gainst the dangers of military unpreparedness,
which has been so vainly sounded since the birth of our nation by
every American, great or small, who has known or seen anything of
actual war conditions.

Is it idle to hope that the warnings to be deduced from the current
histories of other nations will be heeded by a nation which has ever
disregarded the lessons of its own history?

APPENDIX

MISCELLANEOUS MILITARY OBSERVATIONS MADE BY THE AUTHOR DURING THE
SEVEN MONTHS RECORDED IN THIS BOOK

The best maps with which to follow and study the war in France,
Flanders, and Belgium are those of the French Automobile Club, called
"Cartes Routieres pour Automobiles," published by A. Taride, 18
Boulevard Saint-Denis, Paris. The war has been largely fought and
directed by the use of these maps, which are on the scale prescribed
by the French General Staff--about three and one-half miles to the
inch. They show every road and lane, every town and village in France.
The war areas are contained in numbers 1, ibis, 2, 3, 6, and 7. Those
most referred to in this book are 3 and 7.

CASUALTIES

The total losses of the various belligerents in killed, wounded, and
captured for the first six months of the war, from August 1st to
February 1st, are as follows:

British 140,000
French 1,450,000
Russians 2,050,000
Austro-Hungarians 950,000
Germans 1,500,000

* * * * *

The approximate ratio of deaths to total casualties is as follows:

German, 2 deaths to 9 casualties.
French, 2 deaths to 7 casualties.

(The large proportion of French deaths was due:

First, to the fact that in the early part of the war most actions were
German victories, and the Germans could not care for French wounded as
well as they did for their own;

Secondly to lack of sanitary skill on the part of the French in taking
care of their wounded.)

Austrian, 2 deaths to 7 casualties.
British, 2 deaths to 11 casualties.

(The low rate of mortality among the British is due to the great
number of motor ambulances which they possess, to the smallness of
their army, to the efficiency with which they care for their wounded,
and to the short distance which separates their forces from their home
country.)

* * * * *

The numbers of prisoners held on February 1st:

IN GERMANY: British