retreat which, like a will o’ the wisp, led them to the inhospitable mires of the Dvina and the Pripet.

The lesson which Russia had learned from the six months of desperate conflict was not unlike that which had been written across Manchuria in letters of blood. It is worth repeating, for it is the prime lesson of modern war. In four words it may be defined as the importance of fire. On paper, indeed, it had been already learned. Every member of the Russian Staff would doubtless, if interrogated in July 1914, have given the most orthodox answers. But the true recognition, which involved the determination at all costs to provide an adequate fire, came only after months of disaster. Bold and martial races have a predisposition for shock action, an instinct for the hand-to-hand struggle. It is the fruit of self-confidence and courage. But the wise soldier knows that for ¢ in-fighting ” he must first get to close quarters, and that for this it is necessary to beat down the enemy’s fire. A battle will always be won or lost at long range so long as the fire equipment of one force is less than the other. It was a lesson which the French learned by bitter experience in the Peninsula, when their advance was broken up before the point of shock by the steady volleys of the British infantry. Forgetfulness of this truth lost Austria Sadowa, and held Skobelev for long before the lines of Plevna. In South Africa it was the cause of our initial disasters, and it was the