10 
J. A N n \ W A T !•: R 
JllIU 
aJready summoned and present in October, 1914. (" Tlie 
last reser\-es and the last recruits " was the phrase used). 
As a matter of fact, that date after which no elements of 
recruiting from the old active army are discovered is 
November i>t. i<)i4. 
On that date — November ist, 1()I4— all the ininio- 
diately available men of the (ierman Empire had been 
put into the field. Theactivearmy in a conscript country 
means, of course, all those men still alive and of military 
age and able to pass the doctor who have in the past 
received full military training. 
I need hardly point out that the exhaustion of this 
recruiting ground, after only three months of war, was 
never dreamt of when (icrmany fuolislily compelled 
Austria to join her in an improvoked attack upon Europe. 
The wastage had been at an enormously higher rate 
than the (leneral staff had ever conceived possible. 
Behind the .Active Corps was the so-called " ICrzatz " 
I?eser\'e. Germany, it is well known, did not train everv 
possible man as France did, for instance, or Bulgaria, 
bhe thoiight it sufficient with her preponderant munbers 
and rapid increa.se in population to train about half of 
them. The excess, that is the young men tit for service 
but not actually incorporated, were given a certain amount 
of training, or at least most of them were. It was 
calculated that the training could be supplemented during 
the course of a war, and that this body would act as a sort 
iii reserve for feeding tlie wastage of the army should a 
campaign last so long as to begin to exhaust the active 
army itself. These men were summoned by classes from 
almost the beginning of the war. The man-p)ower of 
this body was exha\isted on or before the ist of P^ebruary, 
I()i5. After that date all the " Erzatz " reserve had 
been called up. 
This is in part ah explanation of the fact which has 
been pointed out more than once in these columns, that 
after February. 1915. no new German formations appeared 
There remained the men altogether untrained between 
20 and 35 ; the last of these had been called up bv the 
1st of April. 1015. Upon that date all the " normal 
methods " (as the phrase goes in conscript coimtries) of 
recruiting the tremendous wastage had been employed. 
The ycnmg classes '14 and 15 had been called up by that 
time — as we shall see in a moment, and these also, lads 
of 20 or little less, may be regarded as " normal " material. 
Everyone who had actually been trained as a soldier, 
everj'body who had been partially trained and kept in 
reserve ; everybody who had not been trained at 
all, but who was at least physically capable had been 
summoned, the untrained however, only up to and in- 
cluding the age of 35. 
Technically, military age extends to 45, but in the 
years between 35 and 40 (which are but a small proportion 
of any army) the great mass of men are better used upon 
comnnmications and subsidiary work than in the field — 
though this modification applies, of course, far less to a 
small professional army in constant training and with per- 
petual selecting and weeding out than it does to a con- 
script force : a point whi( h has been somewhat obscured 
therefore in the judgment of Englishmen hitherto best 
acquainted with professional armi<>s alone. The re- 
maining margin of wholly untrained men between 35 
and 40 had been all called up by the month of July, 1915. 
In exactly the first year of the war, therefore, not 
only had alj normal methods beim used, but every man 
who was even technically of military age and who had 
passed the doctor, was under arms. 
There remained now only the "abnormal" methods. 
The word " abnormal " is rather misleading, though it 
is current, as I have said, in all conscript countries. 
The word " exceptional " would be perhaps a more 
accurate one to use in English. Part of these methods 
are indeed abnormal, such as the use of men who 
are not really fit. the " inefhcients " and the use of 
very young lads. But other " abnormal " methods, 
such as the taking of a boy just before his 20th birth- 
day, or just after it — that is. a year sooner than the 
practice in time of peace, are not " abnormal " in the 
ordinary sense ; that is. they do not propose a strain 
upon human nature, or the serious lowering of military 
standards. At any rate., the " abnormil ' mrthods to 
which all conscript countries have been reduced by the 
severity of the war, and not Germany alone, includ? the 
calling up of the younger classes imtil you g.:t quite 
young lads of 18 and even include the using, wherever 
use can be found for them, of men physically inefficient ; 
the French call it " combing out of the cripples." 
It will be remembered that I suggested many months 
ago in L.\Nu cS: \\'.\Ti:K,and upon several occasions, that 
this necessity for abnormal recruitment — the exhausticm 
of the efficient reserves — might come as early as November 
1915, and could not be delayed later than the end of the 
year. The evidence now available amply confirms this 
judgment and shows that it was in its tentative form too 
" conservative." As a matter of fact, the "combing out 
of the cripples" (an exaggerated and slang phrase) began 
as early as October, 1915. Men who had failed to ])ass 
the doctor were required to present themselves for re- 
examination in that month and the process went on all 
through November. It was very sc\ere. 
Invalids Called for Service 
I have received through private correspondents ex- 
amples of its .severity. Men have been summoned for 
auxiliary duties who were really invalids : men so much 
invalids that they were regarded as invalids in .civilian 
life. Men who have lost some necessary limb or organ, 
an eye or a hand or even a leg, could be put to certain 
duties and were put to them. Every possible man was 
taken. For instance, in the duties of serving the heavy 
artillery behind the lines a maimed man can do a certain 
amount of work ; even a man with one arm can turn a 
hand-wheel and help to traverse a gun. and even a man 
with one leg can help to load a wagon with shell or drive a 
vehicle ; and it goes without saying that the very worst 
cases can be used in garrison work, the guard of neutral 
frontiers and prison camps, etc. At any rate, by the 
end of November, 1915, every possible inefficient who 
could do anything at all had been drafted into the service. 
As to the calling up of the yoUnger classes it was as 
follows : The active army, the army that invaded France 
and won at Tannenberg" included class '13, but not class 
'14. In other words, except for the vohmtccrs its 
youngest men were men of 21. I'or the year attached to . 
a class in a' conscript system signifies the year within 
which a young man attains his 20th birthday. The 
youngest men who marched (except the \-ohmt'eers) in 
July, 1914, for the destruction of iM-ance, were men who 
attained their 21st birthday at some time in the year 
1914. and as the armies did not move until the beginning 
of August, that is, until more than half the year was over, 
most of the youngest class incorporated in them (the class 
1913), were men who had already passed their 21st birth- 
day, while the rest were over 20'and approaching 21. 
Class 1914, that is, young men born in the course of 
the year 1894, a year younger than the youngest men 
already m.the army, were called up in November and 
December, 1914, after the first 3 or 4 months of war. 
1 he ( .erman system is to train these recruits for a com- 
paratively short time before they are fed into the lighting 
units. It is a system which the French copied, dis- 
covered to be a weakness, and rapidly abandoned ; sub- 
stituting for It a much longer period of training. On the 
other hand, while we mark its unwisdom, we must 
remember that the German Empire had little choice. 
In Its enormous wastage of men it had to use its new 
recFuits as soon as possible; while the French were 
supported by powerful Allies who had not used anything 
like their available man-power. 
^ '<f ^'fiV*" ^'^^^ ^'^^5 was not called up until the 
month of May, 1915. The process of callii^g them up 
lasted into June. At this point, the end of the first year 
counting classes 14 and '15, all " normal " methods vvere, 
as w.^ have seen, exhausted. But after this, after the first 
year of war the process of calling up the young msn be- 
!'.^nn»f -■'' a""'-^ [^''"^i '^'^^ ^^'^^^ ^^»^6 was actually sum- 
moned in August and was all present at the training 
rnn^^H^ Vf ?^ ^^Ptember. I have in these columns 
.K , T ^""^^:^' ^'> the average period of training 
mo h nn'['"^ "'' ''t' '" f^'<=™an.V as being about 4 
nnw^vnl? Kr'"""""'^"'^ °" '*' '^■"^^^tv. Thc experience 
imVli,^ ' f "'"r"- °^ ^'^^^ ^^^6 c«"'i'-ni'^ the 
con ecZ Ti 'T '''''" ^ ^"°*^ '* ^'ttlc more than a 
mu^ ir nn; .1.1 r f'.'""","'' ^' ^'^ '^^^^^ '''''^ ^^ Verdun, 
put It ntothe held in large numbers just four months 
hst' lie^'^h'^- H^^'l'^' ^^terwards, in^ DecembJi 9, 
-last Derember-the last class. 1917. was called u," 
