Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-09-29

the military forces of Russia in time
Of war st 1850. 900. irrespective of the
army which may be levied during the
war itself, seem to approach more
NEARLY the strength of the forces which
could actually be mustered. The in.
fantry and rifles are armed with small
bore magazine rifles, and the active
Iartillery have steel breech leaders
with extreme ranges of 1850 and 470O
yards.
The Russian military organization
tdiffers from that of France, Germany
and Austria. The latter states are di.
lyided into districts, each Of which
supports corps of active army and
lone or more corps of the reserve army.
Each corps is separately administered
in maintenance, training and mobiliZa-
tion and forms complete unit. Rus
STA uses a larger unit OF administra.
ton, the CONSUMPTION district, which
furnishes an army of two or three
corps. IL you take map and mark
circles around the conscription dis
trict centers at st. Petersburg, wilma,
Warsaw, Kieve, Odessa, Moscow, Ka-
Fan, Saratof and Tifilis, in Caucasia.
you will have a clear picture of the
! distribution OF the Russian army IN
peace.
The system OF recruitment is terri
torial, that is, each army corps draws
its recruits from a fixed district and
is usually quartered in garrlsons there.
! In European Russia the majority OF
the army is stationed west OF the
longitude of Moscow, so that mobili-
cation is slower under ordinary cir
cumstances than in France or Ger
many because the recruits and resery-
lists have long distances to travel, par
ticularly as many are consigned to
corps outside Great Russia. The Car
cannot mobilize 100000 OF his troops
] within anv .theater of operations under
three weeks, although four times that
number could be assembled one week
later. The comparative dearth of rail-
ways is a great handicap in the matter
Of supplies.
On the call for mobilization, the
companies are first filed up to their
war strength by calling In the men
who have most recently completed the
three years military training Sup
plies are then got together, and the
regiments of twelve companies are
made ready to move to the front. In
general, each army is intended to keep
together in service, but the corps are
organized with complete administraa
tive service for war so that they may
be detached if necessary.
The troops of Russia proper have
the same organization as those Of 9TH
European nations. Their units are:
Infantry:
Regiment battalions.
Division-2 brigades of 2 regiments
each, artillery brigade of s or bat
teries, ammunition columns, engin-
eer battalion, 2 or sduadrons tsotni-
ash of Cossack cavalry.
Army corps-2 divisions, howitzer
division, sapper battalion, ! cavalry
division. Total, 10000.
Cavalry:
Regiment-4 sOtnia, 800 men.
Cavalry DivfsionAs2 brfgades OF q
regiments each "A regiments made up
as follows: Uhlan. I hussar, l, dra-
COON, Cossack), 2 batteries of horse
artillery Total about 1000 men.
Artillery:
Field batteries-s guns each.
Horse batteries-6 guns each.
The response which Russia has
made to the formidable military in
crease which Germany voted in 1913,
gives an insight into the military re-
sources of which she can avail her
self In the early stages of the war.
Russia has elaborated program OF
reorganization which recently was
adopted by the Duma. In substance
the new military law increases the an
nual number to be drawn as recruits
from 100000 to $4,000 men, and this
permits the creation Of three army |
corps which will go to reinforce the
military subdivisions of wilma and Var
sovie to correct the error of 1910, by |
which the 5th and 10th corps were
withdrawn from the western frontier |
Of Russia. The companies OF infan- |
try by the new law are raised TO 2VO
men, and 10 regiments of dragons |
hitherto without divisional connections
will be made an integral part OF the
frontier corps, to be properly assigned.
The number of artillery regiments ID
augmented and the total number OF
pieces for an army corps are raised
from 10S to IA. The heavy artillery |
has proportional increase, and thel
entire working material Of the techni-
cal troops receives large reinforce
ment. The period of active service Is
raised from three years to three and
a half, but remains fixed at four years
for the cavalry, horse artillery and
engineers. The increase Of six months
in the period of service permits, dur.
ing the winter season when the mo-
bilization of reseryists would suffer a
delay due to the rigors Of the climate,
the government to have under arms
more than 100000 men Tn Russia in
Europe.
Navy: Before the war with Japan,
Russia maintained four separate
squadrons: The Baltic, Black Sea,
the Pacific and Caspian. But In the
operations before Port Arthur and in
the disastrous battle OF Tsushima, the
Russian fleets were almost completely
annihilated. The bulk OF the Black
Sea feet and a few other battleships
were, however, still left, and since
1904 steps have been taken to build
n. n 4