THE GERMAN ARMY AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE FRENCH WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2056, 20 July 1893, Page 42

THE GERMAN ARMY AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE FRENCH WAR.

Count Yon Moltke.

The organisation of the German Army at the outbreak of the Franco- G9rman War was complete in every department, and to the utmost nicety of detail. The men were perfect in drill, and so accustomed to combined action that they seemed to form parts of one vast machine, capable of being directed with the greatest facility and effect to any object that might be contemplated by the commanders ; yet at the same time the intelligence and self-reliance of the individual soldier were not sacrificed to the completeness of the whole bo-3y. Arming, equipment, commissariat, transport, medical and surgical attendance, were all arranged in the bsst possible manner; and the rough test of war showed that what had previously held good in theory was equally excellent in practice. The forces were provided with a field telegraph and a field post, with the means of reconstructing railways that might be destroyed by the enemy, and with a corps of grave-dicgers ; and (by an arrangement characterised by a grim horror, yet unquestionably useful) every man was required to wear round his neck a label establishing bis identity if killed, or, in case of his beiDg wounded, supplying the surgeon with a form whereon to describe his case, for the instruction of the medical officers at the hospital to which he might be sent. The directing intellect of all this vast mechanism was undoubtedly Count yon Moltke, who was to the military system of Prussia what Bismarck had become to its political system. Moltke— who was born in 1800, and was therefore an old man of 70 at the time of the war — was a native of Mecklenburg, of Danish extraction. In early life he entered the service of Denmark, but soon transferred himself to Prussia, and studied with the utmost labour and assiduity the methods of scientific warfare. It was not, however, until 1864 that he had any positive exporionce of fighticg. In that year he acted as chief of the staff to Priace Frederick Charles during the SchleswigHolstein war, and earned a good deal of distinction ; but his fame was chiefly acquired in the Austro-Prussian war of two yeara later. The entire plan of that wax was prepared by him, and worked with an efficiency which we all know, yet with a quietness and secrecy which was almost appalliDg.' MoUke was like an embodied Fate, preparing in mystery and gloom the blows that are suddenly to fall on mighty armaments with crushing effect, and in a few wesks to reduce great military powers to ruin and humiliation. He was seen less often than commanders generally are and, when seen, prasented a hard, stem face, completely shaven, and showing in .every line the presence of a cold, sell-centred intellect. The front of the battle frequently knew him not.

On the great field of Sadowahe'was seated in a tent at the rear, where he was constantly informed by the field telegraph of what was baing done by each corps ; where he consulted his map, telegraphed his orders to the various generals, and conducted the battle like a game of chess played at a distance. His mind took note of every detail of military administration, from the largest to the most minute ; and the vast operations of the war of 1870 were managed by him with the same unresting vigilance and calm prevision that had been manifested in the shorter war of 1866. He was certainly the most accomplished of modern strategists. — Prom Cassell's ' Illustrated History of the War, for May.