by H M Hozier
Between the reorganisation of 1859 and the war of 1866, the number of depôt troops kept up during a war was quite doubled; formerly every two infantry regiments had one depôt battalion, and every two cavalry regiments one depôt squadron. When the army was reorganised, it was foreseen that this amount of depôt troops would never be sufficient in case of a war of any duration or severity, so by the new regulations each infantry regiment had one depôt battalion of 18 officers and 1,002 men; each rifle battalion, a depôt company of 4 officers and 201 men; each cavalry regiment, a depôt squadron of 5 officers, 200 men, and 212 horses; each field artillery regiment (96 guns), a depôt division of one horse artillery battery, and three field batteries, each of four guns, with 14 officers, 556 men, and 189 horses; every engineer battalion, one depôt company of 4 officers and 202 men; every train battalion, a depôt division of two companies, which muster together 12 officers, 502 men, and 213 horses.
All this was required to feed the army in the field with supplies of men to take the places of those who pass from the regimental muster roll into the lists of killed, died in hospital, or disabled; for those who are only slightly wounded return to their duty either in the depôt or at once to their battalions, as is most convenient from the situation of the hospital in which they have been.
As a rule, four weeks after the field army has marched, the first supply of men is forwarded from the depôts to the battalions in the field. This first supply consists of one-eighth of the calculated yearly loss which has been given above. On the first day of every succeeding month a fresh supply is forwarded. Each of these later supplies is one-twelfth of the total calculated yearly loss. If a very bloody battle is fought, special supplies are sent at once to make up the losses of the troops that have been engaged.
The troops in depôt are provided with all articles of equipment with which they should take the field. When a detachment is to be sent to the front, all who belong to one corps d’armée are assembled together; the infantry soldiers are formed into companies of 200 men each for the march, the cavalry into squadrons of about 100 horsemen, and are taken under the charge of officers to the field army, thus bringing to the front with them the necessary reserves of horses. The places in the depôts of those who have marched away are filled up by recruiting.
An army, though of great strength and well provided with supplies of men, cannot always be sure of taking the initiative, and by an offensive campaign driving the war into an enemy’s country. There is no doubt that an offensive campaign is much better for a country and much more likely to achieve success than a defensive one: it was much better for the Prussians in 1866 to cover Berlin in Bohemia than in Brandenburg, in 1870 in Alsatia than in Rhineland; General Benedek would have preferred to cover Vienna indirectly by an attack on Prussian Silesia rather than in a defensive position at Königgrätz; Napoleon justly saw that the proper point to defend Paris in 1815 was not on the Marne, but in Belgium.
But political reasons or want of preparation often force an army to be unable to assume the offensive, and with the loss of the initiative make a present to the enemy of the first great advantage in the war. In this case the theatre of war is carried into its own territory, when an army requires fortresses to protect its arsenals, dockyards, and its capital, to cover important strategical points, or to afford a place where, in case of defeat or disaster, it may be reorganised under the shelter of fortifications and heavy artillery. It was well seen in the war of 1866 that small fortresses do not delay the progress in the field of a large invading army, which can afford to spare detachments to prevent their garrisons from making sallies. Josephstadt and Königgrätz did not delay the Prussian armies for a day, though they are both strong places, and would possibly have stood a long siege; but they were both masked by detachments, the loss of which from the line of battle was hardly felt by the main body, and, though no trenches were opened and no guns mounted against them, the great line of the Prussian communications passed in safety within a few miles of their paralysed garrisons. (In the same manner, in 1870, even Strasburg, Phalsburg, Bitche, Toul, and Belfort did not, although besieged, delay the progress of the invaders).
It was also demonstrated by that war that fortifications which enclose a town of any size are comparatively useless, unless the defensive works are so far in front of the houses as to preclude the possibility of the bombardment of the city. Towns are now so rich, both in population and wealth, that few governments would dare to expose their subjects to the loss of property and risk to life which a bombardment must entail Prague, though surrounded by ramparts, struck the Austrian colours without firing a shot, because the Prussian guns would at the same time have played upon the defenders of the parapets, the unprotected citizens, and the rich storehouses of its merchants.
The Spielberg at Brünn, if it stood alone, might make a strong resistance to the passage of an invader, but the white flag of truce waving from its flagstaff, instead of the war standard of Austria, greeted the Prussian vanguard, because the emperor could not have borne to hear that its spires, its palaces, and large manufactories had crumbled to the ground under Mecklenburg’s artillery. But it would be rash to jump to the conclusion that fortresses, and even fortified towns, are no longer of use in war. Fortresses are useful as supports to the flanks of an army: if Benedek had lain along the river from Josephstadt to Königgrätz, the junction of the two Prussian princes would have been long delayed, perhaps prevented. The guns of Königgrätz materially checked the pursuit of the Austrian legions defeated at Sadowa. What Olmütz did to save the army of the north from a total disorganisation, and to allow General Benedek, under its cover, to make his preparations for the masterly move by which he carried it to Vienna, is well known.
Whenever a capital is distinctly the objective point of an invader, as would be the case if an enemy’s army were ever to be allowed to land on the shores of our own England, strong works round the city, but so far in advance of the houses as would prevent their being reached by the besieger’s shells, become a necessity, between and behind which the defenders army, if worsted in a battle, might be restored, and wait until the attacking troops had shattered themselves against the entrenchments. And though the earthworks at Floridsdorf had little to do with the sudden cessation of hostilities, there can be no doubt that if Vienna had been properly fortified on every side Austria might, with a very fair chance, have struck another blow before she suffered herself to be excluded from the confederation of the German people. (The fortifications of Paris allowed time In 1870-71 for three separate attempts to raise the siege of the capital).
As long as fortresses exist they require garrisons, but the troops which are formed in Prussia on the breaking out of a war are not intended, in case of an offensive campaign, only to hang listlessly over the parapets of fortified places. When an army pushes forward into a foreign country, it leaves behind it long lines of road or railway over which pass the supplies of food, clothing, medicines, and stores, which are vitally important to the existence of an army. With an unfriendly population, and an enemy’s cavalry ready always to seize an opportunity of breaking in upon these lines of communication, of charging down upon convoys, and destroying or burning their contents, and of thus deranging seriously what might be called the household economy of the army, it is necessary, especially on lines of railway, that strong garrisons should be maintained at particular points, and that patrols should be furnished for nearly the whole line.
Towns have to be occupied in rear of the front line, depôts of stores have to be guarded and protected, convoys have to be escorted, telegraph lines watched, the fortifications which may fall garrisoned. To detach troops for the performance of all these duties dribbles away the strength of an army: if the Prussian armies which crossed the frontier into Bohemia and Moravia had been obliged to make all these detachments, how many fighting men would have mustered on the Marchfeld? Very few. If these armies had waited till troops were formed at home after the course of the campaign had been
seen, how long would it have required to march to the Rossbach? Probably the advanced guard would have still been upon the Elbe when it was actually on the Danube. To provide for these duties, and to allow the main armies to push forward in almost unimpaired strength, Prussia forms on the mobilisation of the field army her so-called garrison troops. (These were even more necessary in France, where the bitterly hostile feeling of the inhabitants and the Franc-Tireur organisation required constant watching).
In the formation of these garrison troops, there is a drawback from the general excellence of the Prussian military organisation, which arises from the Landwehr system. The men of the first levy of the Landwehr form, when alone called out, as many battalions as do the united levies when nearly the whole of the second levy is also called out In both cases there are 116 battalions, which consist each of 402 men of the first levy, and are only filled up to their full strength of 1,000 men by men of the second levy. On account of this arrangement, if only the men of the first levy are required, a large number of weak battalions are formed, which are more expensive and more difficult to handle than would be a smaller number of full battalions.
It would appear much simpler to have a certain number of battalions composed entirely of men of the first levy, and the rest entirely of men of the second levy; but in Prussia this simplicity cannot be obtained because it is considered advisable to have a Landwehr battalion for every recruiting district, and only to enrol the men of the district in their own battalion. If, however, treble the population which inhabits one of the present recruiting districts were included in one district, it would be quite easy to have three battalions of Landwehr for each district, one completely composed of men of the first levy, the second of the first men. of the second, and the third of the later men of the second levy, who now complete the battalions up to their full strength. (This has to a certain extent been improved since 1866).
In some respects, which are easily seen, the Prussian Landwehr resembles the British Militia, but there are two vital differences between our organisation and that of Prussia. The first is, that in England when a militia regiment is formed it is made up of men who are not old soldiers, and consequently, if the regiment is for some years disembodied, all its late recruits know nothing of their work except what they can pick up in the short period of annual training; so that in course of time, if a regiment remains for many years without being embodied, the mass of the ranks contain men who from want of training are unqualified to step on the very outbreak of a war into the line of battle. In the second place, the Landwehr of the first levy is as much an attendant and concomitant of an army in the field as the park of reserve artillery, and it is this which makes the Landwehr so valuable, because it thus takes up the duties which otherwise would have to be performed by detachments from the active army.
If the Prussian armies in the Austrian campaign had been obliged to leave detachments in Leipsic, Dresden, Prague, Pardubitz, and along the railway from Görlitz to Brünn, besides troops in Hanover, Hesse, and on the lines of communications of the armies which were fighting against the Bavarians, how many troops would have formed the first lines of battle either on the Danube, or in the theatre of war near the Main? It is probable that the number of Landwehr men employed on foreign soil, in Saxony, and in guarding and garrisoning the rear of the armies which were concentrated between the Thaya and the Danube, would be underestimated at 103,000, exclusive of the corps of the regular army which was watching Olmütz. If this estimate be at all correct, the armies which were collecting, together 225,000 regular troops, for the attack upon Vienna, would, unless they had had these Landwehr behind them, have been reduced to under 125,000 men. In fact, an English army under the same circumstances would have been shorn of almost half its strength.
When a Prussian Army with its unimpaired strength is preparing to fight a battle in an enemy’s country, when supplies of men are already coming up in anticipation of the losses which the action will cause, and when its lines of communication are guarded and secured by the garrison troops in its rear, it musters an enormous number of soldiers, who must every day be provided with food, without which a man can neither fight, march, nor live; and not only must it provide for itself alone, but also for the prisoners of the enemy who may fall into its hands,—not only food, but hospitals, medicines, and attendants for the sick, surgeries, assistants, and appliances for the wounded, and the means of conveying both sick and wounded from the places where they fell helpless to convenient spots where they may be tended and healed at a safe distance from the danger of battle, or of being taken in case of a sudden advance of the enemy.
It is extremely difficult from mere figures to realise what a gigantic undertaking it was to supply even food alone to the armies which fought in the Austrian campaign—more difficult still to appreciate the difficulties in the late campaign in France. The difficulties of such a task may be conceived if we remember that the front line of the Prussian armies in front of Vienna mustered nine times the number of British troops with which Lord Raglan invaded the Crimea; that close behind this line lay General Mülbe’s reserve corps, and a corps of the Army of Silesia, which was watching Olmütz, and that these two corps alone were stronger by 4,000 men than all the British, German, and Spanish troops that fought at Talavera; that behind them again was a large mass of Landwehr; that during the siege of Sebastopol the British army was stationary, and had the great advantage of sea transport to within a few miles of its camps, while in the late campaigns the Prussian Army had been moving forward at an enormously rapid rate, and that the men to be fed in the front line alone numbered about 250,000 in Austria, (in France, towards the end of the siege of Paris, over 500,000)—a population as large as that of the twelfth part of London.
It would be a bold man who would undertake to supply the twelfth part of the whole population of London with tomorrow’s food—a bolder still who would undertake the task if this portion of the population were about to move bodily tomorrow morning down to Richmond, and would require to have the meat for their dinner delivered to them the moment they arrived there, and who, without railway transport, agreed to keep the same crowd daily provided with food until moving at the same rate they arrived at Plymouth; and yet a general has to do much more than this in giving food to his men,—he has, besides the ordinary difficulties of such a task, to calculate upon bad roads, weary horses, breaking waggons, the attacks of an enemy’s cavalry; he has not only to get the food to the troops, but in many cases he has to provide it in the first place; he has to keep his magazines constantly stocked, to increase the amount of transport in exact proportion as his troops advance; to feed not only the fighting men, but all the men who are employed in carrying provisions to the combatants, to find hay and corn for all the horses of the cavalry and for the horses of the transport waggons, and to arrange beforehand so that every man and horse shall halt for the night in dose proximity to a large supply of good water.
This is not the lightest nor the least of a general’s duties. It was the proud boast of England’s great soldier that “many could lead troops, he could feed them.” When the enemy is in front, and any moment may bring on an action, a general has little time to turn his mind to the organisation of a system of supply. Then he must sift intelligence, weigh information, divine his adversary’s intentions almost before they are formed, prepare a parry for every blow, and speed a thrust into any opening joint of his antagonist’s harness. The means of supplying troops ought to be given ready into the hands of a general; they should be all arranged and organised beforehand, so that he has but to see that they are properly administered and made use of.
The transport which follows a Prussian army in the field, exclusive of the waggons of each battalion, the artillery and engineer trains, and the field telegraph divisions, is divided under two heads, both of which are under the control of the Intendantur. The first but smaller portion is kept for the use of the commissariat branch, and is usually retained solely for the supply of food
to men. The second portion carries the medicines and hospital necessaries for the sick and wounded, together with the means of carrying disabled men, food for horses, stores to supply magazines, and all matériel except munitions of war and regimental equipment.
The first portion for use of the commissariat branch consists in the first place of a certain amount of waggons, which are in time of peace always kept ready in case of war, and immediately on the mobilisation of the army are provided with horses and drivers from the military train, who are entirely under the control of the intendant-general. Each army has an army intendant; each corps has with its headquarters an army intendant, and an intendantur officer is attached to each division. These officers, with their subalterns and assistants, form the first links of the chain by which a general draws food to his troops. The provision columns of each corps d’armée which are always retained in peace ready to be mobilised, consist of five provision columns, each of which has 2 officers, 98 men, 161 horses, and 32 waggons. If the corps d’armée is broken up into divisions, a certain portion of these columns accompanies each infantry division, the cavalry division, and the reserve artillery.
The 160 waggons which form these columns carry three days’ provisions for every man in the corps d’armée; as soon as the waggons which carry the first day’s supply are emptied, they are sent off to the magazines in rear, replenished, and must be up again with the troops to supply the fourth day’s food, for in the two days’ interval the other waggons will have been emptied. As it is easier to carry flour than bread in these waggons, each corps d’armée is accompanied by a field bakery, which consists of 1 officer and 118 men, 27 horses, and 5 waggons, which are distributed among the troops as may be most convenient; and as the horses of both the provision columns and field bakeries have very hard work, a depôt of 86 horses, with 48 spare drivers, accompanies each corps d’armée.