Military reserve

“ On that reserve a nation interested in its military security, and aware of the means necessary to secure it, will be able to draw to whatever extent is necessary. How the Empire can be defended without that reserve against nations that possess it is a question that we are bound to ask ourselves, and to which there can only be one answer. ”

“ The proposal of the General Staff of the army has been that the men should enlist for two years and then spend five years in the reserve. The five years in the reserve is impossible in this country, because we have no compulsory military service and because it is intended by the authors of the plan not to pay the reserve men. ”

“ Construction Reserve and Homecroft Reserve System, and maintains without ultimate cost to the government a system that insures to the United States greater military strength than that of any other nation, the economic currents and manifest benefits to the people created by that condition will force all other nations to abandon their systems of enormously expensive standing armies and armaments. ”

“ Among the numerous measures carried out by the late Lord Cardwell during the period of his administration of the War Department, none has exercised a wider or more beneficial influence than the introduction of short service and reserve for the non-commissioned officers and men of the army. Indeed, when we consider the results achieved, it seems rather surprising that such a change had not been made long ago, not only in the interests of the men, but also in the reserve of strength which it gives to the country in the event of war. ”

“ The survey under the act of 1850 is known as the 'Whelply Survey.' As the map of survey indicates, the limits of the military reserve shown by the survey embraced simply the land required for the then use and occupation of the fort, and not the land reserved in 1847 by the orders of the president. The military reserve noted on the Whelpley map lay outside of, and to the east of, the Indian reserve. Pending the settlement of the claims of settlers on the lands at Sault Ste. ”

“ To appoint one over the heads of others would bring friction. We know war. Supply is a part of war. And we shall keep matters in our own hands——" and promotions, too, as the reserves might whisper.
A point which the regulars dwelt upon even more emphatically was that the reserve officers did not know discipline and army forms. Some of these reservists had directed thousands of men in organizations [387] at home, without knowing how to drill a company. In their experience, building railroad yards and warehouses did not require military etiquette. ”

“ Greece has summoned all her army reserves, and ordered them to rejoin their regiments. All the men are answering willingly to the call.
The army reserve is that part of the military force of a country which is not made a portion of the regular standing army. For instance, our States Militia, or National Guard, is an army reserve. The men belonging to it can follow other professions, and need not be soldiers all the time; but they learn how to be soldiers, and can be called on by the government whenever soldiers are needed. ”

“ The impracticability of that plan has been clearly shown by Representative James Hay, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives, in a recent magazine article in which he says:
"Military authorities, backed by the opinions of many persons high in civil life, insist that we should be provided with an adequate reserve of men, so that we may in any time of trouble have men who will be prepared to enter the army fully trained for war. ”

“ I am clearly of the opinion that this Reserve cannot be sustained without a strong military force, and that it would be much better to require those wild fellows either to settle on the Reserve or quit the country, at present they appear to make it a place of convenience, to rest, feed and recruit themselves, on their return from a stealing expedition, and to procure provisions and a suitable outfit, the better to enable them to prosecute their fiendish designs. ”

“ An Army of reserve may not improperly be called a general depot for effective service. In cases of emergency the whole or detached parts of an army of reserve are generally employed to recover a lost day or to secure a victory. ”

“ All the nations mentioned in paragraph 6 above have made provisions for supplementing their regular army units by other units made up in whole or in part from reserve troops. The reserves are composed both of men who have completed the regular period of enlistment and have been granted long-term leave, and also of men who have never served regularly with the colors but have received limited periods of military or semi-military training yearly. ”

“ He proposed that, instead of the revival of the militia, a bill for which was before the house, a reserve force should be established by compelling all soldiers who left the service at the end of ten years, under the act of 1847, without re-engaging, to serve five years after discharge in a reserve, which was to undergo six days' local military training in each year. ”

“ Those not chosen by lot to serve one year with the colors will pass directly into the first reserve. The second reserve will consist of men of from 30 to 45 years of age. Among those who will be exempt from compulsory military service are the members of the Government, members of Congress, State and municipal councillors, Judges, the clergy, including all those who wear the tonsure, or belong to any religious order, the directors and teachers of public schools and colleges, and the police. ”

“ The complete adoption of the plan advocated for the reclamation and settlement of these swamp and overflowed lands, and the establishment there of a perpetual reserve available for military service whenever needed of a million seasoned and hardened citizen soldiers, involves doing nothing that has not already been done by other nations of the world. ”

“ About 500,000, men complete their active service annually. In addition, for every conscript selected for service in the Red Army, two men are given brief summer training in military fundamentals. The Red Army is therefore building up its reserves at a rate of about three reserves for each man in the ranks of the Red Army.
14. The rate of accumulation of reserves during the past twenty years has not been uniform, but it is probable that the Soviet Union possesses approximately 5,000,000 trained men who could be used to fill up reserve divisions. ”

“ Approximately four million public servants and individuals deferred from military service for other reasons constituted a reserve as yet hardly touched. And, despite claims to the contrary, no thorough or rational scheme had been adopted to comb all able-bodied men out of the factories and from the fields for service in uniform. ”

“ Those who have had military service and who have not reached the age of fifty are considered reserves. Officers remain in the reserve until the age of sixty. Various factors—primarily occupational situations, physical condition, and lack of reserve training—operate to erode this force, and those considered useful, or trained, reserves constitute one-half or less of the group. Most of the some 250,000 men released in the latest five-year period, however, are available, physically fit, and familiar with the weapons and equipment in use by the armed forces. ”

“ End Strength Increases.— Whenever units or individual members of the Selected Reserve of any reserve component are released from active duty during any fiscal year, the end strength prescribed for such fiscal year for the Selected Reserve of such reserve component shall be increased proportionately by the total authorized strengths of such units and by the total number of such individual members. ”

“ The estimates also provide for the maintenance of our war-expanded naval and merchant fleets, military installations, and stocks of military equipment and supplies. Our naval combatant fleet is three times its pre-Pearl Harbor tonnage. Our Merchant Marine is five times its prewar size. The War Department has billions of dollars worth of equipment and supplies. Considerable maintenance and repair expense is necessary for the equipment which we desire to retain in active status or in war reserve. ”

“ Reserves play an important part in modern warfare. From the executive, who prepares national reserves, down to the chief of a platoon of skirmishers, every commander now desires a reserve. A wise government always provides good reserves for its armies, and the general uses them when they come under his command. The state has its reserves, the army has its own, and every corps d'armée or division should not fail to provide one. ”

“ These reserves are particularly useful when the configuration of the country leads to double fronts of operations: they then fulfill the double object of observing the second front, and, in case of necessity, of aiding the operations of the main army when the enemy threatens its flanks or a reverse compels it to fall back toward this reserve.
Of course, care must be taken not to create dangerous detachments, and whenever these reserves can be dispensed with, it should be done, or the troops in the depots only be employed as reserves. ”

“ The term in the first reserve has been extended far beyond that originally contemplated, but in practice the service in the first and second reserves is merely nominal, and in the militia or national army likewise, as the men are only called out once a year for manœuvres, save in case of war or emergency. ”

“ If they depart, they are for a few years a reserve for war—if they choose to come forward; but it is manifest that such a reserve can be but small, when compared with a system which in three or five years passes men through the active force into the reserve. ”

“ This principle is that of keeping a small number of troops under arms in peace-time, with a large reserve of [Pg 2] trained men ready to be called out in case of war. In our case, the small number under arms in peace-time is represented by the Active Army, both British, Indian, and Colonial, [2] and the large reserve by the 1st and 2nd Class Army Reserves, the Militia, the Militia Reserve, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers. ”

“ One or more secure cities already occupied will form an eventual base: when this cannot be done, a small strategic reserve may be established, which will protect the rear and also the depots by temporary fortifications. ”

“ In the past our difficulty in keeping pace with the various improvements so rapidly introduced was increased by the fact that we not only had to re-arm the regular army, but had to create an immense stock of weapons for the reserve troops, militia, depôt troops, and again as a reserve for the whole of the forces. ”

“ Rapid concentration of effort, anticipating that of the enemy, is the ideal of tactics and of strategy,—of the battle-field and of the campaign. It is that, likewise, of the science of mobilization, in its modern development. The reserve is but the margin of safety, to compensate for defects in conception or execution, to which all enterprises are liable; and it may be added that it is as applicable to the material force—the ships, guns, etc.—as it is to the men.
The United States, like Great Britain, depends wholly upon voluntary enlistments ”

“ To long service and small reserves a large standing force is the natural corollary. It may be added that it is more consonant to the necessities of warfare, and more consistent with the idea of the word "reserve," as elsewhere used in war. The reserve in battle is that portion of the force which is withheld from engagement, awaiting the unforeseen developments of the fight; but no general would think of carrying on a pitched battle with the smaller part of his force, keeping the larger part in reserve. ”

“ On the other hand, the provision of the large armies of modern warfare requires the maintenance of a reserve, and no reserve is possible if the whole period for which men will enlist is spent with the colours. The demand for long service in the individual, and for trained men in the aggregate, thus produces a compromise. ”

“ The mass of reserves must, therefore, be employed as subsidiary to the regular troops, whom they must relieve as much as possible from all minor duties. Thus used, a superiority in the numbers of national reserves will secure an undoubted superiority in the actual war. ”

“ It is at the disposal of the minister of war, who can decree the recall of all men discharged to the reserve the previous year and all those whose time of service has for any reason been shortened. The reserves of the active army are composed of those who have served the legal period in the active army. These are recalled twice, in the eleven years during which they are members of the reserve, for refresher courses. The active army and its reserve are not localized, but drawn from and distributed over the whole of France. ”

“ Moreover, the reserve drew much of its manpower from the pool of soldiers separating from active duty with a reserve obligation still to fulfill, and within some limits the Defense Department could assign such men to units in a manner that could influence the reserve's racial composition. ”

“ While other countries engaged in this war have under a system of compulsory service brought their full resources of men into the field, we, under our national system, have not done so, and can, therefore, still point to a vast reserve drawn from the resources both of the Mother Country and of the British Dominions across the Seas. ”