Regulars, Conscripts, Volunteers etc in the great European armies of 1914

[Bart150]

I’m happy to be corrected but the following is my understanding at the moment:
An analysis of the armies of Germany, Austria, France and Russia in 1914 gives these categories of soldier:
1 regular professional soldier who was serving at the moment war broke out
2 former professional soldier, who had retired and become a reserve, recalled when war broke out
3 civilian conscripted to serve for 1 or 2 years who was serving at the moment war broke out
4 civilian conscripted to serve for 1 or 2 years at some time in the past, returning for regular brief exercises, recalled when war broke out
5 civilian never conscripted in the past,who volunteered when war broke out

If that is valid as a rough model (subject no doubt to some exceptional cases, relatively small in number) then this question seems interesting: What were the proportions of these categories of soldier in the armies of Germany, Austria, France and Russia?
Was, eg, category 4 the largest? If so what percentage: 50%? Were the proportions very different in the four armies?

Can anyone suggest where information of this kind can be found?

Bart

[pugsville]

category 4 would be largest , approaching something like 80% of the initial forces. category 5 would be very small, in France almost non existent, almost everyone was conscripted. Germany less so, more from the countryside than cities (more politically reliable in Prussian eyes) for Germany The peacetime strength of the army in 1914 was 856,000 (the includes regulars & conscripts under training). On mobilization trained reserves would bring it up to 3,800,000. the german army called up around 300,000 men each year which served mostly for two years (cavalry and some others 3) so the peace time strength was around 600,000 conscripts and 250,000 regulars (slightly more conscripts than this rough break down) as regulars served a fair period category 2 might be relate small. maybe the same size as the serving regulars. so german army guesstimate stuff rough figures.(anyone correct this this is pretty rough)

cat 1 = 230,000
cat 2 = 230 000
cat 3 = 620 000
cat 4 = 3 000 000
cat 5 = ?




http://www.worldwar1.com/sfgarmy.htm
http://world-war-one.net/german-army/
http://www.greatwar.com/scripts/openExtra.asp?extra=10

[Bart150]

Thanks very much, Pugsville.
French army, anybody?

[pugsville]

the size of a french conscription class called up per year pre ww1 was around 220,000 (80,000 less than the Germans, even through they called up more of the available men in fact almost all, german pop 60million versus 40 million french)

"The short term effect of the Three-Years Law saw a boost in the number of active duty servicemen, with two new classes being called up simultaneously and those classes already in active service (the classes of 1911 and 1910) having their service extended a year. The average class size for the years of 1906-13 was 223,000. The average class size for the years of 1914-18 was 280,000 men"
http://www.151ril.com/content/history/french-army/11

the french has a standing army of 777,000 and 46,000 colonial troops, the math is harder as the french were moving to a three year service for conscripts rather than 2 in 1913/14. so very very rough guesses. not including colonial troops (47,000 at the start of the ar 475,000 colonial troops mobilised during the war)
but if three classes of conscript were training thats 600-660,000 troops 777,000 peace time strength means maybe 100-170,000 regulars.

at 1 = 150,000
cat 2 = 150 000
cat 3 = 620 000
cat 4 = 3 200 000
cat 5 = ?

[pugsville]

a few elite units were maintained a full strength, nots units had cadre of full time regulars and conscripts under gong training. but even counting these were well down on war time strength. the french had 'covering' force to defend the frontier while the reserves mobilise which had a bigger cadre. the german integrated reserve formations (those without cadres) so while the French army was 4 million upon mobilisation (compared the german 3.8 million) the french reserve formations were forming up undergoing some training while the germans had more troops as they pushed their fully reserve formations to front.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a little complement................................

French Colonial troops in WWI.

During the World War 1914-1918, France employed colonial forces in the approximate numbers.

French West Africa 150,000 (170.000)
Madagascar 40,000 (46.000)
French West Indies 36,000
Indo-China 40,000 (49.000)
Somaliland 3,000

The figures in brackets belongs to the second source .............................

Algerians 170,000
Tunisians 60,000
Moroccans 37,000

Sources: Catalog of Selected Articles. RML Vol XX Nº 77
http://www.historicalfirearms.info/post ... -world-war
http://howafrica.com/legacy-world-war-africa/

Does anyone has on hand the figures for the Germans and British colonies? Cheers. Raúl M .