The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources: American, British, French, German, and others . Germans weredeclining to give battle. With the reserves of the Ententevirtually intact and wdth the added weight Pershings troopsWOuld soon give, the turn in the tide of the battle seemedappreciably near at hand. Daily the German losses in menkilled or wounded continued to augment as details w^re ob-tained from prisoners. Some divisions, when they charged inmass formation against machine-gunners and riflemen, lostas high as 70 per cent, of their effecti
The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources: American, British, French, German, and others . Germans weredeclining to give battle. With the reserves of the Ententevirtually intact and wdth the added weight Pershings troopsWOuld soon give, the turn in the tide of the battle seemedappreciably near at hand. Daily the German losses in menkilled or wounded continued to augment as details w^re ob-tained from prisoners. Some divisions, when they charged inmass formation against machine-gunners and riflemen, lostas high as 70 per cent, of their effectives. Certain companieswithdrew from the fighting with their combative strengthreduced to forty men. On April 2 the Germans were stillbringing up guns and counting their dead. The frightfulprice paid for reoccupation of the Somme territory had be-come fully apparent, but fresh divisions were still waitingtheir turn. Figures selected at random gave an idea of the Germanw^astage. The losses of their Two Hundred and Eighth Di-vision since IMarch 21 had amounted to 70 per cent. (8,400men). The Twentieth Division had lost over 50 per cent. 40. THE RUINS OF ARRAS CATHEDRAL LUDENDORFFS COLOSSAL DRIVE IN THE WEST (more than 6,000 men). The loss had not only fallen uponmen in the ranks, but officers had been sacrificed. Fewofficers were left in the attacking regiments. The FiftiethReserve Division was annihilated (12,000 men). The Eighty-third Division lost 20 per cent, of its strength on the firstday and an additional 40 per cent, of the original totalstationed at Mezieres on March 19 (8,400 men). The aver-age company strength of the First Division was reduced 40per cent. (4,800). The Fifth Division lost 50 per cent, ofits strength at Ham, and more in crossing the Somme (morethan 6,000 men). Figures for nine divisions picked at ran-dom for illustrative purposes showed that out of a totaltheoretical infantry strength of 108,000 men, the Germans
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
