17 AUGUST 1918, Page 16

The New Warfare. By G. Blanchon. (Harrap. 3s. 6d. net..)—

This able little book, translated from the French by Mr. Rothwell, describes clearly the new methods of warfare devised before the battle of the Somme. It is startling to find how many new methods and new weapons have been introduced since then. Tanks, for example, are not mentioned ; M. Blanchon refers to the caterpillar tractor as "an ingenious machine which may attain the object in

view." The author showed his prescience by questioning whether trench warfare would continue, but he did not know that in 1918 a regular trench-line, upon which the enemy guns can be accurately ranged by aeroplane observers, would, be regarded as little more than a death-trap. M. Blanchon did not foresee the full develop- ment of the U '-boat campaign, but he was perfectly right in predicting that it could not and would not be decisive. In a brief chapter on "The Duration of Wars" he declared that "nothing justifies us in thinking that future wars will necessarlly be shorter than those of past ages."