FRENCH AND GERMAN LOSSES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4341, 17 February 1875, Page 3

FRENCH AND GERMAN LOSSES.

M. Chenu, Medical Inspector-General of the French Army, reports the losses sustained by the French in the war with Germany to have been as follows :—Killed, disappeared, or died of wounds and diseases, 138,871 ; wounded by the enemy’s fire, 148,000 ; men disabled by marching, 11,421; 11,914 missing arc treated as dead. These figures include 2881 officers killed or who died of wounds and disease and 90 missing, with 17,240 prisoners who died in Germany, 1701 in Switzerland, and 124 in Belgium. While 17,240 deaths, then, occurred in captivity, only 1220 soldiers were killed at Graveiotte, the bloodiest battle of the war. The German losses were ;—Killed or died of wounds and disease, 40,741 ; missing and treated as dead, 4000 ; wounded, 127,867. To these have to be added, 1795 killed, 6690 wounded, and 1539 missing in skirmishes, patrols, and slight engagements. The Germans bad 44,000 deaths, the French 138,871 ; the Germans 127,000 wounded, the French 143,000. The French had 11,421 men disabled by the plates de marelo— that is, through defective socks, hoots, and gaiters, while the Germans suffered but little from this .cause. M. Chenu shows that in the Crimea and Italy, as well as in the last war, disease was more fatal than the sword, this being partly attributable to commissariat, outfit, and hospital shortcomings. r' '