How Could The French And Germans Put Millions Of Men In The Field In 1914?

And why could the UK (and the US in 1917) not?

In this extra video, The Bloke has a bash at explaining the fundamental difference between the US and UK, on the one hand, and France and Germany on the other, when it came to organising their militaries in the pre-WW1 period.

Basically, the French and the Germans could put a gazillion men into the field in 1914, whereas the UK couldn't, and the US couldn't do it either in 1917. Why is that? What did they do differently?

The difference is illustrated with the case of Lazare, a French Zouave conscript, in the 4th Regiment of Zouaves.

Might be interesting with the increased interest in world war 1 with the release of Battlefield 1...

[magellanicraincloud]

Ended active duty in 1935. Wow. Gotta say, perfect time to get out!

[tangero]

I've actually never thought to look into this, but this was some incredible information. Thanks for sharing!

[guigui]

my grandmother i had stories about how they picked up men from their homes to send them to the front. i believe my grandmother lost her two great uncles like that.

[velikiradojica]

It's very strange to see this video, since I tried to look up mobilization numbers in the Great war yesterday.

Interestingly enough, Serbia managed to raise 10% of it's total population in 1914 and more than 16% of the population was drafted during the war.
Bulgaria went further, mobilizing 12% of their total population in 1915 and up to 25% of their total population during the war (although some 10% of the soldiers were from outside of their 1915 borders).

[theproject]

I'm dyslexic, at first sight I thought it said 'How could French and Saunders put millions of men in the field.' Only Brits will understand.

[SmartassX]

Most of Europe still relies heavily on that kind of reserves. In fact the entire eastern half of Europe still uses that exact system.

[TheLiam]

Nice French accent, man. No, I'm not being an ass; it's actually good.

[chiaroscuro]

Dan Carlin's 'Blueprint for Armageddon' is an awesome podcast intro to WWI. pretty sure it's free now. Sort of long but so good I didn't mind.

[Tuning]

Followed a few vids before, but after the 'War where declared' bit, I could not walk away without a subscription!

[Chlorate]

I suppose for the French there was no alternative really, either have the Germans march their vast army over the border...or raise your own vast army to stop them.
I wonder whether Lazar was forced to adopt such a jaunty pose due to the damage to his arse.

[johjoh]

i was always wondering about this. also the war were daclared thing is super likely a futurama reference lol i think..

[briangarrow]

Hell, the American army was chasing Pancho Villa just a few years before WW1, and couldn't catch him. We were nothing more than a regional power, nothing compared to the militaries of Europe. Before the entry into the war, the USA was, I think the 7th largest army in the world, in number of soldiers.

[FullSemiAuto]

hehe, I like the C&Rsenal mention. nice video bloke.

[memeseed]

This is my favourite channel you're amazing Bloke!

[owlypie]

Just came across your channel, very interesting and informative content. Well earned sub.

[Rokers]

I was always curious about this

thank you for clearing this up

[heyricksander]

Interesting video and spot on. The French and German Armies were set up to efficiently fight each other - a known enemy on a very specific known terrain. You may want to mention that the sizes of their armies were set because that was how many men could physically be moved and put onto the space they had for them at the front and they worked backwards from there.

Another fun thing to mention might be the logistics of moving them. It's said that the train schedules were so specifically worked out in case of mobilization that if you stopped the order, people would be bunched up like a 50 car traffic jam and when the German Kaiser hesitated during the mobilization that the guy in charge of moving the men by train killed himself - but that might be apocryphal.

[RichardAHolt]

In doing research on my grandfather's WW1 experience, I was amazed to find that America's military lacked the necessary military manpower, armaments, equipment and transport to fight any type of foreign war. On April 1, 1917, the strength of the ALL branches of the U.S. military totaled only 378, 619 men in uniform, which included 127, 588 soldiers in the U.S. Army along with another 164, 292 soldiers in the National Guard. He was drafted in the fall of 1918 into the 57th Pioneer Infantry, arriving at Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg SC on September 7th and departing on September 23rd, a total of only 16 days. My grandfather stated that when he was sent to the range for firearms training, he was given only 3 bullets to practice with. Since he was an experienced hunter, after hitting the target twice, they took away his third bullet. The Pioneer Infantry were given only a modicum of training as they were to be used for trench building and as replacements for other units. I assume they were to receive additional training after arriving in France. He arrived in France on October 7th, after having been transported on the U.S.S. Leviathan. During the voyage from Hoboken, NJ to Brest, France, he was aboard this ship when it endured the highest level of deaths on any transports during the war due to Spanish Flu.

Thanks for a great video.

[Seamy]

Fascinating stuff. I've been playing a lot of hearts of iron recently so I find anything vaguely world war (either of them) related super interesting.

[marvincooper]

Every German male, from the time of the Prussians, was subject to three years conscription and military training. They also had to train for at least 2 weeks every year. If call-up occurred then they were given their own seat number on the train that would take them to the front. They were organised to the extent that even the ordinary trains carried smaller gauge trains that had tracks that could be hand laid, in order to take ammunition to the front. Everything was moved by train. It is possible to discover from the train times when the German Army really prepared for war (contrary to current 'historical' propaganda). One regiment invaded Belgium a day early, apologised and went back over the border.