WAR- CHRONICLE

47
At the end of four months England has 1,100,000 men in training,
of whom many have not yet had a gun in their hands. She has
perhaps 250,000 men in the field. These, especially their officers
have given good account of themselves. The mortality of English
officers has been exceptionally high. Behind that lies a story that
would be unwise to go into now.
France has turned out to a man. It is not generally known
that at the outbreak of the war she possessed about 5,000,000 men
trained to arms, against Germany's 4,500,000. A Frenchman not in
uniform wears a brassard on his arm, to show that he is on special
duty, for it is a mark of shame not to be in service. .
I saw altogether probably 2,000,000 German soldiers. I saw
just four of them drunk, and one of these was an officer.
The Germans practise rotation in the firing trenches. Whenever
possible, troops in the trenches are relieved twice a day. Every
fourteen days the men and officers receive 48 hours "Ruhepause"
—rest periods. The officers and men, if they can afford it, go to
some town adjacent to the lines and there meet their families.
I saw the sanitation rules enforced so strictly that the trenches
are kept as clean as parlour floors. Communication trenches—i. e.,
open tunnels from the first line running back to protected reserved
points—are used in this connection.
Among military men of all sides it is generally agreed that
the most efficient single unit in operation is the Austrian motor
batteries. These are guns that are combined mortar-howitzers. They
are little larger than 12 inches in diameter, with tubes about 10 feet
long, and have great mobility through being mounted on motor trucks
that make their 10 miles an hour with ease.
These Austrian guns played a big part at the siege of Antwerp
and are now being used around Verdun.
The Germans are suffering a heavy disappointment in that
Verdun still stands against their assaults. On October 28, the Germans
expected two of the 42-cm. or so-called seventeen-inch, guns
to be emplaced, ready to pound Verdun to pieces within seven
days. Reports from that region show that there must have been a
slip-up in the programme, for Verdun still stands.
One of the big facts developed from the war seems to be the
lack of real value of the cavalry arm. This will be bitterly fought
by all cavalry men, but that it is the truth is privately admitted by
Germans, French and English.
English cavalry men in action on the French and Belgian
coastal regions are almost all dismounted and are being equipped
with bayonets, an unusual expedient for cavalry men. They are beingused
in the trenches, to all intents, as infantry would be employed.
Germany is making no secret of the fact that she has as big
a surprise in defensive warfare as she had in thé offensive operations
in her 42-cm. guns. While details are lacking, it is believed