Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-01-15

more mysterious In the case of troops
in the interior of Germany or Belgium
or Poland than with divisions some
where near the firing line. The esti-
mate of General de Lacroix in Paris,
based upon official data, is that on
June l there were, excluding the 81
69S,OOO men in the 231 existing Ger
man divisions, 1,739,000 other soldiers
on duty in the rear. Most of these
men are landwehr and landsturm
troops regarded as utterly useless even
for the firing line on the Russian front.
Ihey can never appear in the first line.
no matter how desperate Germanys
straights for men may become, but
they perform invaluable service in re-
leasing the whole fit manhood of the
country for the front.
$4,000 in Reserve.
In addition to this force of older
and less fit men, the Germans have
in reserve to fill up the gaps in their
fighting divisions some 755,000 men.
Of these General de Lacroix estimates
that there are 100000 in depots at the
front, ready to be drafted as needed
into the divisions that are constantly
being withdrawn in a battered condi-
ton from the active sectors. In depots
in the interior are 355000 more, while
10000 are training in Germany but
not yet ready to fight
Besides these men. there remain 10
be considered the 100000 boys who
reach the age of eighteen every year.
of these lads are drafted into the
army. The German class of 191S-or'
the 100000 soldiers who are nineteen
this year-have already been put into
line and are counted in the general to-
tails of German soldiers given above.
The class of 1919, the boys now
eighteen, will yield 100000 more
troops, and only a few of them have
yet been identified by the allied
armies. 1t is believed that most of
these lads will be made cannon fod
der before November In calculations
regarding the German strength next
winter and next year, they must alASOe
included.
The strength of the German army,
then, is today roughly this: there are
3,696,000 combatants, with additional
reserves of 100000 men plus a re-en-
forcement of between 100000 and $780,
600 boys of eighteen all of whom will
be available by next winter. And in
addition to the fighting men there are
about / ,739.000 older or unfit men on
duties in the rear who will never be
able to face the guns. The fighting
men, including these boys not vet
ready, total almost exactly 100000,
not including the landwehr and land
sturm and other "etappen" or com
munication troops who, to the number
of nearly two million, will never ap-
pear in the trenches.
Losses important Factor.
The third factor in an analysis of
the strength of the German armies is
now reached. What are the German
losses?
To accept the German official lists
for this part of the calculation will be
to err, if anything, on the side of eau
ton. There are military men in Lon
don and Paris who believe that these
lists, allowing for unavoidable errors
and delays, are accurate. There are
others who are convinced that for two
years the Germans have "doctored"
the lists and deliberately minimized
their losses. After examining a good
deal of the evidence brought forward
by both sides, | incline to the belief
that the lists are accurate.
The Germans have published lists
| for the first SO months of the war. APP
proximately up to May 1, which when
totalled by allied statistfcians have re-
vealed a total loss of 4,356,760 men.
Of these, 99S, 439 were killed in ac-
| ton, 69,6SS died of sickness, 300, 309
are prisoners or missing. In addition
to these men admittedly out of the
war, some $4,000 reported severely
wounded are supposed to be totally
disabled for further service. OF the
remainder about 1,S50,000 reported
wounded" and wounded remaining
with units" are classed by the allies
as men who were able to go back to
| fight.
Net Wastage Estimated.
Accepting the German lists as ac-
curate the net wastage during 80
months of war to May 1, was about 2
5O6,760 men who will never fight again.
| This estimate is not based, in the sim
81 ind oh
| German reports of men as severely
wounded" and wounded" but upon
| tons and tons of statistics and curves
plotted upon charts by British and
French intelligence officers. German
| bodies are the same as French ana
British, the weapons in use are the
same on both sides, and years of fight
| ing have enabled the allies not only to
| figure out to a remote decimal Just
| what proportion of their own men who
| are hit will find their way back into
the firing line, but to apply the same
figure, with certainty of being about
right, to the Germans.
| The average rate of German vast
| age from the beginning of the war to
the first day of May this year is thus
| seen to have been about 10000 men
| a month. This figure does not in
| clude men wounded and afterward
able to go back, but only those Ger
mans killed or totally incapacftated.
In attempting to determine what the
American armies will have up against
them when, late next year, they have
attracted to themselves the bulk or at
| least the best of the enemy forces,
the same rate of wastage may be as
sumed for the period between now
and the end of the campaign next year,
on say November 1. On November l.
1918, if the average remains the same,
the destruction of German man power
| proceeds at the rate of 10000 month.