While Germany has created a great number of new
units, army corps or divisions, which absorbed at a blow all of her
available resources in officers and men, the French supreme command has
avoided the formation of new units, except in limited number, and has
only admitted exceptions to this rule when it was able to count with
certainty on being able to provide amply for both the present and future
requirements of the new units, as regards all ranks, without encroaching
upon the reserves needed for the existing units.
At the same time, thanks to the depots in the interior of the country,
the effectives at the front have been maintained at full strength. The
sources of supply for this purpose were the remainder of the eleven
classes of the reserves, the younger classes of the territorial army,
and the new class of 1914. A large number of the men wounded in the
earlier engagements of the war have been able to return to the front.
They have been incorporated in the new drafts, providing these with a
useful stiffening of war-tried men.
With regard to the supplies of men upon which the army can draw to
repair the wastage at the front, we learn that there are practically
half as many men in the depots as at the front, in other words about
1,250,000.
Pages:
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110