I am writing what should have been the last chapter of this book
as a foreword because I want to bring home to our people the
gravity of the situation; because I want to tell them that the
military and naval power of the German Empire is unbroken; that of
the twelve million men whom the Kaiser has called to the colours
but one million, five hundred thousand have been killed, five
hundred thousand permanently disabled, not more than five hundred
thousand are prisoners of war, and about five hundred thousand
constitute the number of wounded or those on the sick list of
each day, leaving at all times about nine million effectives
under arms.

I state these figures because Americans do not grasp either the
magnitude or the importance of this war. Perhaps the statement
that over five million prisoners of war are held in the various
countries will bring home to Americans the enormous mass of men
engaged.

There have been no great losses in the German navy, and any losses
of ships have been compensated for by the building of new ones.
The nine million men, and more, for at least four hundred thousand
come of military age in Germany every year, because of their
experience in two and a half years of war are better and more
efficient soldiers than at the time when they were called to
the colours. Their officers know far more of the science of this
war and the men themselves now have the skill and bearing of
veterans.

Nor should anyone believe that Germany will break under starvation