SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF WAR.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 120, 23 May 1903, Page 4

SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF WAR.

Field-Marshal Count yon Waldersee, of the German Army, recently sammed up the result of 700 years of fighting between France and Germany. " The figures prove to my mind not only the folly o£ war in general," says Yon Waldersee, " but likewiso that French and Germans are quits." Here is the grand total of victories and defeats, with tho number of men billed and wounded on tho battlefield, for both countries: — Frenchmen killed and wounded by Germans, 1,100,520; Germans killed and wounded by "Frenchmen, 1,057,780; number of French victories over Germans, 235 ; numhor of German victories over French, 210 The Germans, on tho whole, have had u'vo tnoro victories than the French, and have killed 42,740 more of their antagoni ts than the antagonists have killed of them. The five extra victories, Count yon Waldersee believes, may bo accounted for by the fact that tho French have nearly always fought single-handed, while tho Teutons have had fotn two io three allies. Both nations have lost about tho same number of men in battle, but French mortality has been greater owing to fever and epidemics. The French have gained exactly as many fortresses as the Germans have won sieges. Both nations have been forced to honourable surrender an equal number of times. At soaneither has got the advantage of the other, although Franco has had a navy for over 200 years, and Germany has built hers up in about a quarter of that period. Contrary to tho general idea that the French wage more brilliant campaigns than the Germans, it is found that they have been evenly balanced. Out of 14 brilliant coups de guerra—surprises on the field -seven have boen executed by the French and seven by the Germans. Russians have fought 23 times for the interests of Germany against France, and the English have been allies to tho Germans 11 times. Neither of these countries have supported France in battle against Germany. The initial letters of the Franco-German battlefields cover every letter of the alphabet except X. Ashonburg begins the list, and Zusmarshansen ends it alphabetically. At Benevento, in the year 1280, Germans and French fonght their first engagement.