第 23 节
作者:
博搏 更新:2022-04-08 21:02 字数:9322
seeming an imaginative alarmist I would like to point out the
reasons these things disclose for hurrying this war to a decision
and doing our utmost to arrange the world's affairs so as to make
another war improbable。 Already these serio…comic Tanks;
weighing something over twenty tons or so; have gone slithering
around and sliding over dead and wounded men。 That is not an
incident for sensitive minds to dwell upon; but it is a mere
little child's play anticipation of what the big land ironclads
/that are bound to come if there is no world pacification/;
are going to do。
What lies behind the Tank depends upon this fact; there is no
definable upward limit of mass。 Upon that I would lay all the
stress possible; because everything turns upon that。
You cannot make a land ironclad so big and heavy but that you
cannot make a caterpillar track wide enough and strong enough to
carry it forward。 Tanks are quite possible that will carry
twenty…inch or twenty…five inch guns; besides minor armament。
Such Tanks may be undesirable; the production may exceed the
industrial resources of any empire to produce; but there is no
inherent impossibility in such things。 There are not even the
same limitations as to draught and docking accommodation that
sets bounds to the size of battleships。 It follows; therefore;
as a necessary deduction that if the world's affairs are so left
at the end of the war that the race of armaments continues; that
Tank will develop steadily into a tremendous instrument of
warfare; driven by engines of scores of thousands of horse…power;
tracking on a track scores of hundreds of yards wide and weighing
hundreds or thousands of tons。 Nothing but a world agreement not
to do so can prevent this logical development of the land
ironclad。 Such a structure will make wheel…ruts scores of feet
deep; it will plough up; devastate and destroy the country it
passes over altogether。
For my own part I never imagined the land ironclad idea would get
loose into war。 I thought that the military intelligence was
essentially unimaginative and that such an aggressive military
power as Germany; dominated by military people; would never
produce anything of the sort。 I thought that this war would be
fought out without Tanks and that then war would come to an end。
For of course it is mere stupidity that makes people doubt the
ultimate ending of war。 I have been so far justified in these
expectations of mine; that it is not from military sources that
these things have come。 They have been thrust upon the soldiers
from without。 But now that they are loose; now that they are in
war; we have to face their full possibilities; to use our
advantage in them and press on to the end of the war。 In support
of a photo…aero directed artillery; even our present Tanks can be
used to complete an invisible offensive。 We shall not so much
push as ram。 It is doubtful if the Germans can get anything of
the sort into action before six months are out。 We ought to get
the war on to German soil before the Tanks have grown to more
than three or four times their present size。 Then it will not
matter so much how much bigger they grow。 It will be the German
landscape that will suffer。
After one has seen the actual Tanks it is not very difficult to
close one's eyes and figure the sort of Tank that may be arguing
with Germany in a few months' time about the restoration of
Belgium and Serbia and France; the restoration of the sunken
tonnage; the penalties of the various Zeppelin and submarine
murders; the freedom of seas and land alike from piracy; the
evacuation of all Poland including Posen and Cracow; and the
guarantees for the future peace of Europe。 The machine will be
perhaps as big as a destroyer and more heavily armed and
equipped。 It will swim over and through the soil at a pace of
ten or twelve miles an hour。 In front of it will be corn; land;
neat woods; orchards; pasture; gardens; villages and towns。 It
will advance upon its belly with a swaying motion; devouring the
ground beneath it。 Behind it masses of soil and rock; lumps of
turf; splintered wood; bits of houses; occasional streaks of red;
will drop from its track; and it will leave a wake; six or seven
times as wide as a high road; from which all soil; all
cultivation; all semblance to cultivated or cultivatable land
will have disappeared。 It will not even be a track of soil。 It
will be a track of subsoil laid bare。 It will be a flayed strip
of nature。 In the course of its fighting the monster may have to
turnabout。 It will then halt and spin slowly round; grinding out
an arena of desolation with a diameter equal to its length。 If
it has to retreat and advance again these streaks and holes of
destruction will increase and multiply。 Behind the fighting line
these monsters will manoeuvre to and fro; destroying the
land for all ordinary agricultural purposes for ages to come。
The first imaginative account of the land ironclad that was ever
written concluded with the words; 〃They are the /reductio ad
absurdum/ of war。〃 They are; and it is to the engineers; the
ironmasters; the workers and the inventive talent of Great
Britain and France that we must look to ensure that it is in
Germany; the great teacher of war; that this demonstration of
war's ultimate absurdity is completed。
For forty years Frankenstein Germany invoked war; turned every
development of material and social science to aggressive ends;
and at last when she felt the time was ripe she let loose the new
monster that she had made of war to cow the spirit of mankind。
She set the thing trampling through Belgium。 She cannot grumble
if at last it comes home; stranger and more dreadful even than
she made it; trampling the German towns and fields with German
blood upon it and its eyes towards Berlin。
This logical development of the Tank idea may seem a gloomy
prospect for mankind。 But it is open to question whether the
tremendous development of warfare that has gone on in the last
two years does after all open a prospect of unmitigated gloom。
There has been a good deal of cheap and despondent sneering
recently at the phrase; 〃The war that will end war。〃 It is still
possible to maintain that that may be a correct description of
this war。 It has to be remembered that war; as the aeroplane and
the Tank have made it; has already become an impossible luxury
for any barbaric or uncivilised people。 War on the grade that
has been achieved on the Somme predicates an immense
industrialism behind it。 Of all the States in the world only
four can certainly be said to be fully capable of sustaining war
at the level to which it has now been brought upon the western
front。 These are Britain; France; Germany; and the United States
of America。 Less certainly equal to the effort are Italy; Japan;
Russia; and Austria。 These eight powers are the only powers
/capable of warfare under modern conditions。/ Five are
already Allies and one is incurably pacific。 There is no other
power or people in the world that can go to war now without the
consent and connivance of these great powers。 If we consider
their alliances; we may count it that the matter rests now
between two groups of Allies and one neutral power。 So that
while on the one hand the development of modern warfare of which
the Tank is the present symbol opens a prospect of limitless
senseless destruction; it opens on the other hand a prospect of
organised world control。 This Tank development must ultimately
bring the need of a real permanent settlement within the compass
of the meanest of diplomatic intelligences。 A peace that will
restore competitive armaments has now become a less desirable
prospect for everyone than a continuation of the war。 Things
were bad enough before; when the land forces were still in a
primitive phase of infantry; cavalry and artillery; and when the
only real race to develop monsters and destructors was for sea
power。 But the race for sea power before 1914 was mere child's
play to the breeding of engineering monstrosities for land
warfare that must now follow any indeterminate peace settlement。
I am no blind believer in the wisdom of mankind; but I cannot
believe that men are so insensate and headstrong as to miss the
plain omens of the present situation。
So that after all the cheerful amusement the sight of a Tank
causes may not be so very unreasonable。 These things may be no
more than one of those penetrating flashes of wit that will
sometimes light up and dispel the contentions of an angry man。
If they are not that; then they are the grimmest jest that ever
set men grinning。 Wait and see; if you do not believe me。
HOW PEOPLE THINK ABOUT THE WAR
I。 DO THEY REALLY THINK AT ALL?
All human affairs are mental affairs; the bright ideas of to…day
are the realities of to…morrow。 The real history of mankind is
the history of how ideas have arisen; how they have taken
possession of men's minds; how they have struggled; altered;
proliferated; decayed。 There is nothing in this war at all but a
conflict of ideas; traditions; and mental habits。 The German
Will clothed in conceptions of aggression and f