St. Louis Post-Dispatch
October 22, 1916

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"vou. 69. ’NO. 64. PAGES 1—14 “GROSS WAR CASUALTIES — “t-te ofm—-fe FOR FIRST 26 MONTHS - , “f——fe- ARE “PUT AT 18,500, 000 | (Bimonds, Figuring Allies’ Pecunnaielt Loss at Sixth of | Man Power and Teutons’ at Third, Believes War of Exhaustion Would Last Two More Years. By FRANK H. SIMONDS. : ight 1916.) ANY times in recent months l have been asked to give in this Sunday article an estimate of the total losses of the various nations at war. Such an estimate necessarily must be based _ @@ & very large number of different and even contradictory assertions Se a a i > & A 9 Bat . "We have one in- | teresting piece of peggy supplied > ie tim yfearch made in a a neutral countries s 4 - Wke Holland and Me | -} hever denied, so 7 “ment since the (| ‘war began. | ialesing and cap- - tured and the bal- ‘mained > an lines. We can say witbdut de-\great Powers at war is, therefore, \ &p to 3,550,000, of '. Which some 860,- made by the various press agencies of the nations at war. be the result of calculations, many of them too intricate to explain in I am, therefore, going to present my eatizate as representing the best guess that I can make from the information I have been able to bold of, to support such portions of the statements I make as I can by evidence, and let the rest stand, with the express understand- os that it represents a personal conclusion. At the outset challenged by French and Brit- ish ~ commenta- tors. But accepting the figure we have set. forth, namely 4,000,000 for the Germans and similarly the 2,500,000 for the French, we are able to make some sort of statement for all the combatants. These estimates I am now going to put forth in tabu- lar form and then discuss. Casualty list of the six great Powers: France ,.2,500,000 Russia ..5,750,000 Great by the compila- tion made by ' British officials of the German offi- clal lists, compi- lations confirmed similar re- ark, and far as I know, by the German Gov- ernment. It rep- resents the addi- tion of the vari- ous casualty lists that have been posted by the German Govern- The last list of & oo. *F ii Which I know § : . ts Italy ... brought the total $50,000 Total. .10,000,000 Central Powers: Germany 4,000,000 Austria .4,000,000 000 = stood ==‘ for deaths, 450,000 for Total.. 8,000,000 My estimate for the gross casual- ties of the six @mce for the Wounded, who re- in Ger- SIMMONDS. FRANK H. Date that the men killed, captured ) 18,000,000, and I believe that the loss ee and missing are permanently lost to (of the allies is probably not less than >+, Germany. But in addition, some frac- } 2,000,000.in excess of that of the cen- oe 4 a tion of the men . ‘wounded will be unable to return to who have been /tral Powers. To this total must be added the I am told ©y a friend } losses of the smaller nations at war— e firing line. returned from Germany that in ( Rumania, Belgium and Servia on the | ‘Berlin this figure is set down at 10 \allied side, Turkey and Bulgaria on 3 _ siven moment wil! not be fit for duty “Now it is generally agreed mon iy f os es é < Dns ) Austrians occuppy Valley A,. which opens northward: the Italians occupy ] Valley B, which opens southward. The fight is for the crest between A and B. The side that wins that crest gaing the power of looking down into, firing into, and outflanking the posi- tions in the enemy valley. In most cases it is the Italians now-who are ‘pressing, and if the reader will ex- amine a map of the front and com- pare it with the official reports he will soon realize that alniost every- where the Italians are up to the head of the southward valleys, and work- ing over the crest so as to press down upon the Austrian valleys. But in the Trentino the Austrians are still well over the crest to the south- ward slopes. When I was in Italy they still held Rovereto. All Roadways Vulnerable. Now, it cannot be said that under modern conditions mountains favor either the offensive or the defensive. But they certainly make operations far more deliberate than upon & level. An engineered road or rail- way in an Alpine valley is the most vulnerable of things; its curves and viaducts may be .practicaly demol- ished by shell fire or swept by shrap- nel, although you hold the entire valley except for one vantage point. All the mountains round about a yval- ley must be won before that valley is safe for the transport of an ad- vance. But on the other hand a sur- prise capture of some single moun- tain crest and the hoisting of one gun into position there may block the retreat of guns and materials from a great series of positions. Mountain. surfaces are extraordi- narily various and subtle. You may understand Picardy upon a map, but mountain warfare is three-dimensign- al. A struggle may go on for weeks or months igting of apparently separate and incidental skirmishes, and suddenly a whole valley organi- the Trentino day by day, and par- ticularly around by her right At no time shall I be surprised to a " ~ : ‘ee te Gs ‘ PF Bier. “Hake % . weg ee tee fae Bidbenee TN? ts ‘ss SA, 2: te tel i et sakes mee Th Sania oe Seen By H. G, Wells, Famous Novelist and aione mas any other front. From the Isonzo to the Swiss frontier wé are dealing with high mountains, cut by deep valleys, between which = there are usually no practicable literal communications. . Bach sdvancs must have the nature of an unsupported shove along a narrow channek— until the whole mountain system that is won and the attack can begin . Pe A WELLS on tracks of loose metal n ah too broad for the operation, or it floats for a moment over the dissy edge while a train of mule transport blunders. by.. The unruly imagina- tion of man’s heart (which is “only evil continually”) speculates upon what would be the consequences of one good bump from the wheel of « mule cart. Down below, the trees vertical life to understand the secs feelings of the visitor from the he zontal. Gen. Bompian{, whose writ ings are well known to all Engtish students of military matters, showed me the Gibraltar he fs making of a great mountain system. : “Let me show you,” he said, and flung himself on to the edge of the precipice into exactly the position ef a lady riding sidesaddie. “You find it more comfortable te e down.” ite But anxious as I am abree@ net to discredit my country by unseem ly exhibitions, I tate unequal Go a gymnastics without a proper onal