The Washington herald., 1916-07-02
Schemed to Overwhelrn the
Kaiser's Forces with Great
General Reserve of the AL
lies, Which Was Held Back.
Copyright. isS)
By JOHN L. BALDEHsrON.

~ sN1A-N IL Sn<A~o Ao-ss
London, June A-This Is an accurate
and detailed statement of the strength
and composition OF the German army at
present and of how it has been built up
during the war. To put the German
army In proper perspective with the war
as whole, as much as permissible will
be said concerning the forces on the
allied side and the relative importance
Of numbers compared with munitions and
nnances just touched upon
There is a wide gulf between the view
points Of the soldier and the civilian to-
ward battle. The result OF an action Is
calculated by the soldier from the num-
Der Of shells fred and casualties inflicted,
relative to the number of men and pro-
jectiles possessed by the two sides. The
civilian measures success by ground
gained and prisoners taken. True, If
any army gains much ground 1t almost
always makes big hauls of prisoners and
wins from any point Of view, but II is
the losses and not the ground that really
count in this war Of attrition.
From Soldiers Point of View.
This article is written from the soldiers
point OF view. from material supplied
by stan officers who display no more
bias for their own side in working out
their calculations than II they were solv-
ing an equation, as indeed in a sense
of thing" correspondents as well as SOL
diers have said to me, you will bore
your readers stin."
lam no cynic and work on the as
sumption that the public. at least the
American public, wants to know the
truth about the war-not merely to
read interesting and amusing official
and unofficial half-truths and fairy
:. tales. It is Impossible in the stress
OF a great campaign for newspapers,
, or even generals, to learn the rela
: tive casualties and shell expenditure,
while progress upon the map cannot
be concealed, but the fundamental
problem OF msnpower. studied for two
years by all the staTs in Europe, can
be accurately stated, and is more i'm
portant than which side at the mo-
ment holds possession OF a hundred
battleields.
Men, money and munitions" OF
these money is the least important
/ International bankruptcy all around
would have no effect on the war, ex-
cepting as 1t curtailed the power OF
the Entente to buy munitions in
( America and Japan, and the relative
Importance, though not the amount,
of the manufacturing output of neu
trail countries is steadily declining as
the Industrial mobilization of Britain
and Russia proceeds. Many good
and Germany will be unable without
indemnities to meet her obligations.
But these facts, IL they are facts, pro-
duce little impression in the trenches.
So long as a government can persuade
or force its own people to accept its
paper money supplying its armies
from industrial resources within its
own borders and paying for supplies
with paper. It can go on fighting. so
far as finances are concerned. while II
has printing presses.
Munition. Problem Important.
The problem OF munitions is next in
importance to that Of manpower. but
at this moment less capable of calcu-
lation. An authority in London in
formed me that the output Of shells
of all calfber in Germany and Austria
Hungary is 100000 a day, and that
this figure, reached early this spring.
represents the maximum number pos
sible and can be continued indefinitely,
but never exceeded. He added that
the combined output OF Great Britain.
France, Russia, Italy and Japan falls
short Of this. How much short he
would not say. but ultimately he ex-
poets 10000 shells daily to be supplied
the Entente armies, and even this
figure may with neutral help be in
creased
The central powers, contrary to much
that has been written and said by people |
who ought to know better still have
great superiority in the two most impor-
tant artillery weapons, the machine gun
and the heavy gun. In light field pieces
the French are superior to their oppo-
nents, and the British are now at least
their equals, but the great works Of
Krupp and Skoda have declined to per-
NIT the lead in heavy ordnance which
they enjoyed at the beginning Of the war
f. ~ faEa fhap1 EQxy q
efforts the surprised allies have been able
TO turn out more and better heavy guns
than the Germans had early in the war,
but meanwhile Krupp has produced sew
eral thousand quick-hring 6.9-inch howit- |
GERS, which have almost entirely super
seded. on the vital sectors OF the western
front. the standard three-inch field piece.
To these new guns alone are due such
successes as the Germans have recently
obtained before Ypres and at Virny.
Russia Gets Guns.
Meanwhile skoda, in Austria, speci.liz-
ing In heavies, has turned out an incred-
ible number of twelve and sixteen-inch
weapons; at least 40 OF these giants were
used on a narrow front against the Ital-
ians in the Trentino offensive, and more
than 900 have hammered the dsfenses OF
verdun. Great strides have been made
recently by British and French gun
sian attack indicates that Russia, too, |
has supplied herself, or been supplied by
her friends, with the right kind OF guns
IN plentiful numbers. There Is no doubt
\that given time enough the arsenals of
he world will be able to overhaul the |
eatons In artillery production. as the
unition plants are doing in the shell |
tput, but am unable to give even ap-
oximate figures indicating the present
,ative positions of the rival powers as
CARDS artillery.
There remains the most important |
Foblem-that OF man power. Men can
Eht without guns, but without men guns !
Re worthless. For purposes Of compari- |
bon. the strength OF the entente armies |
will be vaguely discussed. although may |
not 90 into details concerning them be- |
fore definite figures on the German army |
are put forward and explained.
Great Britain supplied by voluntary re- |
cruitment $4,000 men, and to this num- |
Der must be added a few hundred thou |
sand conscripts who have been called |
up or will have been by the middle of |
July. This figure is, however. very mis- |
leading when taken to include fighting |
strength, including as It does the regular |