Compiled by British Intelligence, for restricted official issue by the
General Staff, German Army Handbook of April 1918, is a comprehensive
assessment of the German Army during the latter stages of the First
World War. Illustrated throughout with plates, diagrams, charts, tables
and maps, it provides a detailed breakdown of the army, covering all
aspects from recruiting and training, mobilization, command and
organization, weapons and signals to transportation, medical and
veterinary services, and uniform.
The German Army Handbook of 1918 was a remarkable achievement. It
provides solutions to many questions that histories of the First World
War and accounts of its battles are unable to answer. It shows how the
static conventions of trench warfare usurped the traditional role of
cavalry, and how the German Army were able to take advantage of the
dominance of the machine-gun on the Western Front in 1915.
There are also two maps, showing Army Corps Districts, and Zones of
Administration and Lines of Command in June 1917.
The events of 1914 transformed the armies of Europe, and made much of
the information contained in the amended 1912 handbook worthless. The
emergence of trench warfare created conditions in which the traditional
concepts of offense and defense had little meaning. Within a few months
battle conditions had created a situation in which pre-war intelligence
publications had only little relevance.
