THE
BRAIN OF AN ARMY
A POPULAR ACCOUNT
OF THE
GERMAN GENERAL STAFF
BY
SPENSER WILKINSON
NEW EDITION
WITH LETTERS FROM
COUNT MOLTKE AND LORD ROBERTS
WESTMINSTER
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
& CO 1895
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE COMMAND OF THE SEA
THE BRAIN OF A NAVY
THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE
and in conjunction with
SIR CHARLES W. DILKE, BART.
IMPERIAL DEFENCE
[Transcriber's note: the errata items below have been appliedto this text.]
ERRATA.
page 9, line 6 for have read has
page 10, line 21, for occasion read occasions
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
Six years ago a Royal Commission, under thepresidency of Lord Hartington, was known to beinquiring into the administration of the nationaldefence. There was much talk in the newspapersabout the Prussian staff, and many were theadvocates of its imitation in this country. Veryfew of those who took part in the discussionsseemed to know what the Prussian staff was, andI thought it might be useful to the RoyalCommission and to the public to have a true accountof that institution, written in plain English, sothat any one could understand it. The essay waspublished on the 11th of February, 1890, the dayon which the Report of Lord Hartington'sCommission was signed.
The essential feature of the Prussian staffsystem consists in the classification of duties outof which it has arisen. Every general in thefield requires a number of assistants, collectivelyforming his staff, to relieve him of matters ofdetail, to act as his confidential secretaries, andto represent him at places where he cannot behimself. The duties of command are so multifariousthat some consistent distribution of functionsamong the officers of a large staff isindispensable. In Prussia this distribution isbased on a thoroughly rational and practicalprinciple. The general's work is subdivided intoclasses, according as it is concerned withadministration and discipline or with the directionof the operations against the enemy. All thatbelongs to administration and discipline is putupon one side of a dividing line, and upon theother side all that directly affects the preparationfor or the management of the fighting—intechnical language, all that falls within thedomain of strategy and tactics. The officersentrusted with the personal assistance of thegeneral in this latter group of duties are inPrussia called his "general staff." They arespecially trained in the art of conductingoperations against an enemy, that is in the specificfunction of generalship, which has thus in thePrussian army received more systematic attentionthan in any other. In the British army theassistants of a general are also grouped intoclasses for the performance of specific functionsin his relief. But the grouping of duties isaccidental, and follows no principle. It has arisenby chance, and been stereotyped by usage. Theofficers of a staff belong to the adjutant-general'sbranch or to the quartermaster-general's branch,but no rational criterion exists by which todiscover whether a particular function falls to onebranch or to the other. That this is an evil isevident, because it is manifest that there can beno scientific training for a group of duties whichhave no inherent affinity wit