AFTER III

THE CAPRIVI ERA

idea. Preparations for the approach-vo fronts. Coastal defence. The twelve tac-The Naval Staff. Our first plan of bpera-of a shipbuilding programme. — 2. Caprivi, W

.ous drill, the chances of war during the Stosch era, in view ___iation during the seventies. In Imperial eagle made its first the sea in peace. While we had to keep ».vvv, c*~~fe~ in mind at the beginning of the twentieth century, the enormous and yet so vulnerable importance of Germany's peaceful labour throughout the world, and the dangers of war which threatened the mother country on all sides, Stosch had not to reckon with any immediate enemies. The first real manoeuvres held by Stosch, which were on the smallest scale, took place in 1882 shortly before his resignation. As a matter of fact it was scarcely possible to carry out manoeuvres in a tactical sense since we had not yet been trained to such a pitch; it was really only an exercise in the simple multiplication table, so to speak. Much time was expended on artillery exercises

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