The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-07
Further Installments of Of ficial Historical Review of the First Six Months of War
MILITARY EFFORT AT
 OUTSET EXCEEDED
 ALL EXPECTATIONS
Detailed Account of Artil- lery AccOuntrements of Et ,ean Armies and
 F<S They Play in War

SSuit 1Al IfiCS ditu
 F<s They Play in War C Sion, March 2.-tCorrespondencc Sas Associated Press.p-Further in- Q She French army after six months of Q IT have been obtained by the Asso-
 atcd Press. The sixth deals with ma .eriaI. artillery. transport and supplies. and the seventh takes mp the situation Of the German army and anaiyxes Ger man forces in the field and available.
 Beginning with the field gum the fa- nous "seventy-five.'' the compiler of the report points out that it possesses a de- gree of strength and endurance which make 1t a war implement of first or der
 Tt may be stated without hesitation" says the review that our .seventy-fve guns are in as perfect condition today as they were on the first day of the war although the use made of them has exceeded all calculations The eonsump- ton of projectiles was in fact as enor- nous as to cause for moment an am- intuition crisis, which, however was completely overcome several weeks ago The methodical and complete ex- ploitation of all the resources of the country continues the review, "organ- ized since the beginning of the war, has enabled us to accumulate considerable
 
 ing rate of production is henceforth as- sured We are thus sure of being able to provide without particular effort for all the needs of the campaign, present and future, however long the war may ! last, and it is this certainty which has 1 enabled us to supply projectiles to several of the allied armies among others to the Serbian and Belgian armies. From the statement of German prisoners we have learned that the effectiveness of our new projectiles is superior to that of the old ones.
 Inferior at First
 "Our heavy artillery was in process of reorganization when the war broke out with the result that we were indisputably in position of inferiority in respect of this army during the first battles But today the roles have been changed and our adversGries themselves acknowledge the superiority of our heavy artillery
 The change has been brought about in various ways, partly by the intense activity of the cannon foundries in new production. partly by the employment at the front of the enormous reserves of artillery preserved in the fortresses. The very large number of heavy guns at the front represents only a part of the total number available for use There is an abundant stock of projectles for ha, aPfi1 ttht tnb in la,l case of the field gun ammunition. is daily growing in importance. The same is true of the reserves of powder and other explosives and of all materials needed for the manufacture of shells.
 With regard to small arms, hand grenades bombs and all the devices for life taking which the trench warfare at short distance has brought into use, the position of the French troops is in every way favorable
 There follows a passage on the devel- opment of the machine gun in this kind of warfare
 lowing to the extended use of this weapon the number of them supplied to the various units has been appreciably in creased" says the review. Not only is each unit, in possession of its full regulation complement of machine guns, but the number of these guns attached to each unit has been increased since Feb ruary 1, by one-third."
 The report discusses the transport serv- i've which, 1t says, has worked with re- markable precision since wars beginning. |, That section of the review closes by referring to food supplies for the army. | which are described as abundant.
 Discusses Situation
 "In the seventh section the official review discusses the situation of the German army. Its first chapter opens .fof ac In forces at the beginning of the cam paign. The writer says:
 "The military effort of Germany at the outset of the campaign exceeded all anticipations. Her design was to crush the French army in few weeks under a tremendous mass of troops. Nothing was neglected to bring that mass to- gether
 "The number of German army corps in time of peace is 25. When war began the German general staff put in the field on the two theatres of operations: CD As fsflting troops tactive, reserve ersatz or landwehr) 61 army corps. CD As troops to guard communication and territory, formations of the landsturm. l
 "In October six and a half new army corps made their appearance, plus a division of sailors. in all seven crops. From the end of November to the end of December there was only an insig- | nificant increase, consisting of one division of sailors. In January. 1915, the l number of fighting formations put into line by the German army was therefore | 69 army corps. divided as follows:
 Active corps, 25h.
 Reserve corps 21h.
 "Ersatz brigades, 61s.
 Reserve corps of new formation, 7h. 1
 Corps of 1andwehr, 8H.
 "The immense effort thus made by | Germany explains itself very we'll says the writer. If, having regard to the position of Germany at the opening 1 of the war, one considers that of the | allies. Germany desired to take ad- l vantage of the circumstances which en- | abled her to make a simultaneous mob 1 ilization of all her forces, a mobiliza- ton which the three allied armies could | not carry out as rapidly Germany wished with the mass of troops to crush | first of all the adversary who appeared | to her the most immediately dangerous This effort. broken for the first time on
 xContinued sa Page Twelvsl