Evening star., 1918-06-30
TOTALS
ON THE WEST FRONT
Comparison Shows Allies
Must Depend on America to
EquaIize Man Power.
HUNS HAVE ADVANTAGE
BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.
Cablegram to The Sunday Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright, 1913.


Chicago Daily News. Copyright, 1918.
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES.
June 29.-Now that every one seems
to be discussing the question of ef-
fectives. the following with relation
to the western front. while entirely
unofficial. may perhaps not be with
out interest The unit of modern
fighting strength of any army is
shown by the number Of divisions in
the field. But these divisions con-
tinually suffer losses and have to be
refilled. and hence reservoirs, or So
called depots of reserves. are neces-
sary. The total strength of an army
consists Of the divisions in the field
plus the troops In the depots or under
training.
Germany has more than 200 di-
visions on the western front. The
oth4rs are in Russia. Finland and the
Balkans, but the strength of the di-
visions in Russia seems to have been
slightly reduced to increase the
strength of the divisions In France.
All the best men seem to have been
sent TO France, where the enemy
probably reached the maximum.
Allies Scarcely Equal.
I am revealing no secret when 1
hazard the guess that the allies. even
with the recent American arrivals.
are still scarcely equal in divisional
strength to the Germans, not even
each American division.
which is double the strength of Euro
form us that there now are nearly
/ 100000 Americans in France. In my
opinion another million will be neces-
sary before the allies begin to enjoy
real numerical superiority on the bat
tlefield
Another point in which the enemy
possesses an advantage Is that where
geneous, the allied divisions consist
of French. English. Belgians. Sene-
galese. Poles, Portuguese, Italians.
Arabs and Americans. Unity of COM
mand offsets this disadvantage to
some extent, but not entirely. The
bulk Of the allied army, Of course.
consists of French. English and
The French have the
largest number Of divisions, the Eng
lish next and then the Americans. But
the newspapers say that by fall Ameri-
cas- strength in France will equal
Situation at the Depots.
No division is ever allowed to be
entirely destroyed. Whatever it's
losses may be, 1t always is reconsti-
tuted from the depots. Losses on the
battlefield mean a drain on the depots.
Let us therefore examine the situa-
March 81 the Germans had about 6OO,-
GOO reserves in the depots. The
losses in the Amiens and Flanders
offensive were about 400, 900. OF these
175,000, having been cured of their
wounds, probably have returned to
the depots This left total of 375,-
600. The losses in the Chemin des
Danes offensive were perhaps $4,000.
Of whom 10000 have returned. leaving
the total in the depots 345 1000
In the on-Montdidier offensive
Of June 9 the German losses were GER
tainly more than 10000, of whom
perhaps 10000 will be cured of their
wounds. giving the Germans 275.OOO
In the depots. Boys of eighteen years
belonging to the so-called class of
1919 already have been sent to the
front or the depot. Boys seventeen
years OF age now under training will
oe ready to be incorporated in the
army in October and probably will
number 100000. Thus the Germans
after reorganizing all the recently
shattered units still will have more
than 200 divisions on this front.
nearly 100000 reserves In depots and
another 100000 coming along in the
autumn.