WILL HE RETURN FROM THE WAR?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 249, 20 November 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

WILL HE RETURN FROM THE WAR?

YOCR SOLDIEIt-BOY'S OUNCES

AHR JIKITEK TV-DA*

THAN I.NBK& OLD-TIME «»XUlllt»s. Snine time ago r* published a tabic showing that Uif proportion ol takse* 111 modern Uatlie, i.«iv. uUUnding Uio gieot UKIVUSU lu Ulu elhciellCV ol JOUlll. dealing Meapoa., «a« not nearly so grout us it Uatfj to l>i> in Limes goii*> by. mo calculations ol a French Uvuural, »uo i» a.[ pitwout at the iron., uuims nut liic ix»s>t, 01 killing a man lo bo between i'KM) mm £ouOa Lv«n m Na--Im>.wou s U'»> »t look a jon 01 leau 10 kill a hum.

lucsv fact* are rotnetliinf; to go in when uilcula.mg th„ chauo* o» Uuo *i-UkT-oov n return.

it, in not bo luucli now a question ol the mdiviuiial Mtiuw :. .4od«m uenare it not a tiy 01 man uuui vu hiu or i>o killed.

in the uay» ot Waterloo tho wJiole idv.i Ha* to fc« t lu. IIOoT Ua .\ou couid lo -ut. enemy ami nia-K in,. t>u>oii*t »•"»' • lull II } v Ur U.U-.UI-1 Uiu U.*o i*-u uuu ulivc.

tub Romans used to meet hajid-ty-uw slang uu-r uu* svw.eiiuaug -iruic. 111*. KrgloUH killed W idtUUHM «tcu outer »iiu uieiuort mum. «ney ■ui.v kuo,. t uui u uat.jo »..\ h mvu or io>t •ma oituw liHmmwn or ii.e hm ami no mure n»u lett on ineir leet. Jlt « nowauu knew uoiiiiuj; oi i.n.uuu.. or reHettwnß niie*. or maewno gum, „«■ MK-lis.nat burst and cm a d!Uv red ,'o.uk-r on .no lacx* oi t n« Joe, u'.llum leetasi, a bi.gn t ft ■HMH.n had «kwndcu upon tii!. Su >bey ox terminated uietr ewmiw, > n u •nor* thorough latihion than moderS JO. Ac the battle ot Nawnu Vlu itomans ,mt 100,000 Goths to JSaVoM tactically anji.hilating th 0 whole foS .o «ar there wo* some e tor giuv« •Bijffivinaa alx>ut his roturn 10-day the position is very different Ihe iniroduoiion ol «.e, K o into war- ';"'<'.. wb.lo , t has made modern iMJt- '"« in home ways more terrible *um over, has aotiwhy diniinialied the proportion of ktlled and wounded. Also uu. wound* made by ride ttre, a v Til ttvente, are nothing near aa dan«ero'ia ™<\ pauilu! aa those WRhteenth w-ntury rau «ket with Uieir notes m the quivering nVh. jSodei-n wrgery and hospital treatment reader uie proportion that recover tirnm .vounds very mnej, g, mtWi us „,j, aliorfening the time the «ounded are incapacitated. " During the »„ke of MarJboroueh'a oaaupaign the allied armies at the hatJe ot Ulenlieim coitsistwl o/ aboqt flftv Oiouaand each When the night fell the French and Bavonana left twelve thousand dead on th« field, b«ide<. Wur. ■eon thousand of their men prisoners; wjulo to* hn«h»h and Dutch counted thou Ices at melr<. thousand five hun--I'ied. fins moami the uppuJUng per. oentage of one man killed « wounded out ot every four engaged. At Jena the Prussian loss was twenty-on* thousand out of „„<• hunJred and five thousand, and the French nineteen thousand out of ninety thousand ; a pro]>ortion of one in fi'vo. At E\wu the Russians IoM tnetit T -fiv» Uiousand out of seventv-fhree thoii•stndj the Frewh thirty thoueand o ( n ol oighlT-five thousand. One in three' U A<pern. the so«>ne of Nap#de»'» fl,st i!cfrvit s Ui* earntiflt w«s creaMr. Out of an army of seventy ohohalf »ere left upon the field. At Borodino in the Moscow rvirrinnisn he trench left fifty thousand dead nml bounded out of one hundred and tlihtytwo tliotisands engaged, and the Russians ioiiy-fiv c thousand out of the same number. That IJootlv work «an done on a single September daf. with Uie old fiint-lo<-k munket, an<l smoothhore cannon, aided Ity Kiiliro and bay. onet.

rii o only battle i a the latter half of the nineteenth century that mn eomparo with Borodino in slaugh er is that >< Sadowu in ISM. which m<M the Austro-Prussian war. Out of tour ftuti. fired thousand men engaged, forty thousand Austrian* and ten thousand Prussian* were kilhd or wounded. Those are a few of tho campaign* of the nineteenth century. Coming to -»r own limea we hml the kxwca all tho uino getting l«>s and hiss. The propor. tion of losses in twentieth century hat. ilea varies from one-fourteenth to onetwentieth, u, no.ieenblo difference. It s no longer considered the duly of a soldier to stand up u, th„ giint and pet shot like a man. He i, taught U> take advantage of every !».'; of cover, and modem generals fed it a disgrace io lose large nuniU'is ol men (hily *»n encmv in « desperate uituntiort and anxious about time will expose men to devastating fiie. Tho Iru&inesa of » -•mart officer is to get Iris men into a iiosition whore they can th« enemy without undue risks t© the.nselves.

While millions of men are b«ing en;aged in the present war, and the total numbers, ot killed an<l wounded must necessarily lie large, military expert h nn.sidor that the proper:ion will nefiiiliv ho lower than e.ven that in tho ltoer war, though o n the Gorman side enormous lo>x'.s are being recorded on ac•ount of tho ilosperato efforts they are niuking to maintain their j>osition in France and avoid being driven over the ■order as long as possible.