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934 obtaining the necessary number. The total so employed was 484 officers and 7,777 other ranks, which was considerably short of requirements.

In Nov. 1918, the Volunteer Force consisted of: n companies of R.G.A.; ii engineer corps; i signal and transport column; 63 motor volunteer corps (R.A,S.C., M.T.) (V); 282 infantry battalions; i pioneer company, and 22 medical corps; with a total strength of 254,826 all ranks. In Oct. 1920 the War Office issued instructions for the disbandment of the Volunteer Force. These instructions excepted the R.A.S.C., M.T. (V), of which the strength was: 468 heavy sections of transport, 79 light sections of transport, 92 sections of transport for field ambu- lance, 3 sections of transport for motor air-line sections, and 7 sections of transport for signal companies. These units were required for special transport duties, and were not disbanded till March 311921, when they received the special thanks of the Army Council. As a mark of appreciation of the services rendered by the Volunteer Force, the Army Council decided to allow officers to retain honorary rank on retirement, and granted them the right to wear uniform on special occasions. (R. E. G.)

VORARLBERG (see 28.211). The pop. in 1910 was 145,408; in 1920 only 133,033 (132 persq. mile). In 1900, 88% of the area was productive, and of this 51-3% was grazing land, 29-4% forest, 15-3% meadow, 0-5% gardens, and 3-45% arable. Vineyards occupied less than 0-1%. The most important towns are Bregenz, the capital (pop. in 1920 12,102, the town itself 7,488); Dornbirn (13,764); Feldkirch (4,593); Bludenz (5,488). Riedcn, the suburb of Bregenz, is a manufacturing centre.

VOSGES, BATTLES IN THE, 1914-8. The Vosges mountains (see 28.214) rise sharply to the N. of Bclfort. From the groups of the Ballons, which reaches a height of more than 1,200 metres, the main ridge runs N. by the Drumont, the Grand Ventron (1,309), and the Hohneck (1,366). North of the Bonhomme pass (949) the ridge falls gradually to 558 metres at Saalcs, near the headwaters of the Bruche, one of the Alsatian tributaries of the Rhine. From the Saales gap the ridge rises to Mont Donon and Prancey, each over i ,000 metres high, and is prolonged through a series of vast forests as far as the Saverne valley. From the Ballon d'Alsace to the Donon, the Vosges form a mass of moun- tain with steep slopes, narrow deeply cut valleys and swiftly flowing torrents, a terrain always difficult and often impossible of passage away from the roads. The summit of the ridge generally takes the form of a swollen saddle, wooded in places but usually covered with the large grassy swards known as the Chaumes (Calvi Monies). These Chaumes are wind swept all the year round, very hot in summer and very cold in winter, and the snows which cover them completely from Oct. onward only disappear in early June. Both slopes of the ridge are clad with magnificent fir and pine forests, which end just below the crest in a thin ledge of bushes bending before the wind. The fall of these slopes is steeper on the Alsatian side than on the other; immediately below the crest a cliff of granite rocks or sandstone falls almost vertically, often in the southern part of the Vosges, for some 250 metres. From the foot of this wall begins a gentler slope extending all the way to the Rhine valley. On the Lorraine side, however, the mountains descend much less steeply in a series of ridges towards the Moselle and the Meurthe. The points of passage, formed by the roads crossing the ridge, acquire considerable importance owing to the absence of such crossings "elsewhere. These points 'of passage, moreover, are not numerous. In the group of the Ballons the pass of Bursang, with the smaller passes of Oderen and Bramont, lead from the Moselle valley to the Thann valley. At the foot of the Hohneck the pass of the Schlucht leads from Gerardmer to Munster and Colmar; to the N. the Bonhomme and Louchpach join the valleys of the Vologne and the Weiss. The pass of Ste. Marie unites Ste. Marie-aux- Mines and Schletstadt; the gap of Saales leads from Prorenchers to Schismeck; and, lastly, a road which passes over the summit of the Donon leads from Celles to Molsheim and Strasbourg. The only railways across the Vosges were the two main lines from Strasbourg to Nancy, by Saverne, and from Mulhouse to Belfort by Dannemarie, together with the narrow gauge railway from

Gerardmer to Munster. On the French side of the Vosges small branch lines ran up into the mountains to St. Die, Gerardmer, Cornimont and Bursang, and other branch lines on the Alsatian side ran from the Strasbourg-Mulhouse railway to the heads of all the Vosges valleys.

The frontier imposed on France in 1871 by the Treaty of ' Frankfort reached the crest of the Vosges, after cutting the gap of Belfort at the Ballon d'Alsace, and followed the watershed as far as the Donon; thence it changed direction from N. to N.W., and following a purely artificial line left all the upper Saar valley to Germany, cut the Scille at two points, and reached the Moselle 2,000 yd. below Pont-a-Mousson. From the military point of view this frontier left French Lorraine in a regular salient. General Sere de Rivieres, the far-sighted and skilful creator of the French defensive system, had therefore been compelled to go back to the Moselle to organize the barrier blocking the roads from the frontier. This barrier consisted of the two fortresses of Epinal and Belfort, connected by a line of forts along the upper Moselle. The importance of Belfort lay in the fact that it formed the right flank pivot of the whole defensive system, blocking as it did the gap between the Jura and the Vosges, and commanding the ground as far as the Swiss frontier. On their side the Germans had progressively strengthened the line of the Rhine by constructing the fortress Istein facing Mulhouse, improving the old strong-holds on Huningen and Neubrisach, and turning Strasbourg into a great entrenched camp, extending its action by means of the forts of Mutzig and Molsheim as far as the Bruche valley.