Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-04-28

IN this expansion OF units, anu one ol
the criticisms Of the British heard now
frequently is that they stopped too
early and have too few divisions in
proportion to their available man
power.
The Question Of Reserves.
Now of the question Of reserves: Be-
hind the 100000 Germans organized
into 239 divisions. there stood a month
ago a large number of men held In
depots and training camps to replace
million, conceivably a million and a
half. Their mission is obvious. They
were to be drawn upon to FILL the gaps
in the ranks, as various battles re-
would be a small reserve relatively
speaking, for 1t would hardly meet the
costs of one campaign. Few allied OBJ
servers, however, place the German re-
above a million. and million and a
half Is an outside estimate.
We can get some measure from
French statistics recently supplied.
The French have modified something
like 6,5o0,0o0 apart from colonial and
native troops. This is one in six of
the French population. OF these. l.
100000 have been killed and 100000
captured or permanently crippled.
This means. again. that 40 per
been removed from the firing line by
DEATH disability or capture. Now. if the
German has modified the same pro-
portion-and he has-he has modified
age is 100000. 1t should be rather
more than less, because last year the
French had relatively light casualties.
the British doing the more costly work.
and the same thing is true in the pres
emit campaign.
Thus. the German has lost 100000
and has 100000 in line, his reserve is
that portion of his remaining man.
power, 100000, which can be spared
from necessary war work. and Is fit
for the front, and this cannot be above
100000, about enough to see him
through the present campaign. II it
proved as bloody as that of 1916 or
even of 1917.
Huns, $50 Organized Divisions.
The German has some ESQ organized
divisions. He must keep some Of them
in Russia, but he has so far brought
to the west 100, which he has now in
the west. At least so must be kept at
all times on other sectors of the front
than the operative area to hold the
rest of the line. This leaves the Ger
man a striking force Of $50 divisions,
and not less than 1877 have been re-
ported in action so far. He has then
used his present striking force, except
SO far as he can send divisions, which
he has used to quiet sectors and fill
their places in the battle line by divi-
sions drawn from these quiet sectors,
but he cannot do this Indefinitely,
while his enemy keeps good troops on
other parts of the line, and his enemy
can displace troops in the same FASH
ion.
In any event, the German has now
used some 100 divisions, 127 to be
exact. in his attack. Some of these
divisions have been used up; they will
have to go back and be reorganized,
and it will be weeks and even months
before they can get back. I believe the
French calculate that it takes three
months to remake a division which
has suffered 40 per cent losses. But the
German can refill the ranks of these
divisions from the reserves in the de-
will return in the late summer.
The first blow of the German was
struck with ninety-eight divisions.
which were used in the first three
weeks at the Somme. 1t is exceedingly
doubtful If he can ever get together
another such force, because the troops
were specially picked and trained. He
had remade many of his divisions last
winter and in remaking them used up
the best Of his material still surviving.
L
Lys, was delivered by twenty mine d.
visions. 1t was q smaller blow. the
troops making it were used more stead
lily and, therefore, were more complete
ly exhausted and will need much more
time to refit.
Expansion Of German Army.
Now, before turning to the allied side,
/ desire briefly to furnish some statis-
tics of the expansion of the German
army since the war began and the
manner in which 1t has been used east
and west. At the time Of the Marine the
German army consisted of 1913 divisions
containing 1,722,000 men. OF these
ninety-six and a half. containing
1851. 900. were used against the western
allies and twenty-six and a half against
Russia. The strength of the eastern
armies was 371,000. A year later. the
German army consisted Of 10 divisions,
an increase of but thirty-three divi-
sions, and of this number 1913 divisions.
containing 100000. were in the west
and sixey-seven divisions. containing
almost 100000 men. were in. the east.
AS late as last September the Ger
mans, then possessing 239 divisions.
were using 147 divisions. with 100000,
in the west and ninety-two divisions.
with 100000. in the east. In three
years the German had thus almost, but
not quite, doubled the number Of his
divisions but had reduced the strength
Of the divisions from $4,000 to 10000.