"Father, we must have a higher pile to see Verdun", by Dutch artist Louis Raemaekers, published on April 6, 1916.
"Father, we must have a higher pile to see Verdun", by Dutch artist Louis Raemaekers, published on April 6, 1916.
The following passage appeared in the British 'Wipers Times' magazine in February 1916 with the heading: "Proof That We Are Winning The War, by Belary Helloc".
It's a satirical reference to Hilaire Belloc, editor of the pro-war magazine 'Land and Water', which was notorious for its inflated estimates of enemy casualties and unbounded optimism:
"In this article I wish to show plainly that under existing conditions, everything points to a speedy disintegration of the enemy. We will take first of all the effect of war on the male population of Germany. Firstly, let us take as our figures, 12,000,000 as the total fighting population of Germany. Of these, 8,000,000 are killed or being killed, hence we have 4,000,000 remaining. Of these, 1,000,000 are non-combatants, being in the navy.
Of the 3,000,000 remaining, we can write off 2,500,000 as temperamentally unsuitable for fighting, owing to obesity and other ailments engendered by a gross mode of living. This leaves us 500,000 as the full strength. Of these, 497,250 are known to be suffering from incurable diseases. This leaves us 2,750. Of these, 2,150 are on the Eastern Front, and of the remaining 600, 584 are Generals and Staff.
Thus, we find that there are 16 men on the Western Front. This number, I maintain, is not enough to give them even a fair chance of resisting four more big pushes, and hence the collapse of the Western Campaign."

Comments
Post a Comment
We can do better!