. What seems actually to have happened in Poland is
exceed- ingly interesting from the strategic point of view, and well illustrates certain fundamental principles in the art of war. Our readers will remember how some six weeks ago the Germans invaded Poland in force and almost reached Warsaw. Next came a vigorous Russian counter-attack, which drove them back headlong to their own frontier and allowed the Russians actually to penetrate in many places a short distance over that frontier. Then the Germans took immediate advan- tage of their great system of strategic railways and hurried troops across what can roughly be called the Russian front in order to strengthen the German left wing, or, as we prefer to call it, the German centre—for in reality the eastern campaign is all one, and the German forces in East Prussia are the true left wing. Thus reinforced, the Germans made another dash in the direction of Warsaw, one flank, thatpointing north, being protected by the line of the Vistula, and the other, pointing south, by the river Warta. They thus occupied a
kind of Mesopotamia, which on the map looked exceedingly 748 favourable to their forces. On they went till in one place. perhaps in more, the Russian line appeared to be broken and the Germans actually to have got in the rear of their enemy.
