GERMAN MAN-POWER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 145997, 1 December 1917, Page 8

GERMAN MAN-POWER.

WASTAGE AND RESERVES. A FRENCH ESTIMATE. FRENCH HEADQUARTERS. The following estimate of the numerical value of the military and civilian manhood of Germany during the whole wn’’ period does not nretend to be either rigidly exact or official. For the sake ox Clearness i will begiu at the end with a tew broad and simple totals, and then go on to show how they are reckonod. • In round numbers, then, the sum of the adult manhood of Germany, between the ages of 17 and 45, amounts, counting from August, 1914, to the beginning of next year, to 14,000,000. Of these 4.01)0 000 fighting men have been removed from the field by death, captivity, and the permanent effect of wounds. (.The German official casualty lists up to the end of July gave this total as 2,338,327); another 500,000 wounded are in hospital, but will be able to rejoin their units after an average period of four months; 2,800,000 civilians are for various reasons unemployed or unemployable in the armed forces of the Empire; 600,000 fresh recruits will be mobilised and come under military training by the beginning of 1918; and the remainder, 0 100,000 trained men, are at present engaged in the armies on the two fronts, on lines of cummunication, and in depots. in tabulated form these figures read as follows; 1 osses 4,000 000 Temporarily wounded 500.000 Recruits (part of 1919 class and Class 1920) 600,000 Armies 6,100 000 Civilians 2,800,000 Total number of men of military age, 1914 to 1917 14,000,000

Before reviewing in detail the composition and wastage of the 11,200,000 fighters it will be convenient to dispose quickly of the 2,800.000 who for mo reason or another do not bear arms. These consist in the first_ place of 2,100000 reformes, men of military age who are physically or mentally disqualified for militaiy service, and after them cOO.OCKJ engaged in necessary civilian employment for the State at home, and 200,000 residents abroad, mostly in America, and therefore not available Tar any kind of service.

It is useful to recall the following facts: “Each German annual class consists roughly of 550,000 men, of whom some 100.000 are rejected outright on medical grounds. For practical purposes the average class, therefore, numbers 450.000. In time of peace 60 per cent of these or 270,000 are taken for the array proper: the rest go either into the 'Ersatz Reserve, only part of which is trained, or into the first Ban of the Landsturm, which receives no military training at all, and is made up of boys of 17 to 20, and men of 20 to 39. who have not been chosen for either array or reserve, and yet have not been medically rejected. The second Ban includes all men of 39 to 45: they are trained or untrained according as they come from the armv or the trained reserve on the one hand, or from the untrained reserve or the first Ban on the other. Set out these figures are: Reformcs 2,100.000 Civil employ 500 000 Abroad 200,000 Civilians 2,800,000 Before the war the standing peace army consisted of 61 d-visions, about 17.000 strong, or 870,000 men in all. As soon as tlie Rubicon was crossed all men of military age who had passed through the ranks were mobilised, and the strength was thus raised to 4.500,000. In the autumn of i.°l4. 800,000, mostly untrained, were added from the Ersatz Reserve, and with the 1914 class of 4.50 0-10 brought the total up to 6.7.50.000 At the beginning of 1915 first 1,1u0,000 ot the Landsturm first Ban. then 460 ODD of the 1915 class, then 150,000 more Lnndsturmers (which dried up that source of supply), next the 1916 class, and lastly, under the growing pressure of the need for more and more men owing to the unforseen prolongation of the war, 300 000 reformes were mobilised, meking, the contribution, of the venr 2.450,000 men, and the grand total for the war np to that point 8.200.000. In 1916 they were obliged once more to draw on the reformes to the extent of half a. million, and to take as well the whole of the two classes 1917 and 1918, which produced another 900 000, besides 4SQ 000 untrained men from the second Ban of the Landsturm. During t his present year 160 000 more reformes and part of the 1919 class have so far produced about 450 000. and by January. 1918 the year’s yield will nrobnhly be broight up, by the addiO-m little hv little of the —'<-t of t''e 1919 class, and the whole r” the 1920 class, to 1.150 ODO. The total of the four year." and the gross figure of 14 millions are therefore made up as follows: '•’•■"htmg men—l9l4 5,750.000 ~-ghtmg men— 1915 2,4-50.000 Fighting men—l9l6 1 850,000 Fighting men—l9X7 1,150^000 11,200,000 Civilians 2.800.000 14,000,000 Is is obvious that some of the material of the last two years, which consists largely of refonnes and classes of, boys growing steadily younger, is very inferior. The average age of the 1920 will be 17. instead of 20 as it was in 1914, and the youngest of them I will on'v turn 17 in January. On the basis of this eclcilation wo have now got rid of 4.600,000 of the 11,200.000 which have been arrayed against the Allies on the two fronts, leaving 6,700,000 still to be dealt with.