GERMAN LOSSES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17097, 21 February 1916, Page 8

GERMAN LOSSES.

PERMANENT WASTAGE OF 3,000,000 ME"N. DECEPTIVE CASUALTY LISTS. Mr H. Warner Allen, special correspondent of the British Press with the French armies, writes: —

In a recent article I put forward the following . estimate of the German losses:—Their gross loss is to be reckoned at 300,000 a month, and their netloss at 200.000. so that during the fifteen months of the war the permanent wastage has amounted to 3,000.000 men, while their gross casualties have amounted to 4,500,000. This estimate lias been criticised on tho ground that it is not supported by the German official lists, and it has been suggested by soma critics that those lists should be regarded as fairly accurate. As a matter of fact there is good reason to believe that the German official casualty lists are anything but accurate, and, indeed, are deliberately intended to deceive. There has been some dispute also as to the proportion which should be added to the Prussian lists, in order to give the total casualties for the whole of the German Empire. This difficulty may be settled "very shortly. There are twenty-five German army corps. Of these twenty are Prussian; while Bavaria. Saxony and Wurtemburg are responsible for the remaining five army corps. One may. therefore, assume that twenty-five per cent should be added to the Prussian lists to arrive at the total German lossos. NOT INCLUDED.

Up to November 25 the casualty lists of the German Empire acknowledged 2.0.37,798 losses. These lists certainly do not carry us beyond October 15, as we have evidence that casualties are published only six weeks or two months after they have occurred. Consequently, roughly speaking, the officially acknowledge. a total of 175,000 casualties per month, from information derived from a variety of independent sources we are compelled to conclude that men whose wounds are not likely to prevent them from eventually returning to the front are not included in the official lists. On the other hand, we know for certain tusC a large number of prisoners have novor been announced as "missing."' Moreover, the information at my disposal gives reason to believe that the German official lists are in other respects also far from exhaustive.

The monthly average of 300,000 gross and 200.000 ?iet losses has been tested by a number of facts that are not generally accessible to the public. This monthly average was arrived at after the first six months of the war. . At the end of twelve months all available information confirmed the accuracy oi this basis, and now, at the end of fifteen months, it is still regarded in the bast-informed circles as for all practical purposes accurate. The exhaustion of the German reserves is showu by the law of September 4, 1915, which ordered the medical examination of men suffering from permanent physical defects (dauernd untauglich). We do not know how many men this examination hr.s provided, but we have undoubted evidence that a number of defective recruits have been incorporated. In a batch of prisoners taken in Champagne, who were sent to Marseilles, the French doctors noticed a marked number of men who had originally been declared unfit for military service. There were in particular several cases of scoliosis, or lateral curvature of the spine. It was ascertained from theso prisoners that men who had lost one eye, or two fingers of their left hand, or one finger of their right hand, were regarded as fit for service. MOVEMENTS OF THE GUARD. The greater part of the evidence on which the estimate of tlie German casualties is based cannot yet he published, but the following facts with regard to the Prussian Guard may be considered as a characteristic example of the close manner in which not only the casualties, but also every movement of the various units in the German, army, is followed in the opposing camp. Throughout the war the composition of the Prussian Guards' corps has been the same—two divisions of four regiments each. One of these divisions is commanded by Prince Eitel Friedrich, one of the Emperor's, sous. Tho historic regiments are led by officers who bear some of the proudest names in Germany. The Ist Regiment of Foot Guards is commanded by Lieu-tenant-Colonel von Bismarck, the 3rd Regiment by Colonel von Schulendorf, while the Ist Regiment of the Greuadicr Corps is commanded by Colonel von Stein.

At the beginning of the war the Guards' Corps was on the western front. In May it was sent to Russia to join Maekenseirs army. By the end of August it was four clays' march east of Brest Litovsk. At that moment it was brought, back to "Warsaw and entrained, about September 15. to be transferred to Belgium. One of its divisions encamped in the district southcst of Charleroi (Thuin-Erqueliues), while the other division was south-east of Brussels, in the distrcit of Xivelle. On September 23, in the afternoon, the first division was ordered to march, and arrived in Douai the next day. Then, on the 27th, it began to take its share in resisting the French advance in Artois, and took up its position in the Givenehy and La Folic woods. The 2nd Division, which was sent forward simultaneously, was posted on the 27th in the suburbs of Lens, in expectation of a British assault. The main body was then sent forward beyond Givenehy Wood, where it endeavoured to check the French advance.

The four regiments engaged —that is, the Ist, 3rd and 4th Regiments.of Foot Guards, and the 2nd Regiment of Grenadier Guards—left 416 prisoners in the hands of the French, including a number of officers. The fighting continued on the following days. Still the Guards could not bring the French to a standstill, and coutinued to lose prisoners. On the night of October 10 the 4th Regiment of Grenadier Guards attempted a violent counter-attack, in the Bois-en-Hache, which was repulsed, the French capturing about 100 prisoners. The next day the French made another 174 prisoners, including six officers, some of which belonged to the Ist Grenadier Guards Regiment. By October 12 all the Prussian Guard regiments had been in action on the French front, and on the 13th. 16th and 21st they were entrusted with a counter-offensive, which produced merely insignificant results. A DOUBTFUL HONOUR.

The looses of the Guard have been enormous since the beginning of the war. They suffered heavily on August 14 at Guise, in September in the Marais de Saint, Gond, and later on the Yser. Nor were, they more lucky in Galicia and Poland. Between May 15 and September 15 the eight regiments lost not less than'2l.264 men and 500 officers. The Ist Regiment of Foot Guards alone lost 3200 men, arid certain of its companies had been reduced to forty men. When the Ciard made its appear-

ance on the Artois front the effectives of its companies varied between 120 and 200 combatants, with a maximum of two or three officers,' generally reserve -officers. The companies left more than half their effectives on the battle fields of Artois, without taking the prisoners into account. One company of 180 men had fallen by September 30 to 80. The morale of the prisoners, especially those who were captured at first, was not remarkable. Many of these men had come under fire for the. first time. They acknowledged that they were terrified. by the' French artillery lire. Their more experienced comrades who had returned from Russia were not less astonished and fright ened: they were not, they confessed: accustomed to such artillery fire in Russia. Their morale had also suffered very considerably through the hardships anr 1 physical fatigue that they had had +t undergo in Poland. Many of them declared that they were not in the least proud of being picked troops, for the honour of belonging to the Guard had to be paid far too dearly.