The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-10-11
Germany Has the Best Of France In
the Way Of Gun Equipment
When it Comes to a
Comparison.
BEEN READY SINCE 1870
Empire Had Nearly Two Million
Men in the Field at the Very
start Of the Present
Hostilities.

by Karl Won Wiegand, United Press
Staff Correspondent
BERLIN, Sept. 19-(By mail to New
York)-A great deal Of discussion has
waged since the beginning Of the war
rs to the respective merits Of the Ger
man and French artillery. Events
have proven, however, that the Ger
mans are superior in this branch OF
warfare.
The Germans adhere to their six
gun battery. Including heavy artil-
lery they have 100 to the army corps,
and each division Is equipped with
field howitzers, while each army corps
has heavy howitzers and field guns.
With their four gun batteries, the
French now are admittedly behind in
this respect. They are only beginning
to equip the army corps with heavy
artillery. Hitherto they have been
content to consign heavy artillery bat
terfes to each group OF army CORPS
The French field gun is practically a
howitzer Although 1t throws a small
Ter shell than the German howitzer,
1t can be used for either direct or
curved fire.
The German army, at the beginning
of the war, consisted of twenty-five
army corps. Each of these is allotted
q certain district except the guard
corps, which is stationed in and
around Berlin Within the army corps
districts also are fifty brigades of
cavalry. The cavalry division of the
guard corps is CHARTERED in Berlin.
About twelve divisions of the cayal-
ry has been formed, 1t is believed,
since the war. The remainder OF the
cavalry has been distributed among
the army corps. Each cavalry division
consists of three brigades, each of
two regiments Of four squadrons. A
division, therefore, musters twenty
four squadrons, or $500 horsemen, be-
sides horse artillery and other auxil-
iarles. The army corps consists OF
of four regiments of three battalions.
An army corps musters, therefore,
eWonty-lOuT DaLtdl1OnS.
Ever since the France-German war
of 1870 the German empire has been
organized to resist the attack which
was foreseen as soon as the rapid re-
covery of defeated France attested
her exuberant vitality and patriotic
desire to recover the. lost provinces
of Alsace and Lorraine. Moltke ad
vised his government to provoke a
fresh war with France in 1875 to fore
stall the danger.
Whether or not the German army
finally shows that it has retained its
superiority, there exists no doubt but
what the country was fully prepared
for war. The military and civil gov
eminent has been organized with a
zeal. thoroughness and industry never
before surpassed. Formidable as are
the Fatherland's enemies, they are
meeting with an organization in which
no detail has been overlooked to make
It perfect.
The alternative strategy of the Ger
mans was shown early in the war. The
general stafrs plan was to hurl the
bulk Of her forces against either side
to the south, holding only handful
of troops to guard against the slow
moving hordes from Russia. After
scoring a first decisive victory, the
staff planned through its speedy
transportation service to rush the
troops throughout all northern France.
The plan was upset by the unex-
pected resistance encountered in Bel
GUM. But the German general staff
had foreseen such an unexpected con-
tingency, too. Witness how quickly
the troops were concentrated through
Belgium and how they swept every
thing before them into France.
When Germany put her first line
cavalry and 100 infantry in the field
she had about 10000 soldiers on
the firing line. Almost that number
were in reserve and were sent forward
to replace broken columns. And be
sides that. millions of reservists have
been called upon to fill UP the de
pleted ranks. The vacancies caused
by the death or injury Of officers have
been the hardest to fill.
Lorimer's Bonds.