The machine gun 08 had already been introduced in the infantry and the cavalry but – despite its employment in manoeuvres and on colonial expeditions – remained a novel weapon. In range, calibre, and ease of use it was equivalent to its French and British counterparts. The Gewehr 98 Mauser rifle was the standard issue for the infantry.

In addition, important military responsibilities were held by the chief of the admiralty (naval operations), the Prussian minister of war (mobilization of human and material resources), and the heads of army and navy officer personnel ( Heereskabinett and Marinekabinett).Ĭompared to other belligerents, Germany’s standard of material armament was high. The nominal supreme commander in times of war was the German emperor, who had de facto delegated this task to the chief of the Prussian general staff (in wartime redesignated the Oberste Heeresleitung OHL, Supreme Army Command). The German constitution led to a rather complex structure of the military high command. In its African colonies, Germany also had 5,600 men in the Schutztruppe and police forces and 7,800 indigenous forces. The navy mustered 161,500 men and had commissioned fifteen Dreadnought battleships, twenty-two pre-Dreadnought battleships, four battle cruisers, nine armoured cruisers, forty-one protected cruisers, 149 destroyers, and twenty-eight submarines.

When the First World War broke out, Germany fielded about 3,822,450 men – the second largest army in the world, outnumbered only by the Russian army.

German words in english wwi