The Times of last Saturday contained an interesting article from
its military correspondent on " The Fortress Incubus." He quotes from Vauban, the greatest of all masters of fortifi- cation, the remarkable saying : " Les places de guerre sent de grandes machines immobiles qui n'ont d'action ni de vertu que celle qui leur est donee par les hommes employes ii leur defense." With this as his text, he argues against the value of fortresses, showing their uselessness in the Napoleonic Wars, and their ruinous effect upon French strategy in the war of 1870. He even condemns the lines of Torres Vedras, maintaining that they were never attacked, and that the dispersion of Wellington's army for their defence probably saved Massena from defeat. His conclusion is that fortresses are strategically useless and economically burdensome,—an incubus to any nation. " The only base worth talking about, in the case of a defeated army, is another fraction of the field army ; the only impregnable position is the area held or commanded by a superior field army; the only points d'appui are the resources that support war."
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