[The Pall Mall Cazette, No. 1830, December 24, 1870] 

The wear and tear of this war is beginning to tell upon 
Germany. The first army of invasion, comprising the whole of the 
line troops of both North and South, was of the strength of about 
640,000 men. Two months of campaigning had reduced that army 
so much that the first batch of men from the depot battalions and 
squadrons—about one-third of the original. strength—had to be 
ordered forward. They arrived towards the end of September and 
beginning of October, and though they must have amounted to 
some 200,000 men, yet the field battalions were far from being 
again raised to their original strength of 1,000 men each. Those 
before Paris counted from 700 to 800 men, while those before 
Metz were weaker still. Sickness and fighting soon made further 
inroads, and when Prince Frederick Charles reached the Loire, his 
three corps were reduced to less than half their normal strength, 
averaging 450 men per battalion. The fighting of this month and 
the severe and changeable weather must have told severely upon 
the troops both before Paris and in the armies covering the 
investment; so that the battalions must now certainly average 
below 400 men. Early in January the recruits of the levy of 1870 
will be ready to be sent into the field, after three months’ drill. 
These would number about 110,000, and give rather less than 300 
men per battalion. We now hear that part of these have already 
passed Nancy, and that new bodies are arriving daily; thus the 
battalions may soon be again raised to about 650 men. If, indeed, 
as is probable from several indications, the disposable remainder 
of the younger undrilled men of the depot-reserve (Ersatz 

4 Written on December 23 or 24, 1870.— Ed. 

The German Position in France 213 

Reserve) have been drilled along with the recruits of the regular 
levy, this reinforcement would be increased by some 100 men per 
battalion more, making in all 750 men per battalion. This would 
be about three-fourths of the original strength, giving an army of 
480,000 effectives, out of one million of men sent out from 
Germany to the front. Thus, rather more than one-half of the 
men who left Germany with the line regiments or joined them 
since, have been killed or invalided in less than four months. If 
this should appear incredible to any one, let him compare the 
wear and tear of former campaigns, that of 1813 and 1814 for 
instance, and consider that the continued long and rapid marches 
of the Prussians during this war must have told terribly upon their 
troops. 

So far we have dealt with the line only. Besides them, nearly the 
whole of the landwehr has been marched off into France. The 
landwehr battalions had originally 800 men for the Guards and 
500 men for the other battalions; but they were gradually raised 
to the strength of 1,000 men all round. This would make a grand 
total of 240,000 men, including cavalry and artillery. By far the 
greater part of these have been in France for some time, keeping 
up the communications, blockading fortresses, &c. And even for 
this they are not numerous enough; for there are at present in 
process of organization four more landwehr divisions (probably by 
forming a third battalion to every landwehr regiment), comprising 
at least fifty battalions, or 50,000 men more. All these are now to 
be sent into France; those that were still in Germany, guarding the 
French prisoners, are to be relieved in that duty by newly formed 
“garrison battalions.” What these may be composed of we cannot 
positively tell before we receive the full text of the order creating 
them, the contents of which, so far, are known by a telegraphic 
summary only.* But if, as we know to be the fact, the above four 
new landwehr divisions cannot be raised without calling out men 
of forty and even above, then what remains for the garrison 
battalions of drilled soldiers but men from forty to fifty years of 
age? There is no doubt the reserve of drilled men in Germany is 
by this measure fully exhausted, and, beyond that, a whole year’s 
levy of recruits. 

The landwehr force in France has had far less marching, 
bivouacking, and fighting than the line. It has mostly had decent 
quarters, fair feeding, and moderate duty; so that the whole of its 
losses may be put down at about 40,000 men, dead or invalided. 

a “Berlin, Dec. 21. Evening”, The Times, No. 26940, December 22, 1870.— Ed. 

This would leave, including the new battalions now forming, 
250,000 men; but it is very uncertain how soon, even if ever, the 
whole of these can be set free for service abroad. For the next two 
months we should say 200,000 would be a high estimate of the 
effective landwehr force in France. 

Line and landwehr together, we shall thus have in the second 
half of January a force of some 650,000 to 680,000 Germans 
under arms in France, of which from 150,000 to 200,000 are now 
on the road or preparing for it. But this force will be of a far 
different character from that which has hitherto been employed 
there. Fully one-half of the line battalions will consist of young 
men of twenty or twenty-one years—untried men of an age at 
which the hardships of a winter campaign tell most fearfully upon 
the constitution. These men will soon fill the hospitals, while the 
battalions will again melt down in strength. On the other hand, 
the landwehr will consist more and more of men above thirty-two, 
married men and fathers of families almost without exception, and 
of an age at which open-air camping in cold or wet weather is 
almost sure to produce rheumatism rapidly and by wholesale. And 
there can be no doubt that the greater portion of this landwehr 
will have to do a deal more marching and fighting than hitherto, 
in consequence of the extension of the territory which is to be 
given into its keeping. The line is getting considerably younger, 
the landwehr considerably older than hitherto; the recruits sent to 
the line have barely had time to learn their drill and discipline, the 
new reinforcements for the landwehr have had plenty of time to 
forget both. Thus the German army is receiving elements which 
bring its character much nearer than heretofore to the new 
French levies opposed to it; with this advantage, however, on the 
side of the Germans that these elements are being incorporated 
into the strong and solid cadres of the old army. 

After these, what resources in men remain to Prussia? The 
recruits attaining their twentieth year in 1871, and the older men 
of the Ersatz Reserve, the latter all undrilled, almost all of them 
married, and at an age when people have little inclination or 
ability to begin soldiering. To call these out, men who have been 
induced by long precedent to consider their relation to the army 
an all but nominal one, would be very unpopular. Still more 
unpopular would it be if those able-bodied men were called out 
who for one reason or another have escaped the liability to service 
altogether. In a purely defensive war all these would march 
unhesitatingly; but in a war of conquest, and at a time when the 
success of that policy of conquest is becoming doubtful, they 

The German Position in France 215 

cannot be expected to do so. A war of conquest, with anything like 
varying fortunes, cannot be carried out, in the long run, by an 
army consisting chiefly of married men; one or two great reverses 
must demoralize such troops on such an errand. The more the 
Prussian army, by the lengthening out of the war, becomes in 
reality a “nation in arms,” the more incapable does it become for 
conquest. Let the German Philistine shout ever so boisterously 
about Alsace and Lorraine, it still remains certain that Germany 
cannot for the sake of their conquest undergo the same privations, 
the same social disorganization, the same suspension of national 
production, that France willingly suffers in her own self-defence. 
That same German Philistine, once put in uniform and marched 
off, may come to his cool senses again on some French battlefield 
or in some frozen bivouac. And thus it may be, in the end, for the 
best if both nations are, in reality, placed face to face with each 
other in full armour. 

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