In the field war its chief importance will be found to be in the support of the infantry in attacks on fortified positions, and in the construction of similar positions.  Tactical requirements must, however, be insisted upon in this connection.  The whole training must be guided by considerations of tactics.  This is the main point.  As regards sieges, especial attention must be devoted to training the miners, since the object is to capture rapidly the outlying forts and to take the fortresses which can resist the attack of the artillery.

The duties of the Army Service Corps[B] are clear.  They must, on the one hand, be efficiently trained for the intelligence department, especially for the various duties of the telegraph branch, and be ready to give every kind of assistance to the airships; on the other hand, they must look after and maintain the strategical capacities of the army.  The rapid construction of railroads, especially light railways, the speedy repair of destroyed lines, the protection of traffic on military railways, and the utilization of motors for various purposes, are the duties for which these troops must be trained.  A thorough knowledge and mastery of the essential principles of operations are indispensable qualifications in their case also.  They can only meet their many-sided and all-important duties by a competent acquaintance with the methods and system of army movements on every scale.  It is highly important, therefore, that the officers of the Army Service Corps should be thoroughly trained in military science.

[Footnote B:  Verkehrstruppen.]

Thus in every direction we see the necessity to improve the intellectual development of the army, and to educate it to an appreciation of the close connection of the multifarious duties of war.  This appreciation is requisite, not merely for the leaders and special branches of the service; it must permeate the whole corps of officers, and to some degree the non-commissioned officers also.  It will bear good fruit in the training of the men.  The higher the stage on which the teacher stands, and the greater his intellectual grasp of the subject, the more complete will be his influence on the scholars, the more rapidly and successfully will he reach the understanding of his subordinates, and the more thoroughly will he win from them that confidence and respect which are the firmest foundations of discipline.  All the means employed to improve the education of our establishment of officers in the science of war and general subjects will be richly repaid in efficient service on every other field of practical activity.  Intellectual exercise gives tone to brain and character, and a really deep comprehension of war and its requirements postulates a certain philosophic mental education and bent, which makes it possible to assess the value of phenomena in their reciprocal relations, and to estimate correctly the imponderabilia.  The effort to produce this higher intellectual standard in the officers’ corps must be felt in their training from the military school onwards, and must find its expression in a school of military education of a higher class than exists at present.