Since none of You have expressed observations, I will illustrate some of my opinions on the matter without entering the controversy with the distinguished historians that in the vast majority have long expressed their 'verdict': Esterhazy is the guilty. I will only say that the statistical analysis graphics and the results I showed You last post have confirmed the point of view that I already had earlier.For comfort wereport new statistical distributions of the handwriting of the
bordereau (B), Dreyfus (D) and Esterhazy (E) …
View attachment 2931One thing immediately clear is that the average of the curve B and curve D is exactly the same: $\displaystyle \mu = 4.2\ 10^{-2}$. Different are the standard deviations: $\displaystyle \sigma= 2\ 10^{-2}$ for the curve B and $\displaystyle \sigma = 10^{-2}$ for the curve D. This instinctively suggests two possible hypotheses: 1) the bordereau is a work of Dreyfus 'uncertain' as psychologically affected by what he was doing [in practice it coincides with that hypothesis made by Bertlillon ...], 2) the
bordereau is the work of a forger who has imitated the handwriting of Dreyfus [hypothesis that as far as I know has not been made by anyone until now ...]. As regards the curve E it differs too marked with the curve B, and this suggests that
Esterhazy was not the author of the bordereau. These are my conclusions reflected exactly twenty years ago [when then thecentenary of the Dreyfus affair ...] when Jean Doise, a professor of history at the Sorbonne and former staff member of the French general staff, has made an interesting reconstruction of the story which allows us to at least understand how the diabolical machine of Intelligence works. Prerequisite is a brief description on the state of the art in the field artillery in the late nineteenth century. Compared to the artillery of the Napoleonic great strides had been made on the characteristics of guns and on characteristics of projectiles. With regard to the gun, a first significant progress had been made with the adoption of the rifled barrel, with which it was possible to have a trajectory of the projectile more stable and consequently an increase of the reach and accuracy. More and more decisive steps forward had been made by the German industrialist Alfred Krupp. In the 'Great Exhibition' of 1851 first was exposed the Krupp cannon in the world made of cast steel, material of characteristics far superior to the bronze used up to that time. This is despite significant achievement was nevertheless supposed to be the premise to another realization even more 'revolutionary': the first reliable breech-loading guns, made time to attend the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The experience of that conflict, fought between two armies then cutting-edge technology in the world, had taught the 'war theorists' a truth that only the definitive affirmation of aviation will have to change: a relative parity of forces in the field, the outcome of a battle is in favor of those with better artillery and making better use of it. Having established that, as a logical consequence the growth of the 'destructive power' of artillery had become the absolute priority for European armies [and non...] in the last decades of the nineteenth century. And the 'destructive power' of a gun is also linked to the present day especially in the 'time factor', i.e. the time required to go from non-operational to operational status and the time that elapses in the operating state, once fired a shot, to bring the cannon in position, reload the gun, aim the cannon toward a new target and then fire a new shot. Well, the reduction of all these times was strictly conditioned by a law of physics known as the 'third law of motion', in obedience to which some of the energy of the explosion of propelling charge is transferred to the cannon itself and causes the 'recoil' , which is in essence a backward movement of the gun. In the absence of appropriate mechanisms to dissipate the energy of recoil, i.e. in all types of cannon used until then, it had been obliged to allow the entire complex muzzle + gun + carriage wheels move freely backwards and this is not only accounted heavily on the 'time factor', but made it impossible to use the cannon on land not regular, otherwise the possible overturning of the gun itself. To significantly reduce the recoil was necessary to connect the gun to the gear not rigid , but rather by means of a braking device capable of dissipating the energy of the recoil. Possible brake devices were basically of two types: hydro-pneumatic or spring. The first had been tested, and due to significant mechanical stress during the spring, were subject to attrition which limited somewhat the operational life. The latter did not have these problems but their fluid nature requiring complex calculations to arrive at a prototype of adequate performance. And in the implementation of the hydro-pneumatic brake, the French arrived first sharply, then forcing all others to 'chase'. A first example of rapid-fire 52mm cannon that uses a hydro-pneumatic brake is made in September 1892 from the arsenal of Bourges. Based on this result, the Director of the Inspectorate of Artillery, Major Joseph Albert Deport instructs to create a larger version of the prototype with 75mm caliber, a project that is designated by the conventional name of '75C'. A first prototype is tested at the beginning of 1893 with unsatisfactory outcomes. Changes are made, but other tests carried out in November 1893 and in May 1894 did not give better results. At this point the Minister of War, General Mercier of official state intervenes giving marching orders to Deport and assigning the project to the captains Saint Clare Deville and Émile Rimailho. They decide that the hydro-pneumatic brake must be completely redesigned and after two years of hard work the 'braking system II' is developed. In tests carried out in December 1896 the new gun reported increases beyond all expectations: 10,000 shots fired at a rate of 20 strokes per minute without a single incident. In a very short time it is launched series production. Everything in the new cannon was designed to get the most in terms of speed to put in battery and rate of fire, the containers of munitions to the latch of breech, ejector cartridge case and at the end of the barrel wedge that made the cannon completely integral with the ground after only two shots fired. In terms of performance the new French cannon made obsolete all other guns in the world. The rate of fire was something unthinkable in those days. Used by a team of well-trained gunners will attain the 25-30 strokes per minute, at least five times higher than the best of what had been achieved up to that point, although this pace could not be sustained for a long time, both for the fatigue of men for both the overheating of the barrel. Even in terms of range the
soixante-quinze mod. 1897 was not afraid of rivals: 11,000 meters, twice the number of competitors. The best proof of the absolute supremacy achieved by the soixante-quinze mod. 1897 in the history of artillery and 'date from his career to say the least' legendary '. In 1914, the soixante-quinze mod. 1897 will detect crucial to stop the Germans at the Marne. The superior characteristics of the
soixante-quinze mod. 1897 convinced the Americans to equip their army with it not only during the First World War, but also in the next two decades. It happened so that after that in June 1940 the British had lost most of their artillery in France, the United States provided them as part of the 'Lend-Lease Act', 895
soixante-quinze mod. 1897 along with a million bullets and these will remain in service until 1945. For its part, the
Wehrmacht will use a large number of
soixante-quinze mod. 1897 captured in France in 1940, converted to the anti-tank role, against Russians T34 on the eastern front. To finish in the figure below You can see a cannon
soixante-quinze modéle 1897 used to shoot the twenty shots in front of the
Esplanade des Invalides in the inauguration of the presidency of François Holland...
View attachment 2932
All this is very interesting but it is not clear yet how well the
soixante-quinze mod. 1897 connects with the Dreyfus affair. The fact is that from the earliest stages of the project of '75C' they had been launched three other projects, called '75A','75B' and '75D' with the express purpose of deceiving the Germans and the parallel was organized by
deuxieme bureau of Colonel Sandherr and Major Henry, and, that is the suggestion by Jean Doise, a complex transaction based on 'fake whistleblowers' and among them was also Major Esterhazy. The most spectacular success of this operation lies in the fact that it has been done to the Germans to believe that the project '75B' [a veritable 'mirror for larks'...] was going to be put into production and this has convinced Germans, who were also carrying out since 1891 a project of hydro-pneumatic brake that met the same difficulties encountered by the French, to enter into service in 1896
Feldkanone 7.7 FK 96 with rigid carriage, which from there to very little will be made obsolete by the new French cannon.
This therefore is , roughly speaking, the reconstruction of the Dreyfus affair made by Jean Doise: Captain Alfred Dreyfus was 'sacrificed' as 'excellent guilty' to cover a secret disinformation operation carried out by the
deuxieme bureau through the Major Esterhazy in quality of 'double agent' maneuvered by Major Henry and Colonel Sandherr. Question obliged at this point: In the light of all the data now in our possession, we are able to arrive at a plausible conclusion? ...
Kind regards
$\chi$ $\sigma$