"They will be suffocated by their own fat," said General v.

Brandenstein, the great organizer of the advance of 1870, when speaking of the mass-formation of the French.

The complete neglect of cavalry in their proportion to the whole bulk of the army has deprived the commander of the means to injure the tactical capabilities of the enemy, and to screen effectually his own movements.

The necessary attention has never been paid in the course of military training to this latter duty.

Finally, the tactical efficiency of troops has never been regarded as so essential as it certainly will prove in the wars of the future.
A mechanical notion of warfare and weak concessions to the pressure of public opinion, and often a defective grasp of the actual needs, have conduced to measures which inevitably result in an essential contradiction between the needs of the army and the actual end attained, and cannot be justified from the purely military point of view.