BULLETS AND BILLETS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2788, 21 January 1878, Page 2

BULLETS AND BILLETS.

At the present moment the subjoined : statistics relating to the war of 1870-71, compiled from the carefully-prepared retarns of the German General staff, may not be without interest. The total strength of the German land forces en* gaged in the campaign against Fraace amounted to 887,876 men. In killed, wounded, and missing they lost 127,867 men. The percentage of loss in etch rank is shown, by the following: General Losi.—Generals, 1128; staff officers, 26*96;. colonels, majors, captains, and riding-masters, 22*22; lieutenants, 20-33 1 surgeons and high- officials, 1*10; hob- - commissioned officers and prirates, 14*21. Killed.—Generals, 260; staff officers, 867; colonels, majors, captains, and riding-masters, 703 ; lieutenants, 7*30; surgeons and high officials,' 029j noncommissioned officers and prirates, 2*60. Wounded.—Generals, 872; staff officers, 18*22; colonels, majors, captains, and * riding masters, 15*17; lieutenants, 17*60; : surgeons and high officials, 127; non* v commissioned officers and prirates, 998. Misting.—Generals, none; staff officers, i ,0.07; colonels, majors, captains, and 'riding-masters, 002; lieutenants, 0*42; surgeons and high officials, o*64;^Mn« . . commissioned officers and pnraCet^f-63 These figures gire some results that are perhaps not generally known. Fusing by the surgeons, and " high officials," who cannot fairly be classed as fighting men/ we find that the next best thing to being a ' general—-so far as safety in action is eon* ' cerned—is to be a prirats, and that the brain of an army—the Staff—if the : experience of the German Army be t> . guide, suffers far moro than the regimen* tal officers or the rank and file. : Mora than a fourth of the German Staff engaged in the last war were " hit," and a large - proportion of them were killed, while of • erery ICO prirates and non-commissioned officers engaged in the campaign scarcely more than 14 were killed, wounded, and missing, and only about two and a half killed outright.—Swiss Times.