The German Infantry is[14] armed with a capital magazine-rifle, with a bore of ·315 inches, which, with a point-blank range of over 300 yards, will carry up to 2,400 yards. The magazine is detachable, and holds 8 cartridges. The bayonet is a short sword-bayonet, very similar to the new English bayonet.
As a rule, the German foot-soldier has to carry his own equipment, both on the march and in action. The equipment consists of a knapsack with large mess-tin attached, great coat, bayonet and scabbard (to which latter is fastened a small spade), havresack, and water-bottle, and three pouches, two in front and one behind. These pouches hold, altogether, 150 rounds. The whole thing can be put on or taken off at a moment notice, by simply buckling or unbuckling the waist-belt and slipping the arms into, or out of, the knapsack braces. This new arrangement also obviates to a great extent the discomfort caused by the older pattern of equipment, which compressed the man chest considerably.
The old division of the Infantry into Grenadiers, Musketeers, and Fusiliers has now no significance, except from a historical point of view. Nowadays, the whole of the Infantry being identically equipped, they all receive exactly the same amount of instruction and training, with the sole exception that the Rifle battalions (Jäger) spend somewhat more time and pains on their musketry than the other troops.
Prussian Engineer.
“Grenadiers” first sprang into existence in the seventeenth century; as their name indicates, they were originally intended to throw hand-grenades amongst the enemy ranks. For this object, particularly powerful men were selected, and in France, under Louis XIV., four Grenadiers were at first attached to each company; subsequently, each battalion received a Grenadier company. Grenadiers were now introduced into every civilised army, but as there was seldom an opportunity for the employment of their special weapon, they were given muskets, and remained Grenadiers only in name, and thus the name came to be applied to particularly fine bodies of troops only. The Prussian Grenadier battalions of Frederick the Great were the flower of his Army, and in memory of these troops the 1st Prussian Foot-Guard Regiment still wears the old sugar-loaf brass helmet on big review days and other special occasions. The title of “Grenadier Regiments,” which the first twelve Prussian Infantry regiments received in 1861, was only bestowed in order to keep green the memory of the old Grenadiers.
The names of “Musketeers” and “Fusiliers” come from the different firearms their predecessors bore, i.e., the musket and the rifle (fusil), first introduced into France in the seventeenth century. The Musketeers were at first the Heavy Infantry, in contradistinction to the Fusiliers, who represented the Light Infantry. Later, however, on each branch receiving the same firearm, the distinction ceased, and it is now only remembered through the old Fusilier songs, of which there exist several, and whose burden is the chaffing of the heavy Musketeer.
The peculiar qualities necessary for good Light Infantry have been developed par excellence in the Prussian Rifle battalions. These draw a very large proportion of their recruits from the gamekeepers and forester class of the country. Such men have of necessity been already trained in the attainments required for that branch of the Infantry. They are well acquainted with firearms and can shoot; they can put up with considerable hardships, they can find their way about a strange country, and they have studied in the school of nature—in short, they are the very men to make into skirmishers and marksmen, and are in their element on outpost or patrol duty. Frederick the Great was the first to train the Jäger as Light Infantry, and his influence is seen to this day. “Vive le roi et ses chasseurs” was the motto engraved on their “hirschfänger” (lit. “stag-sticker,” a large knife still worn by keepers for the purpose of giving the stag his coup de grâce) in his day, and it is still the watchword of the Prussian Riflemen of to-day. Frederick recognised that the true method of employing Riflemen was to extend them as skirmishers, and there is a story which tells how, when one day, in Potsdam, the Rifles were marching past him in close order, the old king shook his crutch-stick at them and shouted: “Get out of that, get out of that, you scoundrels!” and made them march past in extended order.
On the 1st of April, 1890, the German Infantry numbered 171 regiments of 3 battalions each, and 21 Rifle battalions—total 534 battalions.
The Guard and Grenadier Regiments are:—