The Washington herald., 1916-07-02
Data Presented to Show Teu-
tons Have but 2,ll4,000
Bayonets Left Thirty
Thousand Boy Reserves.

Thousand Boy Reserves.
2,114,O00 bayonets available for the
trenches with SO6.00O men at the front
performing other duties, although this is
probably a slight overestimate. as all the
German divisions are not UP to strength.
German Losses 100000.
There is much controversy concerning
Germany's losses, but the most capable
and conservative neutral critics, such as
Col Feyler. of Switzerland, say that the
permanent wastage from all sources in
cluding sickness during the war cannot
be less than three million. Accepting
this minimum figure, which Is $4,000 less
than the estimate of the French head
quarters staff on May /, it appears that
Germany has not now more than $780, 900
soldiers in arms, and in maintaining one
half of them in action, while all the re-
mainder are employed in the transport
and auxiliary services, and no trained
or unframed reserves are lext except a
limited number OF immature boys and
men over military age.
Every military man who discusses this
question hammers home the fact that an
amazing feat is performed in keeping one
bayonet in the trenches for every two
the thousand-and-one jobs necessary to
keep a modern army going. That is what
the German army is doing, although the
proportion in the British army. Winston
Churchill recently told the Commons, is
three non-combatants to one bayonet.
The explanation is the innumerable light
field railways built by the Germans be-
hind their lines, which save time and
labor; they have twelve near Verdun
alone, while the French depend on motor
transport France and Britain did not
start building field railways behind their
front because they expected to drive the
Germans back long before such jobs
could be completed. The German staff
commenced its railways in the fall OF
1914, after it had decided to hold its
ground Indefinitely in the west and seek
a decision over Russia.
The term reserves" often leads to con-
fusion because when military men use it
they may mean either of two things. All
armies unless in their last stages have
soldiers in the rear, resting in billets or
maintained fresh for use at critical mo-
ments. These are reserves and of
them Germany has many divisions, while
part OF every division is at most times
local reserve. In saying Germany has
no reserves left. use the term in its
other sense, as meaning that all troops
that there are no great central reservoirs
at home from which wastage can be
made up, such as Britain and Russia
possess. This lack of central reserves
means either that the actual fighting
strength OF the German units must de-
cline from now on-and the allies claim
to have evidence that this process has
begun-or else that some divisions must
be altogether abolished and their sur
vlvors used to fill the gaps 20 keep the
other units at full strength.
Britain's Advantage.
The great military advantage of
Britain over Germany can now be appre-
ciated. Including dominion forces, Britain
has within 10000 as many men in the
imperial army at present as has Ger
many, but is using not nearly half so
many at the front. While all of Ger
many's Isl divisions are on the fighting
line or within immediate call-the same
is true OF France and Austria-not nearly
all OF Britain's eighty-six divisions are
on any front. And since Britain has re-
serves to keep these eighty-six divisions
at full strength long after the German
units are mere skeletons, the Kaiser's
anxiety to win victory or peace in 1916
can well be understood.
Britain is not shirking. as ill-natured
critics have it. She created those eighty
six divisions, and the millions in khaki
TO support them, for use, not ornament.
and she intends they shall be there at
the finish and strike. with Russias help.
the final blow. France is playing the
heavy role now. 1t would have been pos
sible for Britain, by creating more di
visions with fewer reserves, to play a
bigger part in the 1916 campaign, but
Lord Kitchener planned for a long war.
and the scheme of the new armies, which
is wholly his, is based on the assumption
that the maximum result for tho efforts
put forward can be gained in 1917. or, II
necessary. 1918. A famous general re-
Gently remarked, Even If France should
disappear, we ourselves can whip Ger
many on land In two years II Russia can
take care of Austria and Turkey" 1t is
hard on France, but 1t is war, and
France, grInly enduring. approves the
British plan.
The stages by which the German en-
pire has brought its entire man power
into play will now be explained. On No
vember /, 1914, during the battle at Ypres
and the first attack on Warsaw, the
whole active army had appeared at the
frontal men who had served in the
army in peace time and who were still
Of military age, S,5oooOo Of them.
Ersatz Sent to Field.
During the next three months, the En-
satz reserve took the field. 1t was COM
posed of men who had not served their
time, but had received a short training
before the war, like the American mi
litia, and 1t was given several months
extra work during the summer and au-
tumn before reaching the trenches After
February l, 1915, no trained men remain
ed, and the work of preparing unframed
material for fighting commenced. Unlike
France, Germany in peace time trains
less than two-thirds of her young men,
By April l. all unframed men between
twenty and thirty-fve had been called
up, except those retained in indspensa-
BILE war industries in jobs which could
not be filled by women, boys or old men.
By August l. just a year after the war
began, all unframed men up to forty
had been made soldiers, although most
of them were still retained in training
depots at home.
During the latter part of the summer OF
1915 the process known as "combing OUT
began. All men of military age who had
been rejected as unfit, before or during
the war, were re-examined, and hun
dreds of thousands of cripples and de-
fectives Of all sorts were passed for mill
tary service. These men. of course, have
not been sent into battle The ruthless
German military machine has taken every
man who can do anything to release a