We might vary these examples. Quite recently, the British troops have resumed the attack planned in 1915 by the French in Artois. They will gradually free the North of France and Flanders. TACTICS. Let us now consider tactical operations as they are conducted on the battlefield. The formidable field entrenchments constructed by the Germans have compelled both combatants to transform their artillery and to change the armament of their infantry. The manner in which the different arms are employed on the battlefield has changed but little. The field artillery has been enormously developed and it has been necessary to constantly increase the power of the cannons and howitzers. We shall later on discuss this subject more fully. The definition of tactics as given by General Pétain, the French Generalissimo, in the course of his lectures at the “École de Guerre” has not been modified by the creation of these improved weapons. He said: “The Artillery conquers the positions, the Infantry occupies them.” We will take for example a quite recent military feat which strikingly establishes the distinction between the strategical and the tactical operations. On the 22d day of last October (1917), the French Army in the North, east of Soissons, scored one of the most important successes of the year. This operation, carried out on a nine-mile front, was essentially tactical. It had for object the capture of very important positions forming a salient in the French lines, which furnished the Germans with facilities for an offensive return to Soissons. The capture by the French of _Vaudesson-Allemant_ and the _Malmaison fort_ eliminated the salient, opened the road to Laon, and exposed the German lines on the Ailette to an enfilading fire. This tactical operation was evidently a part of a vast strategical plan matured by the French and British Commanders-in-Chief. The general purpose of these operations aims at forcing the Germans to abandon the North of Belgium and to retreat in France. All the tactical operations being carried on in Flanders, on the Aisne, in Champagne and Lorraine, are parts of this single plan and have the same object in view. [Illustration: BATTLE FIELD OF THE FRENCH OFFENSIVE OF THE 22d OCTOBER, 1917.] The rapid campaign just conducted by Marshal von Mackensen against the Italians in the Julian Alps, like that he led in 1916 in the Dobrutcha and Roumania, are evidences that the old principles of war, and especially those practised by Napoleon, are still fully adhered to by the German armies. =2. Violation of the laws of warfare. Influence of science.= We must acknowledge that, although the Germans had hoped in 1914 for a quick victory gained by a few overwhelming blows, they had also, during their forty-four years military preparation, provided for the possibility of a check, and had equipped themselves with a mighty artillery which enabled them to hold the Western Front while fighting against Russia.