Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/945

 DEFENCE

589

Ersatztruppen, a kind of reserve, where the period of service is twelve years. Men in the Ersatztruppen are liable to three periods of drill {of ten, six, and four weeks respectively) ; but as financial considerations allow of only a cer- tain number being so drilled, many receive no military training at all. At the end of twelve years the trained members of the Ersatz pass into the first ban of the Landsturm, the untrained into the second ban. By the Army Act, which came into force on October 1, 1893, the annual levies were increased by about 60,000 men, and the period of service under arms of the infantry was reduced from 3 to 2 years, that of the cavalry and horse artillery being 3 years as before.

One-year volunteers, of whom about 8,000 join annually, serve at their own charges, and are not reckoned in the legal peace strength. Non-commissioned officers are generally appointed from men desiring to make the army their profession.

All able-bodied men between the age of seventeen and forty-five, who are neither in the standing army nor the reserves, must belong to the Landsturm, which is only called out in the event of an invasion of Germany. The Land- sturm is divided into two classes or ' bans ; ' to the first ban belong those be- tween the ages of seventeen and thirty-nine ; to the second those between thirty-nine and forty-five.

The following table shows the strength and organisation of the imperial army on the peace footing in 1898-99 : —

Peace Footing.

Officers

Rank and File

Horses

Infantry, 215 regiments

12,024

362,940

Rifles, 19 battalions.

410

11,996

—

Bezirkskommandos, 288

817

5,499

—

Surgeons, Instructors, &c. . Total Infantry.

—

2,623

13,251

383,058

Cavalry, 93 regiments

2,385

65,853

64,601

,, special services (in-

cluding officers)

—

817

—

Field Artillery, 43 regiments

2,671

57,984

29,044

,, special ser-

vices (including officers).

—

810

—

Foot Artillery, 17 regiments

and 1 battalion

870

22,713

43

Foot Artillery special ser-

vices (including officers).

—

132

—

Pioneers, 23 battalions, 3

. railway regiments, 2 bal-

loon detachments, 1 rail-

way battalion, and 3 rail-

way companies

738

19,085

—

Special Pioneer services

—

127

—

Train, 21 battalions.

31Q

7,765

4,347

Special train services.

—

69

—

Special formations

509

3,571

—

Non-regimental officers, &c. Total.

2,442

283

—

23,176

562,277

98,038