Furthest in arrears of the armies of the Triple Entente is the [Pg 29] English, which made no progress worth speaking of in 1913. England in her war plans against us long reckoned with landing an army of invasion on our coast. The idea has been given up because it was declared that probably the weak, active army would be more needed elsewhere, especially as its maximum of about 130,000 men could not play a decisive part against the millions-of-men armies of Germany. Nor has the “territorial army,” destined for protection at home, shown any progress; of its required strength there were still lacking in October, 1913, seventy thousand men and all efforts to bring it to the intended height of 314,000 men have failed. The thought of tunnel connection with France, however, in spite of the dislike of the Britisher, so proud of the isolation the sea offers him, has found more adherents than was formerly the case.
The Crown Prince
If now we draw our conclusions from our military review of the year 1913 the armaments of Austria and Italy on the one hand and Russia and England on the other are insignificant as compared with those of Germany and France. The two latter remain well in the foreground, and indeed in a European war, too, it is they who first and foremost would have to try conclusions with each other.
These observations, made by an expert at the beginning of 1914, are exceedingly interesting in view of what is now going on. Since Von Bremen wrote, however, there have been several interesting developments. In February it became known that of the French soldiers no less than 265,000 had died, were on the sick-list, or had been discharged during the previous month. The explanation is, that in order to raise the figures even the poorest kind of material had been accepted, that old unhealthy barracks were overcrowded and that new ones had been occupied while the plaster was still wet on the walls; that the army was short of physicians to the extent of many hundreds. An official note in a Paris paper declares that two-thirds of the recruits arrive in a tuberculous condition. Together with these revelations comes a book, by a French military aeronaut, complaining of the utter neglect of the air fleet, and declaring that at the moment France has not one serviceable hydroplane. The whole appropriation for air-ships in connection with the navy was but 400,000 francs in 1913, as compared with millions appropriated by the rival powers. At the same time come revelations regarding the regular navy itself. Although there are nine dreadnaughts building, but two are ready, and no cruisers.
The Crown Prince at Mess
In March appeared the “general annual report of the British army,” published by the War Office, which showed that Von Bremen’s statement as to the shortage of men was not only not exaggerated but greatly underestimated. The regular army is 9,211 men short, the territorial army 66,969, the special reserve 29,370. The explanation lies in the greater attractiveness of the navy and in the high emigration figures (178,468 males in 1913).
Line Infantry