_The first chapter of the seventh installment, headed "The German
Effort," opens with a statement as to the German forces at the beginning
of the campaign. The writer says:_

The military effort of Germany at the outset of the campaign exceeded
all anticipations. Her design was to crush the French Army in a few
weeks under a tremendous mass of troops. Nothing was neglected to bring
that mass together.

The number of German army corps in time of peace is twenty-five. When
war began the German General Staff put in the field on the two theatres
of operations: 1, as fighting troops, (active, reserve, Ersatz or
Landwehr,) sixty-one army corps; 2, as troops to guard communications
and territory, formations of the Landsturm.

In October six and a half new army corps made their appearance, plus a
division of sailors--in all seven corps. From the end of November to the
end of December there was only an insignificant increase, consisting of
the division of sailors. In January, 1915, the number of fighting
formations put into line by the German Army was therefore sixty-nine
army corps, divided as follows:

Active corps, twenty-five and a half; reserve corps, twenty-one and a
half; Ersatz brigades, six and a half; reserve corps of new formation,
seven and a half, and corps of Landwehr, eight and a half.


GERMANY'S GREAT INITIAL EFFORT.