Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/946

 590 GERMAN EMrillE

By the law of August 3, 1893, to continue in force to March 31, 1899, the peace strength of the imperial army is 479,229 men, besides officers, surgeons, paymasters, &c.

No official returns of the war-strength of the German army are published ; but it is estimated that in the last extremity Germany on her present organi- sation would have a war-strength of over 3,000,000 trained men.

The mass of soldiers thus raised is divided into companies, battalions, regiments, and corps d'armee. The strength of an ordinary battalion in peace is 544 men, raised in war to 1,002 by calling in part of the reserves ; it is divided into four companies, each of which in war consists of 250 men. Exceptions to this general rule are the battalions of the guards and the regiments in garrison in the Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine, the strength of which on the peace footing is 686 men. During peace each regiment of in- fantry consists of three battalions, each brigade of two regiments ; each in- fantry division of two brigades, to which, under the command of the divisional general, four squadrons of cavalry, four batteries of artillery, each of six guns, and either a battalion of riflemen or a battalion of pioneers are attached. Each field-artillery regiment is divided into three detachments, each of two, three or four batteries. In all there are 494 field batteries, of which 47 are mounted. Each battery numbers, as a rule, in peace four, in war six, fully mounted guns. The corps d'armee is considered a unit which is independent in itself, and includes not only troops of all three arms, but a portion of all the stores and appliances which are required by a whole army. Each corps d'armee consists of two divisions of infantry, a cavalry division of four regi- ments, with tAvo horse -artillery batteries attached, besides the two cavalry I'egiments attached to the infantry divisions, and a reserve of artillery of six field batteries and one mounted battery. There is, moreover, attached to each corps d'armee one battalion of pioneers and one of train.

The corps d'armee, with the exception of the corps of the guards, are locally distributed through the Empire. There are (besides the Prussian corps of the guards) 19 army corps districts and one divisional district for the 25th (Grand Ducal Hessian) division, 12 of which are named after Prussian provinces, and the remaining seven after States of the Empire. They are : —

I, East Prussia; 2, Pomerania ; 3, Brandenburg; 4, Saxony; 5, Posen ; 6, Silesia ; 7, Westphalia ; 8, Rhineland ; 9, Schleswig-Holstein ; 10, Hanover ;

II, Hesse-Nassau; 12, Saxony; 13, Wiirttemberg ; 14, Baden; 15, Alsace; 16, Lorraine ; 17, AVest Prussia ; and the 1st and 2nd Royal Bavarian Army Corps. Two of these army corps were added in 1890 ; so that on the lines of the above-mentioned report the total war-forces would embrace 21 corps, the guards corps forming the twentieth, the Hessian division being strengthened to form the twenty-first.

III. Navy.

After the war of 1870-71 the German navy was re-organised, and a Flottengru7idungs2Jlan laid down. "By a cabinet order of March 30, 1889, the administration was wholly re-organised. Tlie chief command was separ- ated from the administration, and vested in a naval officer, while the administration was transferred to the Reich smarineamt, having at its head, under the chancellor, the naval secretary of state. The first of these officials deals generally with the movements of the fleet, and with questions relating