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THE DIARY OF 
 A GERMAN SOLDIER 
 
THE DIARY OF 
 A GERMAN SOLDIER 
 
 BY 
 
 FELDWEBEL C. 
 
 First Sergeant 88th Infantry 
 21st Division^ 18th Army Corpg 
 
 New York 
 
 ALFRED A. KNOPF 
 
 1919 
 
 7 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY 
 ALFRED A. KNOPF, Ikc. 
 
 FES 24 ISI9 ' 
 
 ^ c^, to •-' 
 
 PBINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 O c» 
 
 @)C1.A5I24^^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 A very few pages of these war memoirs will 
 convince the reader that their author held an 
 important position in the German army. Al- 
 though Sergeant C only bore the chev- 
 rons of a non-commissioned officer, he was, 
 nevertheless, virtually an officer in everything 
 but name. His duties, as sometimes also hap- 
 pens in the French army, were akin to those 
 of an officer. He played an important part 
 on the so-called staff of his battalion. In turn, 
 he was secretary, interpreter, and liaison of- 
 ficer. He frequently performed missions of 
 trust and often carried confidential dispatches. 
 Besides, he enjoyed all the prestige which the 
 German army attaches to the rank of "Ein- 
 jahrig-Freiwillige." ^ He dined with his su- 
 perior officers and, when not on duty, mingled 
 with them on an equal footing. 
 
 1 A young man of the upper classes, who, at his own expense, 
 serves in the army for one year. There is no corresponding 
 term in English. — Translator. 
 
 3 
 
4 Preface 
 
 The special and relatively independent posi- 
 tion which this rather well-informed and ob- 
 servant young man occupied, from August 1st, 
 1914, to October, 1916, enabled him to see 
 much and to give us a vivid picture, always 
 interesting, though presented with extreme 
 simplicity, of the events of which he was an 
 
 eye-witness. As a matter of fact, C is no 
 
 writer and kept a diary much more for his per- 
 sonal satisfaction than because of any literary 
 aspirations. It is precisely because of this 
 complete lack of pretension and because of the 
 author's undeniable freedom of thought that it 
 seemed to us that these memoirs would find 
 favour in the eyes of the French public. We 
 shall see some of those barbaric scenes and acts 
 of vandalism which have dishonoured the 
 German army, presented in broad dayhght. 
 
 C , with great accuracy, gives the places, 
 
 the date, and almost always the name, the rank 
 and the unit of the German officers who so 
 often delighted in overwhelming innocent civil- 
 ians with all possible abuses, committed with 
 barbaric brutality and lewd passion. In this 
 
Preface 8 
 
 respect, the testimony of C constitutes a 
 
 valuable document to support the indictment 
 which the Allies have been drawing up against 
 Germany for the past three years: those atro- 
 cious crimes, as for instance the secret mas- 
 sacre of twenty French civilians, both male and 
 female, with bayonets, ordered at Braucourt 
 on August 29th, 1914, by Colonel Puder, have 
 been verified in every detail and with all neces- 
 sary care. 
 
 This little book possesses still another inter- 
 est of a purely historic nature; for these sim- 
 ple daily jottings in reality constitute the com- 
 plete history, for the first two years of the war, 
 of a German battalion which was closely con- 
 nected with its regiment, its brigade, its divi- 
 sion and often even its army corps. Even 
 though the author is far from being an artist, 
 or perhaps just because of that, this book 
 faithfully portrays the aspect and the local 
 colour of the different phases of the war on 
 various fronts: Luxemburg, Artois, Picardy, 
 Champagne, Galicia and the Vosges. For in- 
 stance we learn under what conditions a Ger- 
 
6 Preface 
 
 man division went back and forth between the 
 French and Russian fronts and how long it 
 took them to do it in those distant days when 
 they still did. 
 
 In 1916, the author, thoroughly disgusted 
 with Prussian militarism, decided to escape to 
 Denmark, and it is from that countr\^ that this 
 work has reached us. After fighting bravely 
 for nineteen months both in France and Ga- 
 
 licia, Feldwebel C was seriously woimded 
 
 at the beginning of the attack on Verdun 
 (February 23rd, 1916) and spent four months 
 in a hospital at Frankfort. He had scarcely 
 recovered when he was returned to the front. 
 However, the surgeons again sent him back to 
 Germany, where the authorities finally recog- 
 nized him to be unfit for active seirice. He 
 was transferred to the auxihary service and 
 was sent to join a non-combatant battahon 
 which was working on the fortifications of the 
 Danish border in Schleswig. Thus Feldwebel 
 C left the German army after having dis- 
 charged his full duty and at a moment when he 
 was not under fire. His desertion has nothing 
 
Preface 7 
 
 dishonourable about it and this is important 
 as regards the extent of confidence which we 
 should place in his opinions and criticisms. 
 
 We believe that this rather sternly written 
 but complete book forms a unique document: 
 the war experiences of a German witness, a 
 brave soldier, but still very liberal minded and 
 above all perfectly straightforward and sin- 
 cere. 
 
 Louis-Paul Alaux. 
 
 Paris, January 15, 1918. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAFTEB 
 
 I. Mobilization. News of mobilization — en- 
 thusiasm at Hanau — ^patriotic speeches and 
 songs, 15 
 
 II. The Departure. From the barracks to the 
 depot — on the train, 23 
 
 III. Luxemburg. Cold reception by the inhabit- 
 ants — reconnoitering, 27 
 
 IV. Arlon. Proclamation to the people — execu- 
 tion of two women — the sacking of a house 
 of ill-fame — pillaging the Chateau de Bar- 
 benson, S3 
 
 V. Lenglier. The battle of Lenglier — a 
 woman and her husband murdered — fires — 
 Merbach suddenly becomes savage; his 
 death — German losses, 43 
 
 VI. Bertrix. The battle of Bertrix — the gal- 
 lantry of the French, 50 
 
 VII. Matton. Scenes of plundering — Germany 
 preparing for war for forty-four years — 
 Major Schmidt leader of a band of brig- 
 ands — Carrignan — Villmontrj^, 55 
 
 VIII. Autrecourt. The battle of Sedan — ambu- 
 lances — serious German losses — crossing 
 the Meuse, 62 
 9 
 
10 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 IX. Raucourt. Lieutenant Kedor our new aide- 
 de-camp — murder of civilians and firing of 
 Raucourt — Kedor and the General's adju- 
 tant — the old woman and the Prussian non- 
 commissioned officer before the Marne, 67 
 
 X. The Battle of the Marne. Sermaize-les- 
 Bains — new recruits — bitter fighting — our 
 losses — Sagny-sur-F Angle — more comfort- 
 able to the rear — the retreat — Lieutenant 
 Kedor's heroism — lack of discipline among 
 the discouraged Germans^ 79 
 
 XI. Rheims. The guard — capture of the fort at 
 Brimont — some champagne — ^the foreign 
 legion, 92 
 
 XII. The March on Roye. Pillage — the rape 
 of two young girls — the fearless Kedor — 
 English or Germans? — a little party in- 
 terruptedj 97 
 
 XIII. Ercheu-Solente-Champieu. Violent fight- 
 
 ing — fierce resistance of the French — 
 death of Schmidt's son — scenes of hor- 
 ror^ 105 
 
 XIV. Roye. Commanding officer Schlegler has six 
 
 French prisoners executed — Schlegler's 
 death — Kedor wounded — Schmidt leaves 
 us — the beginning of trench warfare — 
 trench attacks — our losses — ^preparing the 
 trenches,, 110 
 
 XV. The Germans at Roye. German adminis- 
 tration at Roye — deportation of men into 
 Germany — ^women forced to work — de- 
 struction of the church — Christmas — 
 Rogge, our new commanding officer — St. 
 Sylvester — an alarm — Schmidt returns, 
 116 
 
Contents 
 
 11 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Formation of the 56th Division. We 
 are given Russian rifles — the Commandant 
 of Ham and his angel — a new division — 
 a clean sweep of wine — departure for At- 
 tigny, 130 
 
 GivRY. Engagement with cavalry — a lover 
 of fowl — the Kaiser at Vouziers, 135 
 
 In Champagne. The Devil's Hole — a veri- 
 table hell — Ripont — night attacks — 
 Schmidt out of favour — Eger made head of 
 the battalion — his brutality — departure^ 
 142 
 
 Across Germany and Austria. Sedan — 
 Sarrelouis — Kaiserslautern — Hanau — 
 Goerlitz — in Galicia, 155 
 
 In Galicia. Our first marches — the lice — 
 Mackenson — Eger and Rogge again — the 
 Jews, 162 
 
 First Battles in Galicia. Crossing the 
 San — small glory in taking Wiazownica 
 — the Russian retreat — we capture Ra- 
 dawa^ 171 
 
 Radawa. Quarrel with an officer of the 
 Uhlans — story of five cows and one Gali- 
 cian peasant — Bortger — Italy declares war 
 — a new officer in command — the cooties — 
 the Germans fire on the Austrians, 179 
 
 Last Battles in Galicia and Our Return 
 TO France. We advance — cowardice of 
 commanding officer Lindwurm — the Bava- 
 rians butcher wounded and prisoners — a 
 feast of roast veal — we leave for France — 
 we are disinfected, 190 
 
12 
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Herin. Rest — Lindwurm is decorated — no 
 furlough for me^ 201 
 
 Headquarters at Valenciennes. Head- 
 quarters — administration of the city — 
 trade in papers — escapes into Holland — 
 fight between the Bavarians and the Prus- 
 sians — a German soldier murders a young 
 French girl^ 205 
 
 The Battle of Champagne (September, 
 1915). Saverne — state of mind of the 
 Alsatians — to Champagne with all speed — 
 the battle of Champagne — cowardice of 
 Captain Lindwurm — order of the day from 
 Colonel von Einem, 218 
 
 Douai — In Champagne. Douai — the Prus- 
 sian ■ gallantry of Captain Lindwurm — 
 in Champagne for the third time: a 
 mine explodes — the battalion in disgrace 
 — Christmas- — ^we leave for the great at- 
 tack on Verdun, 231 
 
 Verdun — Frankfort — Mayence. Be- 
 fore Verdun — the attack of February 21st 
 — I am wounded — the hospital at Frank- 
 fort — rreturn to Verdun — in the auxiliar- 
 ies, 242 
 
 At the Danish Border. Defense and 
 fortification against an English attack via 
 Denmark, 250 ^ 
 
THE DIARY OF 
 A GERMAN SOLDIER 
 
THE DIARY OF A GERMAN 
 SOLDIER 
 
 On October 1st, 1913, I joined the 2nd 
 Battalion, 6th Company, of the 88th Regiment 
 as a "Freiwilliger." ^ My regiment formed 
 part of the 42nd Infantry Brigade (21st Divi- 
 sion, 18th Army Corps) . As all the "Freiwil- 
 hge" do, I entered the reserve officers' training 
 corps. 
 
 As soon as war was declared, I was assigned, 
 because of my knowledge of French, as inter- 
 preter and attached to the so-called staff of my 
 battalion. I held this position for the first 
 two years of the war and shared the fortunes 
 of the second battalion up to the moment when 
 I was transferred to the auxiliary service be- 
 cause of a serious wound which I received dur- 
 ing the attack on Verdun on February 23rd, 
 1916. 
 
 Perhaps the reader of these simple cam- 
 
 1 See footnote, page 1 of Preface. 
 
 13 
 
14t The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 paign notes will sometimes be tempted to be- 
 lieve that I have exaggerated a little. Never- 
 theless, in the following pages, I have only- 
 told of those happenings at which I was actu- 
 ally present, of those sights which I beheld 
 with my own eyes. Besides I am sure that 
 later on the tales of the inhabitants of the in- 
 vaded territories will fully confirm these mem- 
 oirs. 
 
MOBILIZATION 
 
 Immediately after the assassination of the 
 heir to the Austrian throne at Sarajevo an al- 
 most undefinable restlessness was noticeable 
 all over Germany. Many people said that 
 this event could bring on grave complications 
 in which Germany might be entangled and 
 that it might even result in a European war. 
 Alas, our anxiety was justified. As a matter 
 of fact, on the 23rd of July, 1914, on the very 
 day on which the Austrian ultimatum was 
 dispatched to Serbia, an order of the general 
 commanding the 18th Army Corps informed 
 us that the manoeuvres for which we were pre- 
 paring had been called off and that we were 
 to hold ourselves in readiness for a general 
 mobilization order. From the 23rd to the 
 30th of July all the men from our corps who 
 
 15 
 
16 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 were on leave were recalled and ordered to 
 join their regiments with all possible speed. 
 
 At 3 P.M. on July 30th, 1914, the 2nd 
 Battalion was ordered to guard the bridges 
 over the Main, the railroads, and the ap- 
 proaches to the powder works at Hanau-on- 
 the-Main. I, personally, received an order to 
 take a detachment of twenty-four men to 
 guard the great railroad bridge which crosses 
 the Main between Hanau and Klein- Stein- 
 heim. Lieutenant Merbach accompanied us 
 as far as the bridge, to give me the necessary 
 instructions. I asked him to do me the favour 
 of calling at the station for my mother whom 
 I expected that day. Then, after placing my 
 sentinels, I had nothing to do but watch the 
 many trains crowded with soldiers which were 
 continually crossing the bridge. My mother 
 told Merbach that the 47th Artillery Regi- 
 ment (11th Corps) had already left in field- 
 grey. Every person passing over the bridge 
 had to be brought to me and my instructions 
 were to question them all carefully, keeping 
 on the look-out for spies. Several officer- 
 
Mobilization 17 
 
 patrols passed by, all cautioning me to watch 
 diligently and to look out for everything. 
 
 At 4 A. M. on the thirty-first the soldiers who 
 brought us our coffee told us that the men of 
 the 5th Company were already in field-grey. 
 A guardsman, named Wagner, from Fles- 
 heim, then called out: 
 
 "Well, that's something more than a hoax; 
 it begins to look serious. This means that the 
 Crown Prince has gained his point and the 
 Emperor will not delay the declaration of war. 
 Why should he care? His six boys are not 
 going to be under fire; but we'll have to burn 
 our fingers pulling their chestnuts out of the 
 fire. We are going to sell our skins, but will 
 you just tell me why and for whom?" 
 
 I told him to keep quiet or I would have to 
 punish him, but he kept on: 
 
 "Oh, come on! Sir, there are many soldiers 
 and non-commissioned officers too who do not 
 want war. As for me, I am a socialist. ..." 
 
 Again I told him to keep quiet, or I would 
 have him taken to prison on the spot. 
 
 When I spoke to Merbach about this on the 
 
18 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 following day, he told me not to punish Wag- 
 ner in any way. 
 
 At four o'clock in the afternoon we were re- 
 lieved. 
 
 In many places, in order to get back to the 
 barracks we had to break through an enthusi- 
 astic and excited crowd composed mainly of 
 women. The people were shouting: "Hur- 
 rah for the 88th!" "Long live the emperor!" 
 and were singing patriotic songs at the top of 
 their voices. In some streets it was impossi- 
 ble to make headway. The entire population 
 of Hanau had turned out. Especially in 
 front of the barracks there was an enormous 
 crowd. Every time that a courier appeared 
 the civilians fell upon him, shouting: "What 
 have you got? Has war been declared? Not 
 yet? What a pity!" It was a delirious joy. 
 Where is that joy now? 
 
 We had hardly returned to the barracks 
 when our company commander. Captain Otto 
 Gaup, assembled us all in order to address us. 
 During the ten months I had been in his com- 
 pany, I had more often seen him drunk than 
 
Mobilization 19 
 
 sober. Sometimes we were forced to put him 
 on his horse, for he would have been quite 
 incapable of mounting unaided. This is about 
 what he said to us: 
 
 "Dear soldiers: 
 
 "Great historic events are under way. 
 Threatening clouds are beginning to obscure 
 the political horizon. What will be the conse- 
 quences of the Sarajevo assassination? Our 
 enemies boldly dare to challenge us and are 
 making use of assassins in order to have an 
 excuse for war. They wish it. Very well, 
 they shall have it. Come what may, we are 
 prepared and we shall know how to receive 
 them. Dear friends, I do not believe that I 
 personally will have the good fortune to lead 
 you on to victory, but I am sure that you 
 will not only preserve the ancient glory of 
 Germany unsullied, but that you will also 
 bring back new laurels. Let us place trust 
 in our Emperor and our government, in our 
 people and above all in ourselves. With this 
 hope I ask you to shout with me : 'Long live 
 our Emperor and King!' " 
 
20 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Thereupon he shook hands with us and left. 
 I overheard Lieutenant Dehes say to Lieuten- 
 ant Popp : "He must surely have had a little 
 too much to make him talk such nonsense." 
 
 On August 1st about half -past five a dis- 
 patch arrived at headquarters. As soon as the 
 commanding officer, Kuhl, opened it he ran 
 down into the courtyard of the barracks, ter- 
 ribly excited, shouting: 
 
 "Soldiers, men and women, old and young, 
 listen, all of you. His Majesty the Emperor 
 has ordered mobilization to commence on Au- 
 gust 2nd. We are ready and since they dare 
 to disturb our peace we shall show those brig- 
 ands from across the Rhine and those assassins 
 from St. Petersburg of what metal we are 
 made. Dear comrades, long live our em- 
 peror, for whom we joyfully go to war and 
 for whom we are ready to die." Thereupon 
 Captain Raabe, commanding the 5th Com- 
 pany, with tears in his eyes, began to sing: 
 "Heil Dir im Siegerkranz." ^ 
 
 1 " Hail to Thee, Crowned Victor"— (The German National 
 Anthem). 
 
Mobilization 21 
 
 A beelike activity immediately reigned all 
 over the barracks. Every one ran from one 
 place to another without knowing why. Bay- 
 onets were taken to the armoury to be sharp- 
 ened. Soldiers' relatives were coming into the 
 barracks and soldiers were going out to the 
 city. Every one was singing in the streets and 
 civilians invited soldiers to have a drink, telling 
 them: "See that you give the French a good 
 licking!" Bells were ringing at full peal. 
 Why? Because one nation was jealous of the 
 other and because there were too many people 
 in Germany and too little room for them. O 
 bells, your former sweet sound was wild on 
 that evening; you were no longer calling to 
 Christians, but to bloodthirsty wild beasts. 
 
 On August 3rd a nun was arrested near 
 the powder works on the suspicion of being 
 a spy entrusted with blowing them up. To- 
 day she is a Red Cross nurse in the hospi- 
 tal of Saint Vincent at Hanau, caring for the 
 wounded. 
 
 On the afternoon of August 5th, when all 
 were ready to depart, a thorough inspection of 
 
22 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 equipment took place. Major Kuhl handed 
 over the command of the 2nd Battahon to 
 Major Schmidt. Both addressed us, and we 
 all shouted: ''Long live his Majesty, the Em- 
 peror and the King." After that every one 
 sang in chorus "Deutschland Uber Alles" and 
 "Die Wacht Am Rhein." 
 
 Then we were told that we would leave at 
 2 A. M. Now that the hour of departure 
 was close at hand, the courage of many a brag- 
 gart began to fail and give place to a gloomy 
 resignation. The food was quite tolerable 
 that evening; some jokers called it a funeral 
 feast. I went to the city to do a little shop- 
 ping and to say good-bye to some friends. 
 Later we assembled for the last time at the 
 home of Lieutenant Popp of the 5th Company 
 and then returned to the barracks. 
 
II 
 
 THE DEPARTURE 
 
 In the barracks soldiers, instead of resting, 
 were playing cards or writing home. They 
 paid no attention to the officers and non- 
 commissioned officers, who came in and ad- 
 vised them to sleep. At midnight the reveille 
 sounded and coffee was served. 
 
 Moreover a fine racket had been going on 
 everywhere in the city all evening long. The 
 cafes and restaurants were filled with civilians 
 and soldiers who had not reported at evening 
 roll-call. 
 
 A crowd of people surrounded the barracks. 
 There were many relatives of soldiers among 
 them. An order had been issued preventing 
 civilians from entering the barracks. In order 
 to avoid affecting scenes and the farewells of 
 sobbing mothers and wives, Major Schmidt 
 decided to advance the hour of departure, so 
 
 23 
 
24 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 that the battalion left for the station at ten 
 minutes past one. 
 
 The band of the 3rd Engineers marched 
 first. The people running alongside sang and 
 yelled so that you might think you were sur- 
 rounded by a crowd of lunatics. All windows 
 were opened wide and filled with men and 
 women in their night clothes, who shouted 
 their good wishes and threw us dainties and 
 cigarettes. 
 
 When we arrived at the station we were im- 
 mediately ordered into the train so that we 
 would be promptly and completely cut off 
 from the crowd and farewell scenes would be 
 necessarily brief. Only some officers' wives 
 had obtained permission to stay on the plat- 
 form. Lieutenant Eger's wife fainted after 
 kissing her husband. While some ladies car- 
 ried her into the waiting room, Eger, without 
 showing any ©motion whatsoever, calmly 
 sought his compartment. 
 
 I found myself in a compartment with Lieu- 
 tenants Merbach and Popp. All of a sudden 
 the latter began to cry. Finally the train 
 
The Departure 25 
 
 started and passed out into the black night. 
 
 At Frankfort refreshments were waiting for 
 us on the platform. The ladies of the Red 
 Cross served the soldiers, who were almost 
 all downcast. The ladies tried to revive their 
 spirits and said to them: ^'Courage, friends; 
 show that you are men, happy and proud to 
 be permitted to shed your blood for the Em- 
 peror and the German fatherland." 
 
 Probably these ladies had nothing to do, 
 and, being bored at home, they came to the sta- 
 tion to pass the time. Otherwise they would 
 not have talked such nonsense. It is certainly 
 an honour to die for your country if it is at- 
 tacked. But had we been attacked? 
 
 We had been ordered to remove our shoulder 
 straps so that no one could tell to what unit 
 we belonged. In the stations, when civilians 
 asked us where we came from, we answered: 
 "From hell," or "From the moon." 
 
 Various inscriptions were painted on the 
 coaches, such as: "Paris Express," "Down 
 with France!" or again "Further declarations 
 of war received here." 
 
26 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 In the morning, Popp, Merbach, Loffel- 
 hardt and I left our compartment for a car 
 filled with baggage from which we could 
 calmly survey the landscape. 
 
 Towards six in the evening we finally ar- 
 rived at Zerf where we passed the night. We 
 were coldly received by the inhabitants. These 
 people had once been French and they remem- 
 bered it. Captain Ziekenrath, Merbach, Lof- 
 f elhardt and I were quartered in the home oi a 
 citizen who told us that all his beds were occu- 
 pied by his wife and daughters. We had to be 
 content with some straw which Merbach's or- 
 derly brought us. He had stolen it some- 
 where or other. We were so tired that we 
 slept soundly on that straw, so soundly, in 
 fact, that next morning we were late for roll- 
 call. 
 
 On August 7th, 1914, we left Zerf. Our 
 train passed through Irsh, Saarburg, Littdorf, 
 Frissel, Nittel and Wellen, where we crossed 
 the Moselle and the Luxemburg frontier. All 
 the soldiers, tired out, were now sad and dis- 
 couraged. 
 
Ill 
 
 LUXEMBURG 
 
 It was about half-past eleven when we ar- 
 rived at Alingen. Almost immediately Major 
 Schmidt assembled the staff of the battalion 
 in order to give us his instructions as to the 
 treatment to be accorded to the inhabitants 
 of the country. These people were really 
 thoroughly familiar with the German lan- 
 guage, but they pretended not to understand a 
 word of it and insisted on talking French. 
 The men composing the staff of the 2nd 
 Battalion of the 88th Infantry were Major 
 Schmidt; Lieutenant Wunderlich, aide-de- 
 camp; Dr. Schafer, the head of the medical 
 staff; Dr. Wolkewiz; Lieutenant Merbach; 
 Sergeant-Major Hauser; Loffelhardt; and 
 myself. 
 
 As interpreter, I was ordered to inform the 
 inhabitants that it would be greatly to their 
 
 27 
 
28 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 advantage to welcome the soldiers and to do 
 their utmost to avoid quarrels. 
 
 Merbach, Loffelhardt and I were quartered 
 on a woman whose brother had left Paris on 
 August 4th, 1914. He told us that every one 
 in Paris blamed the Crown Prince for starting 
 the war. Merbach answered that he was only 
 one of the many guilty ones. This woman 
 gave us an excellent dinner. In the afternoon, 
 the doctor inspected the men's feet because 
 several of them had been complaining of sore- 
 ness. 
 
 At five o'clock, the whole battalion was as- 
 sembled on the road leading from Alingen to 
 Mensdorf. Colonel Puder, commanding the 
 88th, greeted and addressed us. Then, led by a 
 band, we left for the city of Luxemburg, arriv- 
 ing there at noon on the eighth. The natives 
 who watched us pass show^ed without ex- 
 ception only hostility. Merbach, Loffelhardt 
 and I went on ahead to order the people to 
 place pails of water in front of their houses so 
 that the soldiers, whose throats were parched 
 by the heat, might have a chance to drink. 
 
Luxemhurg 29 
 
 The battalion halted at Esch, five kilometres 
 from the capital of Luxemburg. The men 
 were put up in barns and the officers were bil- 
 leted on the inhabitants. 
 
 Merbach and I were assigned to a priest who 
 received us very badly, telling us that he could 
 only give us one single bed. Merbach gravely 
 replied that two yoimg men could not possibly 
 sleep in one bed, especially in the home of a 
 Catholic priest. "What is your religion?" 
 asked the priest. *'I am a Cathohc," Merbach 
 answered, although he was really a Protestant. 
 
 Merbach and I were ordered to go to Lux- 
 emburg immediately to buy cigarettes and va- 
 rious things for the battalion. In the tobacco 
 shop two ladies were behind the counter as we 
 entered. Merbach told them in German that 
 we wanted some cigarettes and that we would 
 pay for them. The ladies pretended not to im- 
 derstand, and one of them said in French : 
 
 "Gentlemen, if you were French, I would 
 give you everything you wish for nothing. 
 But we cannot bear the sight of 'sauerkrauts.' " 
 
 "Madam," I answered in French, "be care- 
 
30 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 f ul of what you say and whom you address in 
 this manner. Some day your words may come 
 back to you in an unpleasant fashion." There- 
 upon she became thoroughly frightened and 
 embarrassed, for she had not thought that we 
 could understand French. 
 
 I reassured her, saying that I would not give 
 her away. Then she decided to speak Ger- 
 man, greatly to the satisfaction of Sergeant- 
 Ma j or Vetter who could now make the pur- 
 chases on which he hoped to gain a fine profit. 
 This swindler really resold these goods to the 
 men for much more than he paid for them. 
 His thefts assumed guch large proportions that 
 Major Schmidt was forced to remove him. 
 Later on he was killed in the first engagement 
 of the battalion. 
 
 Immediately upon his return to the canton- 
 ment, Major Schmidt invited us to have coffee, 
 and then our time was our own. 
 
 Our priest received us a little more cordially 
 this time. We dined with him. The dinner 
 was so good that I did not pay the slightest at- 
 tention to Merbach's puns. 
 
Luccemburg - 31 
 
 On the following day, Merbach, Loffelhardt 
 and I were ordered to make a careful inspection 
 of the wagons of the battalion. While we 
 were thus occupied, the other officers spent 
 their time in the cafes, drinking and playing 
 cards. 
 
 At seven o'clock we received the following 
 order: "The 2nd Battahon of the 88th In- 
 fantry will advance from Luxemburg to Ar- 
 lon, and will find out whether or not the city is 
 still occupied by the enemy. Half a section 
 of the 6th Uhlans will supplement the 2nd 
 Battalion. Patrols commanded by officers 
 and non-commissioned officers will recon- 
 noitre." 
 
 By chance, we three, Merbach, Loffelhardt 
 and myself, were again chosen by the com- 
 mander to be sent to reconnoitre. Our hearts 
 beat a little faster, but we could not object, 
 since, as they say, orders are sacred. Soon we 
 arrived in the city. Those inhabitants whom 
 I questioned told us that the Belgian soldiers 
 had just left Arlon, scarcely two hours ago. 
 The city seemed quiet, so we returned to the 
 
32 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 battalion where Major Schmidt ordered us to 
 report to Baron Von Schenk, infantry general 
 and commander of the army corps. He was 
 then at Luxemburg. The general had a copy 
 of our report made by his chief aide-de-camp, 
 Major Martens, 
 
 Towards ten o'clock, the battahon, led by a 
 band, entered Arlon. All precautions were 
 taken to guard against an attack. Arlon was 
 occupied by our battalion, a company of ma- 
 chine gunners, who set up their loaded pieces 
 right in the heart of the city, the 6th Uhlans 
 and a battery of the 68rd Artillery. The 5th 
 Company took possession of the barracks of 
 the city; the three other companies were bil- 
 leted in various places. Brigadier-General 
 Von der Esch and the chief of staff of the 42nd 
 Brigade lived at the Hotel Continental. All 
 the officers and non-commissioned officers had 
 to live with the men in the cantomnents. 
 
 But Major Schmidt gave Merbach, Loffel- 
 hardt and myself permission to live in the city 
 at the house of the deputy-major. We stayed 
 there up to the very moment of our departure. 
 
IV 
 
 ARLON 
 
 When we entered Arlon, all the inhabit- 
 ants, probably out of curiosity, were at their 
 windows or doors. Bands were playing and 
 the soldiers singing. The mayor of Arlon, a 
 lawyer, was taken as a hostage and placed in 
 the town hall under armed guard. The fol- 
 lowing proclamation was issued: 
 
 "To the citizens of Arlon! 
 
 "I am having the following proclamation 
 made public and I hope that every one will 
 heed its commands. 
 
 "The city of Arlon is occupied by German 
 troops. Every one must submit to the will of 
 the conqueror. Any infraction of the follow- 
 ing orders will be severely punished. 
 
 "1. The inhabitants must welcome the sol- 
 diers and treat them politely; 
 
 83 
 
34 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 "2. All arms and munitions must be 
 brought to the townhall as soon as possible; 
 
 "3. The gathering of more than three per- 
 sons on the streets is forbidden; 
 
 "4. The inhabitants must stay in their homes 
 from 7 P. M. to 7 a. m. ; 
 
 "5. From 8 p. m. on, there may be no hght 
 in the houses. Fires must be put out at the 
 same time and no smoke allowed to be seen; 
 
 "6. Every person having any knowledge of 
 the movements of the enemy, is asked to re- 
 port all information immediately under pain 
 of severe punishment ; 
 
 "7. I have taken the mayor of Arlon as a 
 hostage. He will be set free as soon as the 
 population has conformed to my orders and as 
 soon as other guarantees shall have been given. 
 
 "Arlon, August 10, 1914. 
 "von der Esch, 
 "Brigadier-General." 
 
 A special detachment was ordered to an- 
 nounce this proclamation. It was composed 
 of Lieutenant Popp, accompanied by two 
 non-commissioned officers, two drummers, two 
 
Arlon 85 
 
 trumpeters and eight men with fixed bayonets. 
 
 I was selected to read the proclamation. 
 At every street corner the drums were beaten 
 and the civilians gathered to hear the reading 
 of General von der Esch's orders. I had to 
 read it at least thirty times before I was able 
 to return to the house where I lived with Mer- 
 bach and Loffelhardt. 
 
 We had hardly returned when Major 
 Schmidt sent for us to order us to go to the 
 city and requisition some bread and meat at 
 the bakers and butchers. In the streets we 
 saw lots of soldiers talking with the inhabitants 
 by means of signs, which was rather amusing. 
 
 In several shops they told us that soldiers 
 had taken things by force without paying for 
 them and had insulted the proprietors. Mer- 
 bach quieted these people by giving them 
 vouchers. In one tobacco shop, a soldier had 
 in this manner taken eighty francs' worth of 
 cigarettes for his captain and had never come 
 back to pay for them. Private Bessler, of the 
 6th Company, had gone into a jeweller's — 
 supposedly to buy some jewellery. He stuffed 
 
36 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 everything the woman showed him into his 
 pockets, and was just about to go off with his 
 booty when we came on the scene. Merbach 
 boxed his ears and made him return the stolen 
 jewels. 
 
 Towards half-past eight as Merbach, re- 
 turning to Major Schmidt, was passing police 
 headquarters a revolver was fired at him. He 
 was not wounded. A policeman was just then 
 standing in front of the door. He was imme- 
 diately arrested and a council of war was 
 hastily organized. It was composed of the 
 following members: 
 
 Major Schmidt, chairman. 
 
 First Lieutenant Bertram, prosecuting 
 
 attorney. 
 Lieutenant Eger, counsel for the de- 
 ; fence. 
 
 Brigadier- General von der Esch, 
 A captain of the 63rd Artillery, 
 Lieutenant Kaufmann of the 6th 
 
 Uhlans 
 I was the interpreter. 
 
 judges 
 
Arlon 87 
 
 The accused was one Louis Empereur, a 
 policeman of the city of Arlon, married and the 
 father of four children. He had had so far an 
 absolutely clear record with the German mili- 
 tary authorities. Before the opening of the 
 session, I was able to say a few words to him : I 
 told him that he had a good chairman and I ad- 
 vised him to remember his wife and children 
 and to be careful of what he said. He an- 
 swered me that he knew what he had to do and 
 that I need not worry about him. The session 
 commenced and Lieutenant Bertram delivered 
 his address. Empereur was accused of: 
 
 1. Having fired at the Prussian Lieutenant 
 
 Merbach, without wounding him ; 
 
 2. Having disobeyed the commands of 
 
 the Brigadier-General's proclamation 
 which ordered the inhabitants to give 
 up their arms and to carry them to the 
 town hall. 
 
 Since the accused did not seem to regret his 
 action, the prosecuting attorney asked the 
 
98 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 war-council to make an example of him by 
 imposing the death sentence. 
 
 Lieutenant Eger, counsel for the defence, 
 pleaded on behalf of Empereur, basing his ar- 
 guments on the fact that no arms were found 
 in his possession. But the accused cried out: 
 "Yes, it was I who fired, and I have onlv one 
 regret : that I did not succeed in killing a Ger- 
 man!" 
 
 After this avowal he could only be sentenced. 
 He was executed at 2 p. m. 
 
 At four o'clock some one fired on a patrol of 
 the 6th Uhlans, but again without wounding 
 any one. The shot came from a window of a 
 disorderly house in front of which the patrol 
 was passing. Immediately the Uhlans dis- 
 mounted and, assisted by some foot-soldiers of 
 the 8th Company of our battalion, went into 
 the house where they commenced to maltreat 
 the women and to plunder everything. After 
 they had stolen all they could carry off they 
 arrested two men and two women who were in 
 the house and led them before the General. 
 At the conclusion of a summary examination 
 
Arlon 39 
 
 the men were set free, after the girls had de- 
 clared them to be innocent, saying that they 
 themselves had fired on the Uhlans. Thev 
 were immediately executed without a council 
 of war. Then the house was given over to 
 pillage. Everything that the soldiers could 
 not carry off was broken or thrown out of the 
 windows. The officers were greatly amused 
 at soldiers who had put on women's chemises 
 over their uniforms and were running around 
 the streets in that costume. 
 
 On August 12th I left, by automobile, with 
 Merbach, Loffelhardt and two men to recon- 
 noitre in the chateau at B . We had or- 
 ders to take photographs and to satisfy our- 
 selves as to the side from which a future attack 
 might come. We had requisitioned six auto- 
 mobiles in Arlon. Loffelhardt, who was a 
 good chauffeur, drove. German pickets out- 
 side of Arlon had taken such careful precau- 
 tions and had dug so many ditches across the 
 roads leading into the to^n that we were more 
 than an hour getting across it. 
 
 The chateau of B was situated in the 
 
40 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 midst of a large and beautiful park. As soon 
 as we arrived, the caretaker came out to meet 
 us. He took us into his own house where his 
 sixteen- or seventeen-year-old daughter begged 
 us to spare him. We told her to have no fear, 
 for we were not waging war on civilians. Her 
 mother was sick in bed. 
 
 After visiting the chateau, and appropriat- 
 ing some arms, we went down to the cellars, 
 which were stocked with wine and all sorts 
 of provisions. Merbach, who did not wish to 
 carry oflP anything without orders from the 
 major, sealed all the doors and gave the care- 
 taker a paper forbidding any one to take away 
 anything from the chateau. 
 
 As soon as we returned we reported to Gen- 
 eral von der Esch, telling him that we had not 
 seen the enemy. Then we hurried to our 
 major in order to tell him of our discovery. 
 He gave us permission to return to the cha- 
 teau immediately, and to bring back all the 
 wines and provisions we wished. The drum- 
 major accompanied us to lend a hand in case 
 of need. 
 
Arlon 41 
 
 As we had taken all the keys, it was easy for 
 us to re-enter the chateau. I immediately 
 went in search of the caretaker, but was greatly 
 surprised to find his house empty and in a 
 frightful disorder. A labourer, passing by, 
 told us of what had happened during our 
 absence. Four German soldiers of the 42nd 
 Brigade had entered the caretaker's house and 
 after maltreating the inmates who fled in ter- 
 ror, had ransacked the place, amusing them- 
 selves by breaking whatever they could not 
 carry off with them. I asked this man if he 
 knew what these blackguards had done to the 
 young girl, but he could give me no informa- 
 tion on that score. 
 
 We then went into the chateau and had 
 the contents of the cellars loaded onto carts 
 and wagons, belonging to the place, which we 
 found in the coach house. We also took awav 
 all the horses in the stables. While this was 
 going on, Merbach on the first floor was cram- 
 ming a large trunk full of linen. The non- 
 commissioned officers. Lurch and Loser, as 
 their share, were breaking open the drawers 
 
42 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 and taking all the jewels and valuables they 
 could find. They gave away many of them to 
 their friends. September, 1916, found Pay- 
 master Herbert of the 2nd Battalion still 
 wearing a bracelet which he got at this time. 
 We also took all the saddles and harnesses from 
 the stables. Then the expedition started for 
 Arlon. Major Schmidt congratulated us, 
 saying that we had surpassed his expectations. 
 
 Up to August 17th, we led a fairly agree- 
 able existence at Arlon and Luxemburg. 
 Almost every day Merbach, Loffelhardt and I 
 rode out in an automobile to reconnoitre. But 
 Merbach always took us to Luxemburg where 
 we spent our time. On our return we pre- 
 sented some sketch or other of a spot on which 
 we had never set foot, saying that we had seen 
 no trace of the enemy. And General von der 
 Esch was delighted to have such fine soldiers. 
 
 On August 17th, 1914, we were ordered to 
 leave Arlon which did not especially please the 
 soldiers, for they would rather have stayed on 
 there, eating, drinking, and smoking stuff 
 stolen from the inhabitants of the country. 
 
LENGLIEB 
 
 We advanced for two days, reconnoitring 
 right and left for fear of a surprise attack. 
 
 Finally on August 20th, 1914, war began in 
 earnest for us. It was our first serious engage- 
 ment and it showed me how a most gentle fel- 
 low, like my friend Merbach, could suddenly 
 become savage in the excitement of battle. 
 
 It was about 6 a. m. and we had just left 
 Tintage, where we had been quartered. We 
 were marching along the road which leads 
 from Martelange to Neufchateau, taking all 
 precautions necessary to our safety. Our bat- 
 talion was leading. Behind us came the 1st 
 and 5th Battalions of the 87th Infantry. The 
 80th Fusiliers and the 81st Infantry were on 
 our left. 
 
 About 1 p. M. a patrol coming from Len- 
 glier notified us that we could advance without 
 
 43 
 
44 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 danger since that locality was not occupied 
 by the enemy. After having some soup, pre- 
 pared by the field kitchens, we resumed our 
 march. All of a sudden, on our right, we 
 heard an unwonted noise, altogether new to 
 us. We knew right away what it was : a shell. 
 Several dropped quite close to us. Major 
 "Schmidt immediately gave the following order: 
 
 "The 5th, 6th and 7th Companies will ad- 
 vance in skirmish line, taking shelter behind 
 the hill which lies before them. The 8th 
 Company will stay behind in reserve." 
 
 All the officers, sword in hand, marched in 
 front of their men, as in a review. 
 
 The French and Belgians aimed very well 
 and, sad to say, were aided by our own 27th 
 Artillery who fired at us. After being rein- 
 forced by the 87th Infantry, Colonel Puder 
 ordered the attack. 
 
 We could see now with our own eyes what 
 war, which we only knew from books, really 
 is. Men hit by a bullet flung up their arms, 
 turned about and fell, dead or wounded. Ev- 
 erywhere one heard cries of pain and groans 
 
Lenglier 45 
 
 mingling with the whizzing of bullets and 
 shells, the hurrahs of the soldiers and the com- 
 mands of the officers. 
 
 Captain Dunker was wounded twice and 
 died that very evening. Lieutenant Eger, 
 w^ounded in the hand, soon fell down in a faint. 
 The 8th Company, which had until now been 
 held in reserve, advanced in its turn to the left 
 of the 5th Company. 
 
 All of a sudden the village of Lengher be- 
 gan to burn and the two last named companies 
 were ordered to take possession of it. The 
 staff of the 2nd Battalion, to which I be- 
 longed, was now on the right wing of the 2nd 
 Company. Lieutenant Brunn, an officer 
 much loved by all his soldiers, fell just as he 
 was giving an order, pierced through the heart. 
 Non-Commissioned Officer Steinbach fell at 
 the same time. 
 
 At last we actually entered Lengher, which 
 presented a sad spectacle. Houses were burn- 
 ing everywhere; the streets were strewn with 
 the bodies of soldiers and horses. A Belgian 
 officer was lying across a beam that was still 
 
46 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 burning. His body was half burnt and his 
 distorted face expressed horrible pain. This 
 unfortunate man had fallen there, wounded, 
 and must have been slowly burned alive. 
 
 Merbach and I, with our orderlies, were just 
 then at a telephone post in the depot. All of 
 a sudden we heard the screams of women and 
 children. Going out into the street we saw a 
 group of civilians, composed of four men, two 
 women and five children, in the midst of a troop 
 of officers and soldiers. Soldiers were kicking 
 these unfortunate people and striking them 
 with their rifle butts. The soldiers accused 
 them of having fired at Colonel von Kriestein, 
 commanding the 87th Infantry, who had just 
 been wounded. He died in Germany shortly 
 after. Their guilt could not be proven, for 
 French, Belgian and German bullets were 
 whizzing in every direction. Merbach took 
 these unhappy people under his protection. 
 In another house nearby a woman, holding a 
 young child in her arms, was killed by a mus- 
 ket blow in the presence of her husband. He 
 was later stabbed with a Jbayonet by a soldier 
 
Lenglier 47 
 
 of the 87th. I do not know what became of 
 the child. 
 
 In front of the station a young lieutenant of 
 the 87th was ordering a non-commissioned of- 
 ficer and two men to set fire to the hotel, under 
 the pretext that it was from there that von 
 Kriestein might have been fired at. These 
 three men first entered the hotel cellars in the 
 hope of finding some wine. They found it, to 
 be sure, but they immediately began to quarrel 
 because the non-commissioned officer wanted 
 to keep all the champagne for himself. So a 
 man of the 88th was chosen to set fire to the 
 hotel, which he did, floor by floor. Many 
 houses were destroyed in this way. 
 
 About six o'clock Merbach and I were sent 
 to look for the paymaster, in order that rations 
 might be distributed. We followed a little 
 path between two hills to the right of the sta- 
 tion. Soon we met a group of German sol- 
 diers, a seriously wounded French lieutenant 
 in their midst. When he saw us, this officer 
 said in German: ''Gentlemen, I beg of you 
 to deliver me from these wild beasts." The 
 
48 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 poor man had a bullet iir his abdomen and 
 seemed to be suffering intensely. Merbach 
 suddenly became very much excited and an- 
 swered brutally: "Take care of what you 
 say and don't talk that way about brave 
 soldiers who are fighting to deliver the world 
 from the filthy French. As sure as I am 
 standing here, I will not leave you until you 
 have died before my eyes." "Lieutenant Mer- 
 bach," said Paymaster Herbert who had just 
 joined us, "remember that he is an officer like 
 yourself and that he is wounded." But Mer- 
 bach did not wish to listen to anything and sent 
 us away. He remained alone with the dying 
 man. 
 
 I told Major Schmidt of this affair and he 
 ordered Merbach to take command of the 8th 
 Company, whose captain, Zieckenrath, had 
 been wounded. Two days afterwards, in the 
 battle of Bertrix, Merbach was killed by a 
 French soldier who dealt him a musket blow on 
 the head. He was one of my best friends. 
 
 In the battle of Lenglier the 2nd Battalion 
 lost five officers and sixty men. 
 
JLenglier 49 
 
 Night fell and we lay down in the midst of 
 the dead and wounded, whose cries we heard 
 all around us. Our camp was in a place about 
 two kilometres east of Lenglier, which contin- 
 ued to burn all through the night. 
 
 It was impossible for most of us to rest be- 
 cause we were all unnerved. Many soldiers 
 thanked God for having protected them. 
 Others boasted of having killed many Belgians 
 and French. Whenever, utterly tired out, we 
 began to doze a little, nightmares or shells 
 would rudely awaken us. 
 
 At dawn we went on. For eight hours we 
 marched around Neufchateau, where a battle 
 seemed to have taken place, and then we were 
 ordered to bivouac at Bercheux. 
 
 We had the 87th French Infantry aided by 
 a company of Belgian cyclists opposite us. 
 
VI 
 BERTRIX 
 
 Gn August 22nd the reveille sounded at 
 five o'clock in the morning. We marched 
 off at seven, following the road to the left of 
 Lenglier. After passing through Tournay- 
 en- Ardennes, we entered the forest of Huquant 
 where we snatched a moment's rest. Almost 
 all the inhabitants of the village had fled pre- 
 cipitately, leaving their houses intact in the 
 hands of the Germans, w^ho were pillaging, 
 breaking, and plundering everything. The 
 soldiers, for their own amusement, were throw- 
 ing furniture and dishes out of the windows. 
 Schmidt, it is true, from time to time said that 
 he would kill any one who went into the houses ; 
 but the soldiers did as they pleased and did not 
 obey Schmidt or any one else. 
 
 At eleven o'clock near the Luchy forest, on 
 
 60 
 
Bertrioo 51 
 
 the way from Bertrix to Recogne, we received 
 for the last time two days' rations. About 
 two o'clock an order from the Army Corps was 
 received. We were to attack immediately be- 
 cause the enemy, in great numbers, was get- 
 ting ready to block our path, and perhaps to 
 attempt to drive us back. Two of our com- 
 panies advanced on the left side of the road 
 and two on the right. We were assisted on 
 the right by the 1st Battalion, and on the left 
 by the 80th Fusiliers. 
 
 The 7th Company was ordered to form in 
 skirmish line, occupying the outskirts of the 
 forest, and to open the attack. The first one 
 to be killed was First Lieutenant Bertram. 
 He fell, struck by the bullet of a German sol- 
 dier named Schleisinger, whom the Lieutenant 
 had punished before the war by three days' im- 
 prisonment, and who wished to avenge himself, 
 and had moreover so expressed himself to his 
 comrades. His bullet made a little hole in the 
 nape of Bertram's neck. This Schleisinger 
 not only went unpunished, but a little while 
 later received the Iron Cross for bravery. He 
 
52 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 died in the hospital at Nesle of wounds received 
 in battle. 
 
 The battle of Bertrix was one of the most 
 important in which our battalion took part. 
 The French occupied a favom^able position 
 and tried their utmost to prevent our advance. 
 In order to avoid being driven back we had to 
 sacrifice all our reserves. The fighting was 
 desperate and both sides displayed equal val- 
 our. The French artillery and machine 
 gunners aimed very well and caused us great 
 losses. A great many soldiers fell, dead or 
 wounded, and it was impossible to bring aid to 
 any one because each one of us had enough to 
 do to shelter himself from bullets and shells. 
 At one time we thought that everything was 
 lost and that we would have to retreat, when, 
 fortunately, the 3rd Artillery Regiment of the 
 Mayence fortress broke through the forest and 
 arrived on the field. Hardly had the horses 
 come out from the sheltering trees when they 
 fell, overwhelmed by the French fire. Officers 
 and soldiers set to work dragging the guns and 
 pushing the wheels in order to be able to open 
 
Bertrix 53 
 
 fire as soon as possible. Many were killed. 
 
 At last the 3rd Artillery was ready to fire 
 and our cause took a turn for the better. Some 
 soldiers of the 5th and 8th companies suc- 
 ceeded in gaining possession of guns belonging 
 to the 18th French Artillery. The French- 
 men defended their guns, revolver in hand, and 
 died bravely for their country. Then the 
 Prussians cheered. The French, seeing a 
 part of their artillery lost and one of their 
 aviators fall, began to retreat slowly and to 
 offer less resistance. 
 
 The battle was over for that day and the last 
 rays of the sun gloomily lit up the field, cov- 
 ered with the wounded and dying. 
 
 The next morning, August 23rd, the conflict 
 began again, but less violently than on the 
 previous day. Still keeping in skirmish line, 
 we advanced, leaving Bertrix on our left. 
 The soldiers were hungry and many of them 
 opened the knapsacks of dead French and 
 Germans in order to find something to eat. 
 Bertrix was burning and we advanced through 
 a field of unmowed grain. We spent the night 
 
54 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 between Fontenoille and Chassepierre on the 
 French border. 
 
 The next day, at eight o'clock, we engaged 
 in our first battle on French soil, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Matton, and in Matton itself. 
 
VII 
 MATTON 
 
 On the morning of August 24th our bat- 
 talion again happened to march at the head of 
 the line. This did not please Major Schmidt 
 or the soldiers at all because we had already 
 lost more men than all the other battalions. 
 But Schmidt was the youngest commander and 
 he had to obey. 
 
 The French who were beating a slow retreat 
 had assumed the defensive in the woods near 
 Matton. We attacked them and a short while 
 afterwards occupied their positions. Since we 
 had no orders we stayed right there in the 
 trenches until the 80th came to relieve us. The 
 field kitchens, which were two kilometres be- 
 hind us, were waiting to give us a hot meal. 
 The men were satisfied and had already for- 
 gotten the hardships of the previous days. 
 But their happiness was of short duration. In- 
 
 55 
 
56 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 deed the French had just made a counter at- 
 tack and had pushed aside the 80th, who lost 
 the positions which we had gained. As soon 
 as he was told of this, the Commander of the 
 Army Corps, Baron von Schenk, ordered 
 Schmidt to attack immediately. Schmidt re- 
 plied : 
 
 ^f "Your Excellency, my battalion has lost 
 more men than all the others put together. 
 My men have fought like lions. They have 
 had almost nothing to eat for three days and 
 they can stand it no longer." 
 
 ''What's that? Are you not ashamed of 
 yourself?" said Schenk. "You will attack im- 
 mediately and the knapsacks will remain here." 
 
 Schmidt, with tears in his eyes, grasped the 
 battalion standard and placed himself at the 
 head of his men. He was seeking death. Be- 
 cause of this incident, Schmidt became popular 
 with all the soldiers. On the other hand, he 
 was unfavourably regarded by his superiors 
 and ended by handing in his resignation in 
 April, 1915. 
 
 Our artillery, which had done pretty good 
 
Matton 57 
 
 work that day, helped us take Matton, which 
 was already completely demolished, only a few 
 houses remaining intact. When the 80th 
 came to relieve us the soldiers exchanged mus- 
 ket blows and kicks. Our men called them 
 cowards and full dress soldiers. Our officers 
 said nothing but spat on the ground to express 
 their disgust before their comrades of the 80th. 
 
 We had to go about twelve kilometres to get 
 our knapsacks and at about 8 p. m. we took 
 up our quarters in more or less ruined houses. 
 
 The soldiers broke everything that was still 
 whole. They made fires of furniture and 
 planks torn from the floors. They found a 
 good deal of linen, especially women's under- 
 wear. Many men threw aside their shirts and 
 put on women's chemises, which they said were 
 much more comfortable in the heat. No one 
 could forbid them anything, for most of them 
 were drunk and would not obey. They quar- 
 relled in front of the cellar entrances and had 
 only one fear : that they might leave some wine 
 for others. Often in their haste they forgot 
 to turn off the taps so that the cellars were 
 
58 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 flooded with wine. Besides, many officers, es- 
 pecially reserve officers, were the first to set a 
 bad example. 
 
 I lived with Major Schmidt and his entire 
 staff in the house of a retired French captain, 
 that was still intact. He told Schmidt that he 
 could not understand how, in an army like 
 ours, which had such a reputation for disci- 
 pline, the soldiers could be permitted to plun- 
 der and steal as they had just done at Matton. 
 Schmidt asked me to answer him by saying 
 that unfortunately he could not punish the sol- 
 diers because too many officers themselves had 
 given such a bad example. 
 
 "How does it happen?" the old French cap- 
 tain went on, "that you mobilized so quickly? 
 In France there was so little thought of war 
 that we did not even have the time necessary 
 to prepare for our defence." 
 
 Lieutenant Wunderlich made him under- 
 stand that Germany had been preparing for a 
 new war for forty-four years, while in France 
 the people had only begun to think of such a 
 thing about a year or two ago. 
 
Matton 59 
 
 On the next morning, August 25th, at half- 
 past nine Paymaster Herbert arrived with 
 supply wagons in order to distribute provisions 
 among the kitchens. Then we saw who the 
 true thieves, the greatest plunderers, were. 
 What had they not stolen? Full trunks, 
 clothing, materials, clocks, phonographs and 
 even umbrellas, canes and other things of no 
 earthly use to a soldier. Beside the regula- 
 tion wagons there were a lot of others loaded 
 with loot. Some were entirely filled with 
 wine. When he saw this Schmidt asked since 
 when had he become a robber captain. The 
 paymaster answered, without moving a muscle, 
 that there had been no way of preventing the 
 soldiers from entering abandoned houses. 
 
 "Fine excuses," answered Schmidt. "I be- 
 lieve you are war profiteers. While the sol- 
 diers at the front are sacrificing their skins, you 
 gentlemen to the rear steal at leisure." 
 
 This band of thieves brought with them a 
 quantity of provisions stolen from the houses 
 and stores, and all sorts of poultry, geese ac- 
 tually hanging out of the wagons. 
 
60 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 At 2 p. M. the regiment left Matton to march 
 on Carignan. Along the road we could see 
 ambulances and shattered wagons and the bod- 
 ies of soldiers and horses which, because of the 
 heat, were beginning to pollute the air. We 
 also saw dead cows and pigs which the soldiers 
 had left to rot after they had cut from them 
 such meat as they wanted at the moment. It 
 was the work of marauders who wage war for 
 their own personal gain and only appear in 
 their units to get their pay. 
 
 At Carignan, for lack of space, we had to 
 camp out. On the twenty-sixth, we acted as 
 reserves for the troops fighting around Mou- 
 zon. During the night it rained so hard that 
 we had to go into the houses for shelter. Nat- 
 urally the soldiers had to stay indoors and that 
 caused some grumbling. I overheard Klein, 
 a first class private, express himself as follows : 
 
 "Whenever there is anything good to be 
 had, it's for the officers. As for us, they leave 
 us wherever we are and don't even look at us. 
 But let the battle come, then they are scared; 
 they compliment us and flatter us because they 
 
Matton 61 
 
 are afraid. Then they are just like little chil- 
 dren, but when the danger is over, they resume 
 their authoritative tone and treat us like dogs." 
 
 On August 27th, we crossed the Meuse, 
 near Carignan, without any difficulty. 
 
 We encamped at Villemontry which had not 
 suffered much. But the inhabitants com- 
 plained of the raids and pillages of the sol- 
 diers who, through their threats, got money 
 and other valuables. 
 
 In the evening every soldier received a bot- 
 tle of wine. The men, already fed by the 
 kitchens, nevertheless prepared anothei meal 
 for themselves, composed of chickens and other 
 provisions, stolen from the village. Indeed 
 nothing was left of the chickens and geese ex- 
 cept the feathers which flew around in the 
 streets. 
 
 On August 28th, reveille sounded at five 
 o'clock, the last reveille, alas, for the many of 
 us who were to fall on that day. 
 
VIII 
 AUTRECOURT 
 
 We formed part of the left wing of the 21st 
 Division and participated in the battle waged 
 in and around Sedan. We were stationed be- 
 tween Haraucourt and Autrecourt. The 25th 
 Division was on our left. The French artil- 
 lery aimed very well, but vnih small results, 
 because most of their projectiles did not ex- 
 plode. The shrapnel shells were the most dan- 
 gerous, because when they burst it was at a 
 certain height and a shower of bullets rained 
 down upon us. They caused us great losses. 
 We were lying on the crest of a small hill 
 to the east of Autrecourt and we could not 
 possibly advance because of the murderous fire 
 of the French, who shot at all those who were 
 foolish enough to raise their heads. ' 
 
 Major Schmidt, Reserve-Lieutenant Beck, 
 
 62 
 
Autrecourt 63 
 
 Loffelhardt and I marched with the battalion, 
 while Lieutenant Wunderlich, a drum-major 
 and a non-commissioned officer stayed about 
 fifty paces behind us with the telephone in 
 order to keep up communication with the rest 
 of the regiment. A shell, which exploded 
 right where they stood, struck a telephone 
 operator, so that he was literally cut to pieces, 
 and wounded Lieutenant Wunderlich in the 
 back and in the arm. 
 
 After we had surged forward and backward 
 several times we ended by succeeding in get- 
 ting into the village which was completely 
 destroyed. As at Lenglier I saw half -burned 
 corpses lying among the ruins. The wounded 
 groaned and the frightened animals bellowed 
 loudly in the stables. 
 
 It was about two o'clock when we entered 
 Autrecourt. In order to try to see Wunder- 
 lich, I, together with the major, sought the 
 field hospital which had been installed in the 
 church. 
 
 A frightful spectacle met our eyes and our 
 nerves were subjected to a severe test. At 
 
64 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 first, it was impossible to find Wunderlich, so 
 filled was the church with the wounded. We 
 would have had to step over their bodies. 
 Among others I remember the son of a mer- 
 chant from Hanau-on-the-Main, who had lost 
 both eyes. He screamed fit to break one's 
 heart and kept calling for his mother. In his 
 agony he tore off the dressing, and we could 
 see how horrible his wound was. Others had 
 one or two limbs shot away, or had their 
 stomachs torn open by shells. Some bore 
 their suffering resignedly; others on the con- 
 trary uttered loud shrieks. 
 
 In a garden, to the right of the church, were 
 the French wounded. I must say that most of 
 them did not scream, either because they were 
 afraid to or because of national pride and for 
 the sake of setting the Germans a good exam- 
 ple of courage. 
 
 We asked the nurses why they did not carry 
 these wounded Frenchmen into the houses in- 
 stead of letting them lie out in the open. *'We 
 have no room," they answered. "Besides it is 
 not cold during the night and they are well 
 
Autrecourt 65 
 
 covered." Let it be said in passing that the 
 nurses are the greatest thieves on earth. 
 
 We camped north of Autrecourt. The 
 companies assembled to report their losses in 
 dead, wounded and prisoners. Only then I 
 realized how hot the fighting had been. All 
 the companies had lost more than half of their 
 fighting force in dead or wounded. 
 
 Many of the soldiers walked over the battle- 
 field to find their friends, but most of them 
 were not ashamed to explore the pockets of the 
 dead. To any questions they answered that 
 they were looking for identification tags. To 
 put these ghouls to flight it was necessary for 
 Schmidt to issue a formal order, threatening 
 to shoot immediately any man who should 
 touch a corpse. 
 
 The Meuse flowed calmly at our feet, indif- 
 ferent to all this wretchedness of which, never- 
 theless, it was the primary cause. 
 
 In order that the convoys might cross the 
 river, the 21st Pioneers had built a bridge at 
 Villers, just ahead of Mouzon. Because one 
 could not see very well there and as the cross- 
 
66 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 ing was making slow progress the Pioneers 
 set fire to the houses nearest to the river. But 
 the fires spread over the village and soon it 
 was all aflame, so that one could see as though 
 in full daylight. The general commanding 
 the army-corps congratulated the 21st Pio- 
 neers. 
 
IX 
 RAUCOURT 
 
 On August 29th, 1914, after having received 
 a fresh supply of rations, we set out for Rau- 
 court. During the march our new aide-de- 
 camp. Lieutenant Kedor, especially distin- 
 guished himself. He was a booby who mal- 
 treated the soldiers who were already suffering 
 greatly from the heat and from thirst. As 
 they were not marching quickly enough, he 
 threatened them with his crop, insulted them 
 and called them dogs, pigs, band of peasants, 
 herd of cows, etc. Nevertheless, during the 
 battle, no one ever saw this hero, who preferred 
 to stay near the kitchens where shells and bul- 
 lets did not fall. This, however, did not pre- 
 vent him from being one of the first in the regi- 
 ment to receive the Iron Cross. 
 
 About 3 P. M. we arrived at Raucourt. 
 Here something happened which ought not to 
 
 67 
 
68 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 have occurred, but, honestly speaking, who in 
 the German army still had any respect for the 
 Red Cross, non-combatants, women, etc.? 
 Not many. 
 
 The 87th Infantry which was in the lead 
 had not neglected to take all precautions and 
 had sent patrols in various directions. Some 
 of these patrols preferred to remain quietly 
 at an inn at Raucourt, rather than fulfil their 
 mission. They stripped the entire house and 
 after taking whatever pleased them, went into 
 the cellar. There they seized a lot of wine, 
 especially champagne, as was afterwards 
 proved by the number of empty bottles lying 
 about on the ground. It was not long before 
 they were completely drunk. Then, whether 
 it was the result of a quarrel, or whether it was 
 by accident, one of the soldiers was killed by 
 the sideboard in the dining room. He had 
 been hit by the butt-end of a rifle which had 
 opened his skull like a melon. His brain oozed 
 out. His eyes, as big as fists, hung from 
 their sockets. He was completely disfigured. 
 So that no one could identify him the mur- 
 
Raucourt C9 
 
 derers had hidden his papers and taken his 
 military certificate out of his knapsack, which 
 was still lying in front of him, with the contents 
 all thrown about. What indicated that the 
 murderers were not civilians was the fact that 
 he still held his own gun and that the mur- 
 derer's gun, the butt all covered with blood, was 
 still there. 
 
 Lieutenant Kedor, the non-commissioned 
 ofiicers Dorr of the regimental staff, Hallen- 
 bach, Loffelhardt and I were the first to enter 
 the house, for a crowd of civilians and soldiers 
 had assembled outside the door without daring 
 to go in. We immediately understood what 
 had happened, and saw that only a German sol- 
 dier could have committed the murder. Ke- 
 dor said: "Who will denounce the criminals 
 so that they will be punished for their crime? 
 They will never be found. Nevertheless we 
 cannot allow the honour of the German army 
 to be sullied in this way.'' With these words 
 he went out of the house and accused the in- 
 habitants of Raucourt of having murdered a 
 Prussian soldier. 
 
70 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Immediately under Colonel Puder's orders, 
 First Lieutenant Schaffitzel, the adjutant of 
 the regiment, arrested all the inhabitants of the 
 houses near the inn, about twenty in number. 
 These miserable people swore that the soldiers 
 were fighting among themselves and that 
 they were innocent. Whereupon Puder 
 shouted : "Kill this whole crowd immediately 
 even though the innocent will suffer with the 
 guilty, and set fire to the hotel and the neigh- 
 bouring houses." Perhaps he thought that 
 one of these wretches might denounce some one 
 eke, but in this he was mistaken. However, 
 before he could countermand the order the sol- 
 diers, like wild beasts, threw themselves on the 
 fifteen or twenty men and women, condemned 
 without a trial hj Colonel Puder, and killed 
 them wildly with bayonet thrusts. During 
 this time others hastily set fire to the houses and 
 to the hotel, which were in flames within a few 
 moments. 
 
 Then the soldiers scattered over the whole 
 village, maltreating and terrorizing all the in- 
 
Raucourt 71 
 
 habitants. They were allowed full liberty to 
 do as they pleased. 
 
 The battalion camped outside of the village 
 in a field, where the bodies of French colonial 
 soldiers were still lying about. We suffered 
 much for want of tobacco. Major Schmidt 
 and we ourselves smoked tea. The soldiers 
 smoked dry leaves. Many stripped the dead 
 in order to find some tobacco, which they re- 
 sold for gold. Soldiers gave watches, rings 
 and French or Belgian gold pieces in exchange 
 for a few cigarettes. Where did all this 
 money and these valuables come from since the 
 German soldier is paid only five and three- 
 tenths marks every ten days? 
 
 On the next day, a Sunday and a day of rest, 
 a religious service was held at which the chap- 
 lain of the 21st Division preached, taking as 
 his text: "Love thy neighbour as thyself." 
 At half -past eleven a mass for the Catholic 
 soldiers was held in the church of Raucourt. 
 
 Because we of the general staff were in want 
 of wine, Major Schmidt told me to try and 
 
72 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 sneak out with Loffelhardt and find some. 
 So J started a little investigation among the 
 inhabitants of the village who advised me to 
 apply at a villa, situated at the northern limit 
 of Raucourt. This villa was occupied by an 
 old lady who lived there alone with her son 
 and who was likely to have a lot of wine in her 
 cellar. 
 
 When Non- Commissioned Officer Kumpfe, 
 Loffelhardt and I presented ourselves at the 
 villa we were thrown out by a young lieutenant 
 who had already taken up his quarters there. 
 
 So we returned to Major Schmidt to tell 
 him of the failure of our mission. Kedor, who 
 was never afraid in such a case, said that we 
 must return there with him. When we arrived 
 the young lieutenant had gone away and we 
 were able to see the lady at once. We ex- 
 plained the purpose of our visit, but she told 
 us: 
 
 "Gentlemen, everything in this house has al- 
 ready been taken by the general who lives 
 here." 
 
 "And where is this gentleman?" I asked. 
 
Raucourt 78 
 
 "He has gone out," she said. 
 
 "Very well. When he returns you will show 
 him our certificate of requisition." 
 
 Whereupon we went down into the cellar 
 and immediately began to pack up some bottles 
 of champagne and other wines. 
 
 As we were making ready to leave, with 
 about thirty bottles, the young officer received 
 us at the door of the cellar with these words: 
 
 "I'll teach you to drink my champagne I 
 You drink water, you rascals!" 
 
 But Kedor, who was not afraid, shouted in 
 his face: 
 
 "What are you saying? Who are you? 
 What are you doing in this house?" 
 
 "I am the general's adjutant and I order 
 you to leave this wine alone and to quit this 
 place as quickly as possible." 
 
 "Shut up; keep your mouth closed! I am 
 older than you. I believe you are only an im- 
 postor. You'll hear from me," answered the 
 bold Kedor. 
 
 Finally we arrived at Schmidt's quarters 
 with our stolen wine, but we could not drink 
 
74 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 much of it since our departure was fixed for 
 half -past four. We had hardly time to have a 
 bite before setting out. 
 
 Barely six kilometres from Raucourt we had 
 to halt in order to let other troops go by, be- 
 cause we were the reserves. This delay gave 
 Schmidt an opportunity to send us back to get 
 some more wine because we would probably be 
 going through places which had already been 
 stripped of everything by the troops preceding 
 us. So I set out with Lieutenant Abraham of 
 the 8th Company and Loffelhardt. All of us 
 rode bicycles. We were delighted to be able 
 to annoy the young lieutenant again. In the 
 village Lieutenant Abraham stopped a mo- 
 ment to speak to some soldier acquaintances, so 
 Loffelhardt and I went on ahead and pre- 
 sented ourselves . alone at the door of the old 
 lady's villa. 
 
 We knocked several times but no one an- 
 swered. Then we jumped over the garden 
 wall and removed the iron bar in order to open 
 the door and put our bicycles inside. We were 
 very much surprised to hear threatening words 
 
Raucourt 75 
 
 in German. The door of the house was also 
 closed so we climbed in at a window, and were 
 soon in the room from which the noise came. 
 There we saw a strange sight. In the room 
 were Non- Commissioned Officer Kumpfe, who 
 was one of our party the first time we had 
 come for the wine, Janecke, a first class pri- 
 vate, and the old lady. The latter was com- 
 pletely undressed and appeared about to faint. 
 When she saw us she started to cry, probably 
 thinking that we also had come to hurt her. 
 I told her to dress herself and to tell us what 
 had happened. 
 
 "About half an hour ago," she said, "these 
 two gentlemen broke into my room through the 
 window and asked for money. I told them I 
 had none because my son had gone away 
 and taken it with him. Not understanding 
 French, they thought I was refusing to give it 
 to them. I took them into the dining-room to 
 give them something to eat, but they pointed 
 their revolvers at me and dragged me into this 
 room. I tried to make them understand that 
 they would fincj nothing which would be of the 
 
76 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 slightest value to them. Then the taller one" 
 (this was Kumpfe) "sat down on my bed and 
 made me understand by signs that I was to get 
 imdressed. In like manner, I tried to convey 
 to him that I am an old woman, sixty-three 
 years old, and begged him to remember his 
 mother and to spare me such dishonour. Then 
 this gentleman took a candle and set fire to my 
 bed. I beg you to look at the sheets and 
 blankets. Half mad with fear I tore off my 
 clothes, ready to submit to the inevitable, when 
 luckily you gentlemen came." 
 
 Then I explained to the lady why we had 
 come back to see her, that she must not be 
 afraid of us and that we would pay her in 
 requisition certificates, which had the same 
 value as current money. Kumpfe, now thor- 
 oughly scared, begged me to say nothing of 
 what we had seen. Both he and Janecke asked 
 the old lady's pardon. She also asked us not 
 to say anything ; because she did not want these 
 men to be punished, and because she was em- 
 barrassed by the whole business. Loffelhardt 
 and I promised her to keep it secret. 
 
RaucouH 77 
 
 She asked us all to have something to eat, 
 and you may be sure we did not refuse. Lieu- 
 tenant Abraham, who had just arrived, also 
 accepted her invitation and seemed very much 
 pleased with the good woman. We did not 
 tell him all that she had endured. After sup- 
 per she herself took us to the cellar to get some 
 wine. Since we could not carry it all with us, 
 we told her to bury the rest, because I had 
 marked on the requisition bill that we had 
 taken everything; but I doubt if she did that. 
 Later on, when Kumpfe wanted to order 
 Janecke to do something, the latter said in a 
 clear voice: "Raucourt." Kumpfe immedi- 
 ately turned pale and gave his orders to an- 
 other soldier. 
 
 In the evening we rejoined the battalion, 
 laden like mules, to Schmidt's great satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 The villages through which we passed were 
 for the most part completely ruined, and in 
 many of them even the churches were no longer 
 standing. 
 
 Now the battle of the Marne awaited us, the 
 
78 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Marne where the French showed the stuff they 
 were made of and where General Joffre closed 
 the door on our hopes and illusions. 
 
 Here I wish to tell of some of the foolish 
 ideas of our soldiers in order to show to what 
 extent these illusions were spread about. We 
 were to enter Paris immediately; that went 
 without saying and no one doubted it for a mo- 
 ment. But all the soldiers were convinced that 
 we would be in England very soon as well. 
 
 "How are we going to get to England?" 
 asked one. 
 
 "Don't worry," replied another. "Wilhelm 
 has already prepared everything. One fine 
 day Dover will be bombarded from Calais and 
 we will quietly set off for London where we 
 can eat our fill of pudding." ' 
 
X 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE 
 
 We had the good fortune to remain in the 
 rear-guard for five days until September 5th, 
 1914, when we were led under the deadly 
 French artillery fire, to the north of Heiltz-le- 
 Merupt, in order to take part in the great bat- 
 tle of the Marne. The French artillery aimed 
 so well that on the march toward our position, 
 we lost almost half of our fighting force, in 
 dead or wounded. 
 
 We finally arrived at Heiltz-le-Merupt 
 where we had to stop because the village was 
 under fire. Always on the jump on account 
 of the violent fire of the enemy artillery, we 
 reached our positions between Sermaize-les- 
 Bains and Pagny-sur-Saul, on the railroad, 
 where we were sheltered. At this moment our 
 communications with the rear were interrupted 
 because of the close and violent fire of the 
 
 79 
 
80 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 French artillery which was becoming more and 
 more deadly. We were in relative shelter, but 
 only if we lay in the water. A torrential rain 
 fell unceasingly and we had eaten nothing since 
 4 A. M. We had to await nightfall before we 
 could leave our disagreeable position where, if 
 we were not shot to death, we would probably 
 be drowned like rats. 
 
 At 10 p. M. two field kitchens approached. 
 Without bothering to see to what regiment 
 they might belong the men threw themselves 
 upon them and stripped them of everything in 
 the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 Soon Loifelhardt and I were appointed to 
 take the reinforcements which had just arrived 
 from Mayence out to the battalion and to scat- 
 ter them among the various companies. Some 
 old Hanau acquaintanfces of ours were with 
 them. The important thing was that they had 
 tobacco and cigarettes, which we had been de- 
 prived of for a long time. 
 
 We showed the newcomers to their com- 
 panies. Many had only joined the colours six 
 weeks before. They were beside themselves 
 
The Battle of the Marne 81 
 
 at the idea of taking part in a great battle and 
 screamed so that we were obhged to shut them 
 up, for the French were hardly thirty or forty 
 metres away from us. I had hardly spoken 
 when the fusillade began again, very violently, 
 and then it was hard to restrain these valiant 
 warriors who began to run in all directions, 
 especially to the rear. Soon Loffelhardt and 
 I had to lie down flat in a pool of water. 
 
 The company orderlies were starting off 
 with new recruits when the order arrived for an 
 immediate attack on the French who were op- 
 posite us. That was a real butchery. For 
 the first time, I took part in a hand-to-hand 
 combat. Every conceivable weapon was used : 
 the bayonet, the rifle butt and even the trench 
 knife. The two artilleries thundered on and 
 caused terrible losses on both sides. Neither 
 French nor Germans gave any quarter and no 
 one wished to surrender. Our attack failed, 
 resulting only in enormous losses. 
 
 In the morning we saw Kedor approaching 
 with the four company adjutants whom he 
 had gone to look for, back where the field 
 
82 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 kitchens were. He wished to enroll the new 
 arrivals, but this was impossible because we had 
 no lists and anyway most of them had been 
 initiated by being killed, wounded or made 
 prisoners. For a long while, in Germany, the 
 many requests for information made by sol- 
 diers' relatives all received this simple answer : 
 "Missing since the battle of the Marne." 
 Many of these young soldiers did not even have 
 identification tags. 
 
 On September 6th, the firing subsided some- 
 what, but it continued to rain in torrents. I 
 was squatting at the bottom of a hole with 
 Loffelhardt quite close to the major. AH of 
 a sudden a French shell fell right into our 
 trench and tore six men to pieces. 
 
 About 5 p. M. Loflfelhardt and I went to the 
 rear carrying orders from the major to the 
 paymaster. He was stationed with the bag- 
 gage near Sagny-sur-l' Angle together with 
 all the provisions of the 21st in charge of Ritt- 
 meister, a captain of the Hussars. Just as we 
 came up the latter was questioning the mayor 
 of Sagny-sur-l' Angle who had been brought 
 
The Battle of the Marne 83 
 
 before him and accused of communicating with 
 the French, and of warning them of all our 
 movements by means of an underground tele- 
 phone. This suspicion was all the more well 
 founded because a German battery, which 
 had only just taken up its position, was im- 
 mediately wiped out by the French fire. A 
 non-commissioned officer of the 6th Uhlans 
 arrived in the townhall courtyard and ordered 
 the soldiers to arrest all civiliai^s. Three 
 women, among them the daughter of the 
 mayor, a young girl of eighteen, were found in 
 a cellar which had been their hiding place, and 
 were treated just like the men, that is to say 
 with the utmost brutality. 
 
 We spent the night with the paymaster and 
 were able to see what an easy and agreeable life 
 these gentlemen of the Quartermaster's De- 
 partment were leading. While we were doing 
 without everything in the trenches a frightful 
 waste was going on here. They did not deny 
 themselves anything. Wagons filled with 
 plundered goods were standing in line. Be- 
 cause it was raining, comfortable tents had 
 
84 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 been put up. The paymaster invited us to 
 have dinner with him and treated us just as 
 though we were in a first-class hotel. Many- 
 excellent courses and all kinds of wine were 
 served. Since Loifelhardt and I had had vir- 
 tually nothing to eat for forty-eight hours, our 
 appetites were enormous. Both of us were 
 possessed by the one idea of profiting by this 
 occasion, by eating enough for several days. 
 Everything that we ate at that dinner had been 
 stolen. A few steps from us some soldiers 
 who were guarding the civilians of Sagny did 
 not hesitate to show their utter lack of respect 
 for the women in a shocking manner. These 
 poor creatures could do nothing and they be- 
 gan to cry, but that did not prevent those 
 brutes from keeping right on. The officers 
 ought to have put an end to such conduct. 
 Are not two officers always detailed to stay 
 with the baggage? Where were they? Prob- 
 ably about to celebrate with stolen wine. 
 They were waging war in their own way. 
 
 After we were quite refreshed we responded 
 to the call of duty and rejoined our battalion 
 
The Battle of the Marne 85 
 
 at about 4 a. m. We had to creep over bodies 
 of dead men and horses and the ruins of 
 wagons, guns and automobiles which littered 
 the battlefield. It was impossible to walk up- 
 right without exposing oneself to the enemy 
 fire. So we had to crawl. I shuddered as I 
 touched the dead and reflected that perhaps a 
 moment later I too would be one of these 
 innumerable and unknown corpses. About 
 half -past six we reached the crest of a hill. 
 We offered a fine target to the enemy and their 
 bullets began to whiz over us. So we hid be- 
 hind a dead horse. Soon we saw some troops 
 in front of us retreating in our direction. 
 How great was our surprise to find that we 
 were in the midst of the first, instead of the 
 second, battalion. In answer to our ques- 
 tions we were told that the second battalion 
 was now further to the left. We went there 
 and I asked Major Schmidt why we had 
 abandoned the railroad line. He said: "You 
 have heard that the Germans with Von Kluck 
 were twenty kilometres from Paris, but, you 
 see, the matter fell through and we have to 
 
86 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 beat a retreat. If this goes on, we shall soon 
 have no more men left, for our losses are 
 terrific." We remained there without orders, 
 waiting to be taken prisoners. 
 
 "Chariot," Schmidt went on, "if fate wishes 
 us to fall into the hands of the French while 
 we are still alive, let us always stay together. 
 Why didn't I learn more French at school? 
 Well, that's understood, we'll keep together." 
 
 We remained there all day long; the French 
 artillery fired to our rear and prevented us 
 from retreating. They were also firing at 
 us and killing many of our men, so that our 
 position became intolerable. The stretcher 
 bearers did not know where to turn next for 
 the wounded were all crying out at the same 
 time, calling them from every direction. Some 
 men began to stick their handkerchiefs on 
 their guns to show that they wished to sur- 
 render, but the French did not pay the slight- 
 est attention to us, only answering by bullets 
 which very often hit their mark. Every one 
 was demoralized. In order to calm the men, 
 higher officers told them that we were retreat- 
 
The Battle of the Marne 87 
 
 ing as a precautionary measure, but no one be- 
 lieved that. The soldiers had no compunction 
 about shouting right at the officers: "Yes, 
 yes, you were too hasty with your Paris story. 
 Now the French have given us a beating which 
 we shall never forget." 
 
 Finally, on September 8th, about 7 p. m.^ we 
 escaped out of the death-clutch of the French. 
 We were ordered to begin the retreat, which 
 was wretchedly accomplished because of con- 
 tradictory orders and counter orders. First 
 they would send us in one direction and then in 
 another. If we had just halted in a spot 
 where we could get a little rest, another order 
 would immediately come telling us to leave it. 
 This uncertainty among their chiefs exasper- 
 ated the soldiers, who sometimes even began to 
 insult the officers. Many men, dead beat, re- 
 fused to go on, but stayed where they were, 
 surrendering to their fate. 
 
 On September 9th, about 4 a. m. our regi- 
 ment was ordered to act as rear-guard of the 
 division and to send out patrols composed of 
 trustworthy men. Until further orders, the 
 
88 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 bulk of the rear-guard was to occupy the south- 
 ern part of the Sommeilles forest. 
 
 It had stopped raining and the sun was shin- 
 ing brightly. Our little staff made themselves 
 as comfortable as possible on the edge of a 
 sand pit. They brought us coffee from the 
 kitchens. We took it with pleasure and were 
 discussing recent deaths when a French shell, 
 bursting quite near by recalled to us the fact 
 that the war was not yet over. Lieutenant 
 Kedor, who was dangling his legs over the edge 
 of the pit, all of a sudden rolled down, up- 
 setting our coffee and shouting: "Help! 
 Quick! I'm wounded!" Dr. Wolkewiz and 
 two nurses came running but he got up alone 
 and feeling himself all over said : "I thought 
 that a shell had torn me to pieces. But, thank 
 God, I see that there is nothing the matter with 
 me and that I am safe and sound." We all 
 laughed at the courage of this hero, who went 
 on : "Major, I had a narrow escape ; that shell 
 whizzed by my ears, so that I thought surely 
 the end had come. It's good that those sim- 
 pletons aimed badly." 
 
The Battle of the Marne 89 
 
 The major answered him: "Kedor, I 
 haven't laughed so much since we mobilized. 
 And just look! the whole battalion is doubling 
 up with laughter. It remains to be seen 
 whether it's on account of your heroism or your 
 acrobatic stunts." 
 
 Kedor, who was ill-natured, got angry at 
 these remarks and began to pick a quarrel with 
 the soldiers. But he had hardly opened his 
 mouth when they called out, shaking with 
 laughter: "Help! Quick! I'm wounded!" 
 
 In order to end this scene, Schmidt sent Ke- 
 dor to the kitchens to get us some more coffee. 
 
 Soon we continued our retreat. Von 
 Kluck's artillery galloped madly by, with in- 
 fantry men who could no longer keep up and 
 who did not wish to fall into the hands of the 
 French, hanging onto the gun carriages. 
 
 In the villages through which we passed 
 there was no longer any question of maltreat- 
 ing the inhabitants. Some of them asked us 
 if we were looking for the road to Paris. 
 Schmidt, for whom I translated these sarcastic 
 
90 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 questions, did not get angry and only shrugged 
 his shoulders. 
 
 At six o'clock we arrived at Hans where we 
 were to encamp with all of the 88th, the 87th, 
 the 6th Uhlans and the 63rd Artillery. The 
 streets were so crowded with guns and wagons 
 that it was impossible to get through. Officers 
 swore and yelled and soldiers did what they 
 chose. Many of the non-commissioned officers 
 were soundly thrashed by privates. While I 
 was going for orders for the brigade I saw 
 Lieutenant Anspach of the 3rd Battalion 
 swearing at an Uhlan who had touched him 
 with his lance in passing. The Uhlan an- 
 swered him in a rage: *'Shut up, you great 
 big thief; now you're getting back your cour- 
 age because we're far away from the French. 
 Be off with you, you poor coward, otherwise 
 you'll get something more." Anspach paled 
 and went off. I myself had removed the col- 
 lar of my cape in order to pass unrecognized, 
 for I realized that the troops were not respect- 
 ing their superiors just then. 
 
 The night passed quietly for the men, but 
 
The Battle of the Marne 91 
 
 we were kept busy with orders and counter 
 orders. 
 
 We left Hans on September 11th about 
 3 A. M., in skirmish line, and retreated east- 
 ward, crossing the trenches between Hans and 
 Somme-Tourbe. 
 
 About six o'clock we were relieved by regi- 
 ments who had not yet been tried out, and we 
 in our turn relieved the Guard which had been 
 beaten at Rheims. 
 
 Such was the part which our battalion 
 played in the battle of the Marne. 
 
XI 
 
 RHEIMS 
 
 We were marching northward in the direc- 
 tion of Vouziers when we were suddenly or- 
 dered to change our course. Upon consulting 
 maps, we found that we were being sent to 
 Rheims. Our march on that city was a veri- 
 table forced march, for we made about fifty 
 kilometres in one day. Colonel Puder shouted 
 to us : "Well, we'll have to pull other people's 
 chestnuts out of the fire again. It seems that 
 the Guard has been licked and no doubt we're 
 being sent to replace it." 
 
 It was at Bourgogne that we met the first 
 soldiers of the Guard. Our men received them 
 with sorry jokes. "Well," they said, "here 
 you are, you brawlers from Berlin. Did the 
 French give you a good licking? You just 
 look at us to see what real soldiers are. You're 
 nothing but full-dress soldiers. You know 
 
 92 
 
Rheims 93 
 
 how to shoot off your mouths; but when the 
 battle comes, you throw away your guns and 
 beat it " The officers said nothing and laughed 
 in their sleeves. Those remarks assured them 
 that we would do our duty and would efface the 
 failure of the Guards who had lost the fort of 
 Brimont. We were being sent to recapture it. 
 
 At first no one cared to attack because of the 
 accuracy of the French artillery fire. But 
 Brigadier- General von der Esch ran all along 
 the line, striking the backs of the soldiers with 
 his sword. Thus it was that the brigade re- 
 took the fort of Brimont. Afterwards von der 
 Esch told the officers that this was the best way 
 to make the soldiers advance, and to recall them 
 to their duty. 
 
 While we were taking the fort we were con- 
 tinuously subjected to the terrible fire of the 
 French artillery, which continued to pick off 
 our men. Our paymaster Herbert, who now 
 had to come a little closer with his supply wag- 
 ons in order to distribute the goods, was horri- 
 bly afraid but that did not prevent him from 
 getting the Iron Cross. 
 
94 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 During the afternoon of September 17th 
 Major Schleguer of the 1st Battahon and our 
 Major Schmidt ordered Loffelhardt and my- 
 self to go to Rheims in search of some cham- 
 pagne to celebrate our victory over the Impe- 
 rial Guard. We left on bicycles by way of 
 Aumenancourt-le-Petit, Bourgcgne and Fres- 
 nes. As we were coming out of Fresnes, shells 
 began to fall around us. We thought that 
 they came from our artillery whose range might 
 be too short. We were positive that Rheims 
 was not yet occupied by the French. On com- 
 ing out of the woods, a regular rain of shells 
 greeted us. We did not know what to do, 
 and thought that the best thing would be 
 to get into the city as quickly as possible. 
 There we would be safe. As we were passing 
 by a farm where a company of infantry was 
 hiding the soldiers asked us : "Where are you 
 going? Good luck to you!" All of a sudden 
 we found ourselves in the midst of an infernal 
 bombardment. '^Shells came from all direc- 
 tions and burst all around us. As we were go- 
 ing along that beautiful white road the French 
 
Rheims 95 
 
 artillery, who were really occupying Rheims, 
 fired at us as though they were shooting at tar- 
 gets. Realizing our mistake, and seeing that 
 we had long ago passed the German lines, we 
 went back at a dizzy pace. We surely beat all 
 speed records, for we had the whole French 
 artillery firing at our backs to hurry us away 
 and to give us courage. The road went up- 
 hill a bit, but just the same we rode on like 
 world champions in order to get out of this hell. 
 Schmidt, deeply moved, received us with open 
 arms: "My poor fellows," he said, "what an 
 unfortunate order! To risk your lives for a 
 bottle of champagne! You had scarcely left 
 when we were informed that our men no longer 
 held Rheims and that the road was being sub- 
 jected to a terrific bombardment. Luckily 
 Heaven protected you! Was that you rush- 
 ing along the road like madmen?" This story 
 shows what German soldiers are sometimes 
 forced to do. Surely Schmidt alone would 
 never have given such an order, but Schleguer, 
 a Prussian in the true sense of the word, would 
 have insisted upon immediate obedience. 
 
96 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Several soldiers who had eaten their reserve 
 rations were tied to a stake with their hands 
 behind their backs. On this occasion Private 
 Render of the 5th Company, who had served in 
 the Foreign Legion in Africa for five years, 
 said that there he had never seen soldiers sub- 
 jected to such treatment and that all the stories 
 told about the Foreign Legion in Germany 
 were entirely false. 
 
 On September 19th, we were relieved and 
 proceeded to Pignecourt where we took up our 
 quarters on a large estate. 
 
XII 
 
 THE MARCH ON ROYE 
 
 On September 20th we began our march to- 
 wards Roye. About three o'clock we passed 
 through Neuf chatel. We met detached groups 
 of soldiers, belonging to other regiments, lead- 
 ing numbers of pigs, horses, cows, etc., which 
 they had taken from the inhabitants. They 
 said they were taking them to their regiments. 
 Upon Schmidt's reminding them that pillaging 
 was forbidden they answered that their superi- 
 ors had ordered them to requisition these ani- 
 mals, but that they had not had time to rejoin 
 their units, which had retreated too soon. In 
 reality they were marauders. Neufchatel had 
 not been shelled, but all the shops had been 
 plundered and the goods thrown helter-skelter 
 into the middle of the streets. A strong box 
 lay in the garden of a villa the windows and 
 
 doors of which were broken. 
 
 97 
 
98 The Diary of a Gerinan Soldier 
 
 On September 20th, Major Schmidt, Dr. 
 Schafer, Dr. Wolkewiz, Lieutenant Kedor, 
 Loffelhardt and I stopped at a farm on the 
 road to Laon, not far from Neuf chatel, to rest 
 and to quench our thirsts. A very sad-looking 
 woman received us and asked us if we also had 
 come to bring dishonour upon her daughters. 
 
 Schmidt told me to question this woman, so 
 I asked her to tell us what had happened. 
 Then she took us into a bedroom where she 
 showed us the traces of the great crime which 
 had just been committed in her house. 
 
 "Three or four hours ago at the most," she 
 said, "three soldiers came here and asked me 
 for wine and money. I told them that I had 
 neither one nor the other and that I was alone 
 with my two daughters. They told me to call 
 my daughters. I tried to make them change 
 their minds, but they would not listen to any- 
 thing, and so, because I was afraid of their 
 threats, I had to obey. Hardly had they ap- 
 peared when the soldiers, like wild beasts, threw 
 themselves upon my poor children and pushed 
 them into this room, where, despite my cries, 
 
The March on Roye 99 
 
 they ruined them. One of them put his hand 
 over my mouth and held me back, striking me 
 the while. Here, gentlemen, you see the traces 
 of this wild struggle. I think, from his insig- 
 nia," she said, "that one of you gentlemen" 
 (she looked at Schafer) "is a doctor. I beg 
 him to give my daughters a careful examina- 
 tion so that he may testify that I speak the 
 truth." Schafer was left alone with the young 
 girls and came back a few moments later, re- 
 porting to Major Schmidt that they had been 
 raped by those blackguards. These two poor 
 young ladies, aged respectively eighteen and 
 twenty years, no longer dared to look even at 
 their mother, and stood ashamed before us. 
 
 We told the ladies that we would put in a 
 complaint, but that it would probably have no 
 result, for there were so many cads who 
 made war in this fashion on innocent people. 
 Schmidt told me to ask them if there was any- 
 thing more we could do for them. They 
 begged us to leave them alone. 
 
 Schmidt complained to Colonel Puder. 
 The latter answered that he could do nothing 
 
100 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 because it would be impossible to find those 
 blackguards and punish them, just as it was 
 impossible to punish marauders and thieves. 
 "In that case," he said, "Germany might as 
 well make peace immediately, for I see every 
 one stealing and every one has rings on his fin- 
 gers and jewels in his pockets. We would 
 have to jail almost every one." 
 
 Schmidt said to me, regarding this affair, 
 "Chariot, we speak badly enough of the Rus- 
 sians in Germany, but I think we are no better 
 than they Perhaps we are worse !" 
 
 On September 21st, we proceeded slowly 
 along the road from Laon. The soldiers were 
 singing. Lieutenant Kedor, who had a mania 
 for tormenting his men, wished to stop them. 
 But they all began to yell, imitating Kedor's 
 voice : "Help ! Quick ! I'm wounded !" thus 
 recalling to him his stunt in the sand pit, 
 and making him furious. In his anger he 
 went so far as to strike several men with his 
 crop. During one of our halts, he saw some 
 soldiers lying on the ground and struck one of 
 them on the nape of the neck. This man 
 
The March on Boye 101 
 
 calmly got up, took his gun, loaded it and aimed 
 at Kedor, who immediately began to run in a 
 zigzag line, calling for his horse. We were at 
 a little distance from this scene and were 
 greatly amused by it. Colonel Puder held his 
 sides with laughter. Schmidt had the soldier 
 brought to him and told him that he had done 
 right, and that he ought to defend himself 
 against every individual who might attack him, 
 whether friend or enemy. Colonel Puder and 
 General von der Esch himself also congratu- 
 lated the soldier. Kedor had disappeared. But 
 since he was aide-de-camp, he would soon have 
 to come back for orders. Schmidt took advan- 
 tage of the occasion to say to him: "Kedor, 
 you have already given us proof of your hero- 
 ism by showing us that even in the face of great 
 danger you keep your wits about you, and 
 know how to get out of it. But the soldier, 
 who surely would have killed you if it had not 
 been for our cries and bursts of laughter, is 
 still braver. In any case, you entertained us 
 very well." Kedor was very much downcast 
 for a short time, and left the soldiers alone. 
 
102 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 On the twenty-third, we left for Fressan- 
 court, La Fere, Chauny and Beaugies, where 
 we halted. 
 
 Each company had sent ahead a non-com- 
 missioned officer to secure quarters for the bat- 
 talion. The peasants of Beaugies, sirnple and 
 childlike people, surprised at our strange uni- 
 forms which were not French and which they 
 hadn't seen before, asked the quartermasters; 
 "Are you Enghshmen?" "Yes, yes," ^ the 
 latter answered in order to get good quarters, 
 and warned us, when we arrived, not to let 
 on that we were enemies. These good people 
 fought for the privilege of having soldiers 
 live with them, and showed us all sorts of 
 courtesies. Finally I could not refrain from 
 telling them that we were Germans. They 
 immediately ran away, as though a bomb had 
 fallen in their midst, crying, "The Prussians! 
 The Prussians!" It was very funny. 
 
 Thanks to my having made inquiries of the 
 maj^or, Major Schmidt and his whole staff 
 were quartered in a comfortable farm where 
 
 1 In English in the original. 
 
The March on Roye 103 
 
 we found food and some excellent wine which I 
 had advised the major to send us. Several 
 other officers of the battalion came to dine with 
 us and, thanks to the wine, many were soon 
 completely drunk, including our good Major 
 Schmidt. About 1 a. m. I had to go to Mau- 
 court for orders, and I learned that we were 
 to leave at two o'clock. It was about one 
 forty-five when I left Maucourt. I went to 
 the police post to warn the trumpeter to 
 sound the alarm and then returned to the 
 major. I found them all drunk and incapable 
 of understanding me. Thanks to Dr. Schafer, 
 who seemed a little less intoxicated than the 
 others, we finally made Schmidt understand 
 what he had to do. He immediately or- 
 dered the officers to assemble their troops at 
 the village gate within ten minutes. We were 
 supposed to leave at two o'clock, but at two 
 thirty the battalion had not yet been assem- 
 bled, for while the officers were drinking the 
 soldiers had been doing the same. Also a 
 great many lazy fellows failed to answer the 
 roll-call. 
 
104 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Before arriving at Guiseard we had to halt 
 in order to let other troops go by. Most of 
 the officers and soldiers threw themselves in 
 the ditches along the road, to continue their in- 
 teriiipted slumber and to sleep themselves 
 sober. Only a snap-shot was lacking. 
 
 At eight o'clock we passed through Guiseard 
 and Libermont. 
 
XIII 
 ERCHEU— SOLENTE— CHAMPIEU 
 
 Thanks to our artillery, it was compara- 
 tively easy for us to enter the village of Ercheu, 
 which, like the rest, was the scene of the usual 
 pillage. On our right was the 25th Division 
 under the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt. 
 The French were in possession of Solente, a 
 very favourable position. The Hessians on 
 our right were better located than we were and 
 could advance a little. As for us, no sooner 
 did one of our patrols venture out, than it was 
 immediately shot down. Volunteers were 
 asked for in vain ; no one responded. 
 
 At nine o'clock we received the formal order 
 to attack at midnight. Loffelhardt, who 
 brought us the order, told us that things were 
 not going well with us in Northern France and 
 Belgium and that the cavalry had been ordered 
 
 105 
 
106 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 to leave immediately by rail, because the Eng- 
 lish Army was offering an unexpected resist- 
 ance. 
 
 So the battle of Solente took place the night 
 of September 24th-25th, 1914. It was ter- 
 rible. French and Germans fought with blind 
 fury and neither side gave any quarter. The 
 heroic defence of the French again caused us 
 terrible losses, and we entered Solente at 5 
 A. M. only by literally walking over the dead 
 and wounded. 
 
 The eldest son of Major Schmidt, who had 
 joined the battalion only a short time ago, met 
 his death in this slaughter house. The father's 
 grief was heartrending. To those who tried 
 to console him, by saying that his son had died 
 for his country, he answered: "What do I 
 care about your country? Why do we need a 
 war?" 
 
 On entering Solente I witnessed a horrible 
 scene. A German soldier had gone into a 
 house to make some coffee. Near the stove 
 was an old woman, sitting up in bed. On her 
 right, an old man in a chair. About two feet 
 
Ercheu — Solent e — Champieu 107 
 
 from this group, a young woman was sitting 
 nursing her baby. A shell which had ex- 
 ploded in the room had mortally wounded the 
 old woman in the head, the old man was cut 
 in two, the soldier was lying on the ground, 
 dead, while the young woman was sitting in 
 her chair with her head cut off, but the baby 
 in her arms was entirely unharmed. No one 
 who saw this terrible sight could help crying. 
 
 During the whole day of the twenty-fifth the 
 fierce struggle continued for the possession of 
 the to^vn of Champieu, which we had to take 
 house by house. Our artillery aimed very 
 well. 
 
 Near the City Hall were lying the bodies of 
 more than sixty Frenchmen and dying horses, 
 who must have been kicking about among the 
 wounded. One dead Frenchman still held a 
 German helmet in his hand. Opposite this 
 scene the field kitchens were installed, and 
 drunken soldiers were singing cabaret songs 
 at the top of their voices. A phonograph was 
 going and Private Schreiner of the 6th Com- 
 pany was playing a waltz on his accordion. 
 
108 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 In one corner a Munich painter was calmly 
 sketching the scene. In front of every house 
 the bodies of French and Germans were lying 
 all jumbled in a heap. One young French- 
 woman, who had just come out of a cellar 
 where she had been hiding, started to shout in 
 the middle of the street, "Down with the 
 Huns!" She was immediately bayoneted to 
 death. 
 
 Many Frenchmen who had suffered only 
 slight bullet wounds were, nevertheless, found 
 dead, their breasts pierced by bayonets or their 
 skulls shattered by musket blows. The order, 
 given by the brigade, to give no quarter, had 
 apparently been carried out by killing the 
 wounded. 
 
 On the twenty-seventh we buried the dead. 
 The identification tags of the German soldiers 
 were carefully collected, but no one bothered 
 about the French, who were thrown pell-mell 
 into the trenches, which were then covered with 
 earth. An affecting ceremony was held when 
 Reserve Lieutenant Beck and Major Schmidt's 
 son were buried. ^ 
 
Ercheu — Solent e — Champieu 109 
 
 A woman of the village went mad and was 
 sent to a lunatic asylum. 
 
 "Why all this massacre? this slaughter? 
 What do those people who started this war 
 really want?" said Colonel Puder himself, much 
 affected by the death of Schmidt's son, for 
 whom he had cared a good deal. 
 
XIV 
 ROYE 
 
 On September 30th, 1914, we began the 
 assault on Roye, the following troops taking 
 part: 80th Fusiliers, 81st, 87th and 88th Infan- 
 try regiments of the 18th Ai-my Corps; 82nd, 
 83d, 84th and 85th Infantry regiments of the 
 21st Army Corps. There were thus eight in- 
 fantry regiments, not to speak of the artillery, 
 who had previously destroyed the town, espe- 
 cially the northern part. This bombardment 
 did the French much harm. The orphanage, 
 which had been turned into a hospital, was set 
 on fire and many of the wounded were burned 
 alive. 
 
 We left the town in pursuit of the French. 
 But, almost immediately, we had to seek shel- 
 ter in a sand pit on the road from Roye to 
 Amiens. 
 
 110 
 
Eoye 111 
 
 As we were coming out of Roye, six French 
 soldiers who had not been able to rejoin their 
 comrades, surrendered. Major Schlegler of 
 the 3rd Battalion immediately ordered those 
 soldiers who were standing nearby to shoot 
 these unfortunate men. But not one of them 
 would execute this barbaric command and 
 all tried to get away. Then Schlegler with 
 his revolver killed one of the French soldiers, 
 telling his men: *'If you don't obey me I'll 
 kill you like him." So the remaining five 
 prisoners were shot down by the soldiers. 
 
 Schlegler however couldn't boast for long of 
 his cruelty for hardly had the last prisoner 
 fallen, when he himself was shot from the left. 
 He in his turn fell dead. Lieutenant Abraham 
 delivered the funeral oration: *'Such a death 
 was too fine for this murderer." 
 
 At almost the same time, Kedor was quite 
 seriously wounded, his right forearm being 
 shattered by a bullet. The soldiers did not 
 hesitate to say that the man who had shot at 
 him had unfortunately not aimed quite accu- 
 rately enough. Every one was happy about 
 
112 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 it, and men came up to him, laughing in their 
 sleeves, while asking him hypocritically: "Is 
 the lieutenant suffering much?" 
 
 "No," answered Kedor, making a wry face. 
 
 "Come, come, buck up, and show that you 
 are a Prussian officer," said Schmidt. 
 
 The latter showing his right hand, which 
 had just then been slightly scratched by a 
 passing shell, added : 
 
 "Now I've had enough of this rotten busi- 
 ness — I'm going home. Let those who want 
 to fight, fight! I don't!" 
 
 With these words Schmidt bade us good-bye 
 and went to the field hospital. Right after 
 this he left for Germany. 
 
 On the next day we heard that Colonel 
 Puder had feigned illness, and that he also 
 had left for Germany. 
 
 On our right the 25th Division had just 
 taken possession of Soyencourt and Fresnay- 
 les-Roye; the 87th took Parvillers. 
 
 On October 3rd, Lieutenant- Colonel Bren- 
 tano was made commander of the 88th. Our 
 new battalion chief was Captain Bartsch, a 
 
Roye 113 
 
 former orderly of the commander of the 21st 
 Division. 
 
 On that day we took Quesnoy-en-Santerre, 
 which was in ruins. We found nothing there 
 but some poultry. 
 
 On October 7th, 1914, we were joined by 
 reinforcements from Mayence. Among them 
 were many soldiers who had already been 
 wounded and had recovered. They did not 
 show any enthusiasm. 
 
 October 5th, 1914, the new trench warfare 
 commenced for us. Each battalion spent two 
 days resting behind the lines and then four 
 days in the trenches. We took up our quar- 
 ters at Carrepuits, near Roye. 
 
 From October 13th to 26th we stayed before 
 Quesnoy-en-Santerre. 
 
 During this time the troops had the big job 
 of digging and arranging the trenches. 
 
 On October 27th, the French attacked us 
 simultaneously from three sides and we lost 
 our first line trenches. When we reported this 
 bit of news to Lieutenant Anspach, Regimen- 
 tal Adjutant, he said: "You are a band of 
 
114 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 cowards, and you ought to be ashamed of be- 
 ing Germans." This Anspach, a fellow of 
 Kedor's type, was himself the greatest coward 
 in the regiment, and during engagements spent 
 most of his time with the kitchens. Now he 
 was almost always in a dug-out. 
 
 On October 28th, the army corps ordered 
 us to attack in order to regain our first line 
 trenches. But the French gave us a fine re- 
 ception. We were completely beaten, leaving 
 four hundred prisoners, two guns and four ma- 
 chine guns in the hands of the enemy. We 
 also lost all our telephone apparatus, and had 
 to retreat still further to a place about two 
 hundred metres north of Damery. We had 
 had nothing to eat for two days and in front 
 of us lay more than two hundred German 
 corpses. 
 
 Finally, on November 2nd, we were re- 
 lieved and sent to rest up at Soyecourt until 
 November 6th. Now we had to turn the 
 trenches into veritable forts. They had to be 
 very deep, with communicating passageways. 
 Comfortable and safe shelters were dug, both 
 
Roye 115 
 
 for officers and soldiers. There were doors, 
 beds, chairs, mattresses. In our battalion we 
 even had a piano. In December, electricity 
 was installed. We were bombarded three 
 times a day, but the shells did not do much 
 damage. Every evening at nine o'clock the 
 kitchens served us a hot meal, with tea, rum 
 and other alcoholic drinks. At four in the 
 morning they brought us hot coffee. Some 
 men thought the life was quite bearable in com- 
 parison with our past sufferings. 
 
y 
 
 XV 
 
 THE GERMANS AT ROYE 
 
 We now spent all our rest periods in Roye 
 itself, in spite of the bombardments, and we re- 
 mained there four days at a time. 
 
 A captain of the 80th was appointed gov- 
 ernor of the city. He chose as mayor, a baker 
 named Lefevre, making him responsible for 
 anything that might come up. 
 
 He had to draw up a list of all the inhabi- 
 tants. All men from sixteen to forty-four 
 were sent to Germany. Every one else had 
 to work for the Germans. 
 
 From December on all the women had to 
 wash for the German soldiers. They earned 
 one franc a day, paid by the city with vouch- 
 ers, while all contributions had to be paid in 
 silver or gold. Others had to make sand 
 bags for the trenches. The men cleaned the 
 
 stieets and pulled down houses which were too 
 
 lie 
 
The Germans at Roye 117 
 
 badly damaged. Three, named by the mayor, 
 acted as policemen. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the soldiers scarcely 
 benefited at all from these rest periods, be- 
 cause every day they had one hour of company 
 drill and at least two hours of battalion drill. 
 At noon there was a medical inspection and a 
 review; at one o'clock, patriotic singing. 
 These prescribed duties had to be completed 
 whether there was a bombardment or not. 
 
 Pretending that its steeple served as a tar- 
 get for the French artillery, the chief of staff 
 ordered the church of Roye to be pulled down. 
 It gave our engineers great pleasure to ex- 
 ecute this order and soon only the foundations 
 of the building were left. The chairs, stalls, 
 the pulpit, confessionals and the pews were 
 used for firewood by the soldiers. 
 
 These men preferred staying in the trenches 
 to resting behind the lines; there they were 
 really better sheltered from shells and further- 
 more did not have to drill. 
 
 The headquarters of the battalions and 
 companies were permanently established in 
 
118 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Roye. Every evening the sergeant majors 
 came to the trenches to make their reports. 
 Some men who were in with the non-commis- 
 sioned officers were permanently attached to 
 the office and walked about town, running 
 after women or getting drunk. The kitchens 
 and all the offices were also at Roye. 
 
 Many non-commissioned as well as com- 
 missioned officers obtained mistresses, almost 
 always by threat and violence. 
 
 On December 22nd, our battalion cele- 
 brated Christmas two days ahead of time be- 
 cause on the twenty-fourth, we were to go back 
 to the trenches and it was easier to have a cele- 
 bration in the ^ city. The captain who com- 
 manded the battalion in the absence of 
 Schmidt (who, since his recovery, was com- 
 manding a detachment at Ham) addressed us 
 as follows: 
 
 "Dear Comrades: 
 
 "We cannot celebrate this German holiday 
 in the midst of our families. A world of ene- 
 mies is marshalled against us in order to crush 
 
The Germans at Roye 119 
 
 us and to seize our property, oui' wives, our 
 children. Cowards that they are, they at- 
 tacked us, but we've shown them that we're still 
 the same old Germans who know how, sword 
 in hand, to defend themselves and to protect 
 their country. We are fighting, and we are 
 ready to die for this holy cause. I ask you to 
 shout with me: 
 
 "Long live his Majesty, Emperor Wil- 
 liam II. 
 
 "Hoch! Hoch! Hoch!" 
 
 Lieutenant Nolte of the 6th Uhlans thanked 
 
 the captain and then some soldiers, grouped 
 
 about a piano, started the song: "Stille 
 
 Nacht, Heilige Nacht/' ^ 
 
 Just as they finished the last verse, a shell 
 
 burst behind the wall, in the cemetery. Some 
 soldiers who went out, came back and told us 
 that several graves had been torn open and 
 that the limbs and remains of the dead were 
 scattered all over. This incident rather damp- 
 ened our enjoyment of this "Stille Nacht." 
 When the celebration was over the soldiers 
 
 1 Silent Night, Holy Night. 
 
120 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 went back to their companies, where they got 
 beer and alcoholic drinks in such quantities that 
 soon all of them were disgustingly drunk. 
 They scattered through the streets, knocking 
 at doors of houses where they knew that ladies 
 were living. It is true, patrols had been or- 
 dered, as is usually done on such occasions, but 
 the patrols themselves and their commanders 
 were as drunk as the others and instead of pun- 
 ishing them, they helped them make a racket, 
 and cause disorder. 
 
 In our battalion we had a "Beer Evening," 
 at which all the officers were present. One 
 knows what that is. As long as it lasts no 
 other drinks ought to be taken. But there 
 were so many other drinks that soon the offi- 
 cers were as badly off as the soldiers. 
 
 On December 24th, 1914, our new chief, 
 Major Bogge, arrived. He was a former 
 captain of the 65th Infantry from Cologne, 
 whence he had been removed because he was 
 too cruel to his men. Then he had been sent 
 to the General Staff at Berlin, where he was 
 made a battalion chief. 
 
The Germans at Roye 121 
 
 After this he became commander of the fort 
 at Stuttgart. Rogge, who was a great cow- 
 ard and was coming to the front for the first 
 time, was very much afraid of shells. When 
 he heard one come, he writhed like a snake. 
 The soldiers hardly ever laughed when shells 
 were falling into the trenches, but no one who 
 saw Rogge could help laughing at him. As 
 soon as he arrived in our dug-out his first ques- 
 tion was: "Can one live here without being 
 shot?" We tried to calm him by telling him 
 that the enemy was not aiming at us, but at 
 Roye. "You've done your work well," he told 
 us, "everywhere I've been there's not a single 
 house standing. What are all those graves 
 which I saw along the road, marked with caps 
 or helmets? Tell me something about a bat- 
 tle? What really happens?" Then Lieuten- 
 ant Nolte gave him a terrifying description 
 in which nothing was lacking — the shattered 
 limbs, cries of the wounded, frenzied horses, 
 etc. "Just imagine. Major, I saw one man 
 walking in Tours, with his entrails coming out 
 of his open belly." Rogge did not wish to 
 
122 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 hear any more; he turned pale and drops of 
 perspiration beaded his forehead. He did not 
 eat anything during the entire meal. Nolte's 
 talk had taken away his appetite. But he 
 made up for it by drinking like a fish. Nolte 
 signed to us to hide the wine bottles, because 
 it seemed as though Rogge were going to leave 
 nothing for the rest of us. It was astonishing 
 to see how much that man could drink, — a 
 professional would have been afraid to com- 
 pete with him. 
 
 If it had occurred to the French to attack us 
 that evening there would not have been much 
 resistance, although we had taken the precau- 
 tion of doubling sentries. 
 
 On December 31st, we celebrated New 
 Year's Eve at Gruny, near Soyecourt, where 
 we were resting. We heard the muffled roar 
 of cannon and the sky was ablaze with red and 
 white rockets. This did not hinder the sol- 
 diers from joyously firing their guns into the 
 air in honour of the New Year which was to 
 bring us peace. 
 
 In the evening every one was royally drunk. 
 
The Germans at Roye 123 
 
 In our battalion we were all gathered about 
 Rogge, who presided. A drunken soldier 
 tried to force his way in with his gun. After 
 he had been thrown out, he came back with a 
 sabre, and if it had not been for Dr. Wolke- 
 wiz, who grabbed my arm, I should have been 
 stabbed to the heart. Rogge wished to have 
 him shot but his comrades had already hidden 
 him. This little incident, however, did not 
 prevent us from going on drinking beer, wine 
 and liquors. Soon several officers rolled under 
 the table. Rogge was happy. 
 
 The soldiers were doing the same thing. 
 They fought and made a deafening racket all 
 night long. If there had been an alarm we 
 could not have assembled even a single com- 
 pany. 
 
 On January 2nd, a French aviator hovered 
 over our lines for a long while. Our artillery 
 aimed at him in vain. Shrapnel burst about 
 him, but he was not hit. After he had found 
 out what he wished to know, he rose and re- 
 turned to the French lines, to report. Our 
 officers called the artillery "pigs" — "trash," 
 
124 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 etc., because of their awkwardness, but they 
 only laughed. They had no doubt done their 
 best because, for every aeroplane brought 
 down, the battery received a barrel of beer. 
 
 A few days afterwards we received regi- 
 mental orders to sound unexpected night 
 alarms, whenever the battalion was not on the 
 march. Under Schmidt these alarms had al- 
 ways taken place at nine o'clock, so that the 
 men could have a night's rest. No one ever 
 failed to report and Schmidt was always 
 pleased. But with Rogge, everything was 
 different. 
 
 On January 2nd, 1915, we celebrated the 
 first six months of the war. Sergeant Major 
 Hauser, secretary of the battalion, went to 
 Rogge in the name of all the non-commis- 
 sioned officers to ask him not to have the alarm 
 sounded that night, because the non-commis- 
 sioned officers were going to have a little 
 party. Rogge promised. This is how he kept 
 his promise. 
 
 It seems that the non-commissioned officers 
 drank a great deal. But with us, as soon as 
 
The Germans at Roye 125 
 
 one emptied his glass it would have to be filled 
 again, for Rogge's great pleasure was to make 
 all his guests drunk. Some young lieuten- 
 ants asked permission to go to bed, but Rogge 
 would let no one leave. About 3 a. m. Lieu- 
 tenant von Stein was so drunk that he had 
 to be carried to bed. He looked like a dead 
 man, for he no longer moved a muscle. This 
 amused Rogge very much. At four o'clock 
 Rogge ordered us to sound the alarm. We 
 reminded him of his promise, but he answered, 
 *'This band of peasants has had enough sleep; 
 they must not forget that they are soldiers." 
 The orderlies left immediately to warn the 
 companies. We tried our best to awake von 
 Stein, but in vain. He did not stir. Rogge 
 then told us to pour a pail of water over his 
 head. This measure met with no success ; von 
 Stein continued to snore. So Rogge said to 
 us, "Leave that pig there, the drunkard alone, 
 since there is no way of waking him." 
 
 We repaired to the meeting place, where 
 the companies were already assembled. But 
 the soldiers were grumbling and many were 
 
126 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 missing. Private Merkel, of the 8th Com- 
 pany, whom Lieutenant Nolte reminded that 
 he had forgotten his saucepan, answered; 
 
 "Yes, Lieutenant, but I'm not drunk as 
 some others are." The officer commanding 
 the 5th Company was missing, but when Ser- 
 geant Major Saltenberger reported this to the 
 chief, the latter answered: "Go to the devil." 
 
 Rogge collected the commissioned and non- 
 commissioned officers and said to them: 
 "Gentlemen, this is disgraceful. If you and I 
 can report, I am sure these peasants can do as 
 much." 
 
 Sergeant Major Saltenberger assembled the 
 non-commissioned officers of the 5th Com- 
 pany and imitating Rogge addressed them in 
 the following manner : "Gentlemen, I'm very 
 much pleased with your answer to the alarm. 
 I promised you there would be none, but never- 
 theless, I had to disturb your sleep. I regret 
 that the commander of the 5th Company 
 should have been absent, for that's a black 
 mark for us. I advise you, gentlemen, not 
 to imitate him, for we superior officers, what- 
 
The Germans at Roye 127 
 
 ever our rank, ought always to set a good 
 example. Good night, gentlemen. Break 
 ranks." Rogge, who had heard everything, 
 was furious but could do nothing. A few 
 days later, Sergeant Major Saltenberger was 
 declared unfit for service, by the doctor, be- 
 cause of his nerves, and was sent back to Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Our new position (between Parvillers and 
 Dumery) was more dangerous. All day and 
 all night shells rained down on the trenches. 
 Every day we had fifteen or twenty killed and 
 wounded. 
 
 On February 12th, we were sent to Nesles 
 for a two weeks' rest. The city had not suf- 
 fered much but the inhabitants complained bit- 
 terly of the troops, who were plundering every- 
 thing. 
 
 On February 24th, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Brentano reported sick and left for Germany. 
 Rogge was made commander of the 88th. 
 He "cleaned out the regiment," as he said. 
 Anspach, the regimental adjutant, was made 
 commander of the 7th Company, and von 
 
128 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Stein took his place with Rogge. Nolte, al- 
 though only a reserve officer, was made 
 Rogge's aide-de-camp — an unheard of thing, 
 but Rogge could not do without him. Schiel- 
 lein, a wine merchant from Mayence, who up 
 to now had been in the quartermaster's depart- 
 ment, lost his place and was sent with Anspach 
 to the 7th Company. Rogge did this to 
 avenge himself on Schiellein because he owed 
 the latter a large sum and thought to get rid 
 of his creditor by sending him under fire. A 
 short time before he had asked Schiellein for 
 several cases of champagne, and the latter had 
 refused them to him, because he knew that he 
 would never be able to collect for them. Re- 
 serve Lieutenant Rickert, a theological stu- 
 dent, was made adjutant of the 2nd Battalion. 
 That same day, Rickert, Loffelhardt and I 
 went to see Major Schmidt, commanding a de- 
 tachment of young recruits at Ham, to talk 
 over all these changes with him. He told us 
 that there would be a great review in two days, 
 and that he would then ask to be returned to 
 his battalion. 
 
The Germans at Roye 129 
 
 The review did, in fact, take place before 
 Grand Duke Louis of Hesse who said that he 
 was very well satisfied with Schmidt's recruits 
 and awarded the latter a medal for bravery. 
 The training of the recruits was over, so 
 Schmidt asked and obtained permission to re- 
 sume command of his former battalion. All 
 the soldiers were pleased, for they cared a lot 
 for him and called him "Papa Schmidt." 
 
 Of course, relations between Schmidt and 
 Rogge became very much strained. They 
 hated each other and Rogge made use of every 
 opportunity to criticize Schmidt. 
 
XVI 
 
 THE FORMATION OF THE 56th 
 DIVISION 
 
 On March 5th, we were ordered to throw 
 away our guns and ammunition, because we 
 were going to get Russian guns instead. We 
 were also told to move our camp farther on, 
 because the three battalions were to take up 
 quarters on the next day in three villages be- 
 tween Ham and St. Quentin. The 2nd Bat- 
 talion was to go to Fluquieres. The convoys 
 that were bringing ammunition to the batteries 
 of the 210th, stationed at Sovencourt were 
 there too. LofFelhardt and I called on the 
 governor of Ham who was also the lieuten- 
 ant of artillery in charge of the distribution of 
 ammunition. He was living in the chateau 
 at Ham. He greeted us pleasantly, and told 
 us that Major Schmidt and his staff were wel- 
 
 130 
 
The Formation of the 56th Division 131 
 
 come to live with him in the chateau. That 
 night, for the first time since August 20th, 
 1914, we did not hear the guns. 
 
 In the town, where we went to find quarters 
 for our men, we were badly received by the 
 inhabitants who complained that they had had 
 to entertain soldiers continuously for the last 
 five months. One man said to me: "We no 
 longer know how to protect our wives and 
 daughters. All the Germans try to get mis- 
 tresses, in any manner possible. The com- 
 mandant always supports the soldiers, and be- 
 sides he himself keeps a young gu'l whom he 
 has made his mistress in his chateau by force." 
 When we saw the conmaandant again we men- 
 tioned this matter. Laughing, he asked us if 
 our ofllicers also hunted women and were in 
 love with some little French girls. Loffel- 
 hardt told him that we were a fighting unit, 
 and not in the quartermaster's department — 
 also that we waged war on soldiers, not on 
 civilians and above all not on women. 
 
 "My friend, you're amusing," replied the 
 lieutenant. "In any case, I'm prudently go- 
 
132 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 ing to hide my angel so that no harm will come 
 to her!" 
 
 With that, he left us, to do as he had said. 
 Who was "his angel"? Probably some un- 
 happy girl whom he was holding in the 
 chateau. 
 
 We told Schmidt about this, but he only 
 shrugged his shoulders and said that every one 
 makes war in his own way. As the officer 
 made our stay at Ham as pleasant as possible, 
 Schmidt said nothing to him about it. 
 
 On March 8th we were quartered at Bohain 
 where we remained for some time. 
 
 On March 11th we handled our Russian 
 guns for the first time. Instruction in their 
 use began immediately. We could not under- 
 stand why they gave us such poor ones. 
 
 On March 15th, we received the following 
 order : 
 
 "The 35th, 88th, and 118th Infantry, the 
 latter two regiments forming part of the 18th 
 Corps, will make up the 112th Brigade of 
 Infantry which will be part of the 56th Divi- 
 sion. Each battalion is to furnish twenty 
 
The Formation of the 56th Division 133 
 
 men who will form a company of cyclists and 
 accompany the staff of the division. The 
 55th Division will also comprise a squadron 
 of the 13th Hussars and the 111th and 112th 
 Artillery regiments, to each of which shall 
 be attached three heavy batteries besides their 
 regular ones." 
 
 The commander of the new division was a 
 General Eberhard, who had been the instruc- 
 tor of Prince Joachim of Prussia. The com- 
 mander of the brigade was Colonel Munter, 
 who had commanded the 41st Brigade since 
 December, 1914. 
 
 On March 19th, we were ordered to be ready 
 to leave in the morning. 
 
 Our battalion, which thus far had behaved 
 pretty decently, spoiled its reputation, on 
 leaving Bohain by stealing a large quantity 
 of wine. Some men of the 7th Company 
 broke open the door of a cellar, which had 
 been sealed by the commandant, and took 
 possession of all the wine they found there. 
 Almost the whole company was drunk. The 
 sergeant major, named Dombach, had two 
 
184 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 hundi^ed bottles of wine loaded on a wagon, 
 expecting to drink them later on with his 
 friends. But he did not touch one of them, 
 for we told Major Schmidt about it and he 
 ordered it all to be taken for the battalion staff. 
 So after all we were the ones to drink the stolen 
 wine. 
 
 At 2 p. M. we took the train for Cateau, 
 Charleville, Sedan and Attigny, where we 
 were to stop. 
 
 The journey was gloomy, and the train no 
 longer bore inscriptions, like there were on that 
 which took us to Luxemburg in August, 1914, 
 — "Express for Paris," or "Declarations of 
 War received here." 
 
 Natm-e alone seemed obhvious to the war, 
 for the meadows and grain fields were iust 
 beginning to turn green. 
 
XVII 
 GIVRY 
 
 About 10 p.m. we were ordered to make 
 ready to leave Attigny for Givry, where we 
 were to stay until further orders. Loffelhardt 
 and I set out to seek quarters for our staff 
 and to find stable room for one hundred and 
 twenty horses. 
 
 The governor, a cavalry captain, thought 
 fit to stick Schmidt in a dirty room, which was 
 already occupied by a sick woman, while the 
 rest of us, the doctor included, had to sleep 
 with the men in the barn. 
 
 Schmidt's rage may be imagined. He was 
 all the more angry because right opposite to 
 him a young cavalry lieutenant was strutting 
 about a hotel, all by himself. The next day 
 he told the governor that he wished to have 
 the hotel vacated immediately, in order to 
 make room for himself and his staff. The 
 
 135 
 
136 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 magnificent lieutenant was ordered to pack 
 himself off before noon. The latter then 
 started to strip the hotel and to have all the 
 furnitm^e carried outside, not forgetting the 
 "German stove." Knowing that it would be 
 impossible to find even a single chair in the 
 village, I warned Schmidt of the lieutenant's 
 action, and he stationed a sentinel with loaded 
 rifle in front of the hotel with orders to shoot 
 any one who attempted to carry off anything 
 whatsoever. He told me to inform the lieu- 
 tenant of this order. No sooner had I de- 
 livered my message than this fellow yelled at 
 me insolently : 
 
 "And who are you, my good fellow? Get 
 out of my way immediately or I'll strike you 
 in the face with my crop." 
 
 It was in vain that I told him that I was 
 only giving him Schmidt's message. He 
 wouldn't listen to anything I said. 
 
 Schmidt, told of this, sent me back with 
 Rickert whom he ordered to bring the lieu- 
 tenant to him, by force if necessary. 
 
 When he saw Rickert, the cavalry lieuten- 
 
Givry 137 
 
 ant saluted him politely and followed him with- 
 out any protest. 
 
 We had never seen Schmidt in such a rage. 
 He shouted so that all the soldiers, who hap- 
 pened to be in the street ran to hide them- 
 selves; they expected that he would strike the 
 lieutenant with his crop, and they did not want 
 to have to testify against him. 
 
 As soon as the lieutenant appeared, Schmidt 
 yelled at him : "How dare you, you miserable 
 lazy fellow, insult and threaten any one who 
 comes in my name? Stand still, not one step 
 or I'll accuse you of insubordination. Give 
 me your name! What's your business here? 
 How can you have the cheek to strip that 
 house?" In exasperation Schmidt brandished 
 his crop. 
 
 The lieutenant answered: "I have the 
 honour to report to the major that I was hav- 
 ing the beds, the piano and all the furniture re- 
 moved as well as the stove and all the wines 
 of the place, because I consider them to be my 
 property." 
 
 "Aren't you ashamed," answered Schmidt, 
 
138 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 "to lie that way — But no, you're right 
 —we're just beginning to find out that all of 
 you in the quartermaster's department and 
 in the rear are nothing but a band of shame- 
 less robbers, who spoil the reputation of the 
 German army, while we are having our jaws 
 broken in the trenches. See that the hotel is 
 in order in one hour's time and that not a pin 
 is missing, or I'll have you reported for steal- 
 ing and that'll teach you to cut up and defy 
 brave soldiers like us who have just come from 
 the front." 
 
 Once we were settled in this fellow's quar- 
 ters Schmidt asked me to try my utmost to 
 find some eggs for breakfast, so I went to the 
 house of a villager who had some chickens. 
 
 "I'll tell you, sir," he said, "I've got some 
 chickens, but I'm not allowed to sell them, 
 give them away or eat them myself, and the 
 same with the eggs. Everything is at the dis- 
 posal of the governor, who sends an orderly 
 every week to see if I still have my quota. If 
 a single one is missing, I've got to pay one 
 hundred marks," Schmidt, who was in the 
 
Givry 139 
 
 humour for putting an end to abuses, started 
 a row at the governor's house and made him 
 rescind his command. The grateful villager 
 sent Schmidt a basket of eggs. 
 
 At Givry, I for the fii'st time witnessed a 
 case of insubordination. A soldier threw his 
 gun down in front of Lieutenant Schaller, 
 commanding the 2nd Company, saying: 
 
 * 'Here's your old gun — Stick me in 
 prison ; I'm tired of being treated like a kid." 
 
 Schaller had the man arrested and taken be- 
 fore the major after drill. 
 
 *'Well, my good fellow," said Schmidt, 
 ** what's got into you? I'm going to give you 
 a taste of the punisliment you deserve, but be- 
 cause of your wife and children. Lieutenant 
 Schaller 's complaint shall go no further." 
 
 The man was tied to a tree with his hands be- 
 hind his back and a sentinel with a loaded gun 
 was stationed near him. The sentinel sat in a 
 chair smoking a cigar, which showed the soldier 
 that he had acted like a fool and that it was 
 better to obey orders. 
 
 On the twenty-second, we were ordered to 
 
140 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Savigny because our division was soon going 
 to return to the trenches. About two o'clock 
 Loffelhardt and I wanted to go into Vouziers, 
 but a policeman stopped us. No one was 
 allowed to enter the city just then because the 
 Emperor was reviewing the Guard. Extra- 
 ordinary precautions were taken to insure the 
 Kaiser's safety. A squadron of German aero- 
 planes flew above Vouziers during the whole of 
 his stay, and he was protected by a regular 
 iron wall. On the following day, the Ar- 
 dennes Journal, a German paper edited in 
 French, announced that his Majesty had gone 
 to the firing line (Vouziers was then hardly 
 twenty kilometres from the front) and had dis- 
 tributed Iron Crosses among his brave soldiers 
 of the Guard (the same who had run away at 
 Rheims and who had lost the fort at Brimont 
 which we had been obliged to retake) . 
 
 Vouziers was often bombarded by French 
 aviators. The General Headquarters of Gen- 
 eral von Einem, Commandant of the Third 
 Army, were located there. 
 
 After the review we entered Vouziers. The 
 
Givry 141 
 
 soldiers of the Guard were walking about the 
 streets, most of them drunk, because beer had 
 been generously distributed after the review. 
 
 At Savigny, Kedor, who had had enough of 
 the trenches, pretended that his wounded arm 
 hindered him from riding horseback, and was 
 sent to Mayence. 
 
XVIII 
 
 IN CHAMPAGNE 
 
 On March 25th, 1915, we took possession of 
 our new sector between Le Mesnil-les-Hurlus 
 and Ville-sur-Tourbe, popularly called "The 
 Devil's Hole." It was a nasty position, a 
 place specially made for breaking one's neck. 
 One was hardly sheltered there and had almost 
 no communication with the rear. During the 
 four days that we stayed in the first line 
 trenches, we could get nothing from the kitch- 
 ens. Each man, before he set out, got a three- 
 pound loaf of bread, a bit of fat (butter or 
 cheese), his canteen and two bottles filled with 
 coffee. This had to do him for four days. 
 The men were prepared to attack, their cloaks 
 roiled up and their bags filled with hand 
 grenades. Behind this position there was a 
 second one called "support." Finally in the 
 third Hne trenches were the reserves. We 
 
 142 
 
In Champagne 143 
 
 were immediately sent to the first line. Never 
 since the beginning of the war had we been 
 in such a horrible place. We were surrounded 
 on all sides by the bodies of dead Germans and 
 Frenchmen, and sinceiom^ trenches had a depth 
 of hardly sixty centimetres, we frequently had 
 to use the dead as bulwarks. All those bodies 
 which had not been buried were a terrible 
 sight. I do not know what prevented us from 
 going mad. The French lines were hardly 
 twenty to thirty metres from us. Because the 
 two lines, far from being straight, made all 
 sorts of turns, death approached us from all 
 sides without our ever being able to tell 
 whether the bullets were French or German. 
 The trenches were so shallow that it was im- 
 possible to walk upright, and we had to crawl 
 or doube up. We had no shelter, indeed it 
 would have been useless for the French artil- 
 lery, which never stopped firing, would have 
 destroyed it and besides how could the ma- 
 terials have been brought to us? Every single 
 man who wished to reach the trenches had to 
 slip in between the dead. ^ In various places 
 
144 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 arms and legs sticking up from the ground 
 helped to point the way. For instance, we 
 said, "A few metres to the left you will see 
 a hand sticking up from the ground wearing 
 a wedding ring: the left wing of the battalion 
 is about twenty metres in a straight line from 
 there." In order to shoot we had to push aside 
 bodies right and left, and since no one ever 
 knew where they were shooting, because of the 
 irregular line, many soldiers killed their own 
 comrades. 
 
 Most of all, we were afraid of aeroplane 
 bombs. We heard them start off, then all of a 
 sudden we saw faintly a sort of a bottle way 
 up in the sky — which, slowly describing a para- 
 bola, landed in the trenches and exploded. If 
 we could have sought a shelter as soon as we 
 saw them coming we might have had a chance, 
 but where were we to go? When the bomb 
 had burst all the men, who had lain down flat 
 on the ground, raised themselves in order to 
 see the damage. It was a terrible sight. One 
 time, I remember I saw two men cut in tiny 
 pieces and a third was so terribly riddled that 
 
In Champagne 145 
 
 his body was like a skimmer. The head of one 
 of the dead men could not be found. Since 
 no one could be buried, the bodies were simply 
 thrown in front or in back of the trenches. It 
 is impossible to describe our suflPerings and our 
 anguish during those four days. 
 
 At last the moment of our escape from this 
 hell arrived. But it took us more than three 
 hours to get out of the trenches because we 
 had to take great precautions. The battle 
 field was really continuously lit up by French 
 and German rockets and in order to get 
 away we had to creep in between the bodies 
 in single file so that we looked like a proces- 
 sion of ghosts. If one of our men was 
 wounded we had to let him die there, for it 
 would have been impossible to carry him to the 
 second line, without risking our own lives. All 
 of us had only one idea, to get something to 
 eat as soon as possible for we were literally 
 dying of hunger, since almost all of our pro- 
 , visions had been eaten during the first two 
 days. At last we came to a place where a 
 machine gun was set up and where the ground 
 
146 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 allowed us to walk upright and to advance 
 more rapidly. Unfortunately the French 
 shells rained on, and killed many more of our 
 men. Finally this bad half hour was over and 
 we reached the auxiliary position. This really 
 formed a part of the first line, for we were still 
 only sixty or eighty metres from the French, 
 but here there were shelters and we were in 
 relative safety. The aerial bombs could no 
 longer reach us, but the shells and, above all, 
 the shrapnel poured down on us unceasingly; 
 the stretcher bearers and nurses had so much to 
 do that they could not even take time to eat. 
 The wounded were transported to the rear, and 
 the dead were buried in the regimental ceme- 
 tery, prepared behind the shelter of Schmidt's 
 staff. A helmet or a fragment of the shell that 
 killed him was placed on each man's grave. 
 
 One day I was present at the funeral of a 
 non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Com- 
 pany, who had just been killed. Shells rained 
 on us from all sides, while several German 
 aviators who had just arrived on the scene 
 attempted to attack the French. While the 
 
In Champagne 147 
 
 soldiers were singing a sort of a funeral hymn 
 and were lowering the body into the grave, 
 a bomb fell in our midst killing six men and 
 wounding just about as many. We left the 
 body without continuing the ceremonies, and 
 every one hurried into the shelter, while a 
 regukr storm of French shells beat down on 
 the cemetery. 
 
 At the end of eight days, if you count the 
 time we spent in the first line trenches, we 
 were sent to Ripont for four days' rest. It 
 would have been better to have been left where 
 we were, for there was no shelter at Ripont 
 and the French artillery fire was just as bad. 
 Nevertheless, we were able to get a shave for 
 the first time in twelve days. When the artil- 
 lery was not firing, the soldiers played cards 
 or cleaned their new Russian guns. These 
 often went off by themselves, and caused sev- 
 eral accidents. On account of the steady fire 
 we did not have to drill. 
 
 When our rest period was over, we had to 
 return to our "Devil's Hole," where during our 
 first four days we had lost fifty-eight dead and 
 
148 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 as many wounded. All the soldiers were 
 downcast and discouraged. We had hardly 
 arrived when Rogge instructed us to be pre- 
 pared for a night attack. The men got a 
 mixture of tea and about ninety per cent, alco- 
 hol. Our attack, which met with no success, 
 was led by Captain Baron von der Recke, who 
 was seriously wounded. On the following day 
 there came an order from the 8th Reserve 
 Army Corps, in which we had been incorpor- 
 ated. The general complained of the coward- 
 ice of the battalion, which had failed in the 
 attack, and impressed on us the fact that we 
 had to make still greater effort to drive back 
 the French who had succeeded in penetrating 
 our part of the lines. The soldiers were 
 broken hearted and many wrote home, think- 
 ing that it was perhaps for the last time. 
 That evening the tea contained even more 
 alcohol. Besides, a little while before the at- 
 tack each group of eight men received a bottle 
 of cognac, so that they all became veritable 
 beasts. At eleven o'clock we crawled out of 
 our holes like ghosts, slipping in between the 
 
In Champagne 149 
 
 corpses. We lay on our stomachs, our knives 
 held in our teeth, and our bags full of hand 
 grenades, clutching our rifles, until the moment 
 when the order was given to spring forward. 
 Our men acted like wild beasts. Orders had 
 been given to spare no one, and even the 
 wounded were killed. But the French de- 
 fended themselves like lions and we had to give 
 way. The only result was, that about half of 
 the battalion were killed or wounded or taken 
 prisoners. We had to go back to our lines 
 creeping in between the dead. French and 
 Germans shot bright rockets into the air, so 
 that the night was turned into day. The 35th 
 and 80th regiments on our left and the 18th 
 on our right never stopped firing all night long 
 and the artillery and French machine guns 
 made a great disturbance on their side. 
 Schmidt said: "Isn't there a bullet for us 
 too? When will this slaughter end?" 
 
 This time we were sent to rest between Grat- 
 reuil and Ripont in a place where the engi- 
 neers had dug huge subterranean shelters, each 
 one holding two hundred and fifty men. 
 
150 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 These shelters were covered with earth and tree 
 trunks, and were out of the way of the shells. 
 
 We had hardly arrived there when an order 
 of the 56th Division commanded Schmidt to 
 report sick and to leave immediately for 
 Vouziers. Rogge had complained, accusing 
 Schmidt of having through his incompetence 
 caused our night attacks to fail. Schmidt was 
 sent back, but he was looking for nothing bet- 
 ter, and had several times refused to execute 
 Rogge's orders. Once he had even said in my 
 presence, that he had had enough of it all and 
 that he only wished to be sent back to his 
 family in Wiesbaden. 
 
 Eger, who, at the beginning of the war, had 
 only been a lieutenant, was appointed to fill 
 Schmidt's place, as battalion chief. He im- 
 mediately acted like a brute. On the first day 
 of his command he ordered out the band, and 
 forced the battalion to goose step, while the 
 shells poured down on them. As each shell 
 whizzed by, the men trembled but Eger pre- 
 tended not to notice it. He shouted at them, 
 saying that what they were doing was not a 
 
In Champagne 151 
 
 goose step, but a regular funeral march. It 
 was only too true, for all of a sudden a shell 
 burst to the left, killing three men of the 8th 
 Company. Those standing near by were cov- 
 ered with blood and some of them were 
 wounded, and fled. Nevertheless, Eger con- 
 tinued the parade as though nothing had hap- 
 pened, and ordered the names of the fifteen or 
 twenty men who had disappeared to be noted, 
 so that they might be severely punished. As 
 to the three dead, Eger pronounced their fu- 
 neral oration by saying to the other soldiers: 
 "Take away those three pigs who didn't know 
 enough to fall in battle and hurry up about it 
 because our drill isn't over yet — Will you 
 hurry? If you don't I'll run over you with 
 my horse, and knock you all in a heap, you 
 band of peasants." 
 
 In this way Eger celebrated his promotion 
 as commander of the 2nd Battalion. Six 
 months later, while still in Champagne, he did 
 not himself know enough to have himself killed 
 by a French soldier, for a German bullet found 
 his heart. 
 
152 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 When he went into the trenches, he always 
 had something to criticize. He had the soldiers 
 build a little hut above his shelter "to breathe 
 a little fresh air," he said. He only stayed 
 there when the French were not firing. They 
 destroyed his hut before two days were over. 
 The following day a note was found nailed 
 to one of the beams which was still stand- 
 ing: "If you wish to take an airing, go into 
 the trenches instead of sitting down in front 
 of the dead and laughing at them. We are 
 patriots, who are fighting for our country, not 
 cowards." 
 
 Eger, half mad with anger, said all these 
 pigs had eaten and drunk too much and that 
 he would find a way to kill every one of them. 
 "This evening," he said, "I'm going to treat 
 them all as they deserve." 
 
 This was his vengeance, a regular drunk- 
 ard's vengeance. Every day the companies 
 got some rum. That evening he had only six 
 bottles distributed to each company. The rest 
 was drunk in our shelter. Eger had invited 
 all the officers. Soon he and Lieutenant 
 
In Champagne 153 
 
 Boettger, eighteen years old, became so in- 
 toxicated that they got into an argument and 
 wanted to come to blows. Boettger was 
 thrown out, and left in the trench, as dead, so 
 that the fresh air might revive him. Eger 
 was pushed into a corner. Lieutenant Tietz 
 of the 6th Company and Lieutenant Schaeffer 
 of the 7th even wished to tie him, in order to 
 keep him quiet. 
 
 The German papers are full of tales of such 
 rows, which are always attributed to the Rus- 
 sians. But, nevertheless, they sometimes also 
 occurred in our army, the effect moreover of 
 rum, stolen from the soldiers. 
 
 For several days, a rumour had been current 
 that we were going to be replaced and that we 
 would be sent to the Vosges or to Arras. No 
 one knew just exactly what was going to hap- 
 pen. Finally, on May 2nd, 1915, we were re- 
 lieved by the 65th Reserve Regiment. We 
 were ordered to entrain on May 3rd, for 
 Somme-Py. We did not know where we 
 were going but we were all happy in the 
 thought of leaving this hell, where so many of 
 
154 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 us had been killed. About six o'clock it was 
 announced that Lodz had just been captured 
 by the Germans. All the assembled soldiers 
 yelled "HmTah!" But a storm of French 
 shells fell on us and the hurrahs were replaced 
 by the screams and groans of the wounded. 
 There were two non-commissioned officers, 
 Muller and Wolff, both of the 6th Company; 
 one had his right arm shot off, the other both 
 legs shattered. Both of them were expecting 
 their cormnission as second lieutenants. 
 
 In the evening of May 2nd, we left for 
 Somme-Py. 
 
XIX 
 
 ACROSS GERMANY AND AUSTRIA 
 
 On May 2nd, 1915, about seven o'clock we 
 reached the ruins of Somme-Py. We had 
 some soup, and then got into the train which 
 was waiting for us and was to leave about two 
 o'clock. But first we attended to the loading 
 of the baggage and the horses. It feels queer 
 to travel without knowing where you're going. 
 Some said we were going to Arras, because the 
 men from Wurtemburg could not hold out any 
 longer. Others professed to know from a re- 
 liable source that we were bound for Alsace. 
 Those who said nothing were the most sensible, 
 for even the station officials only knew the 
 name of the next station, where we were to 
 stop for something to eat. Our train was run 
 as far as Sedan by soldiers of the 3rd Engi- 
 neers. After that, we were in the hands of 
 state officials. 
 
 156 
 
156 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 At Sedan there was a two hours' stop. The 
 station was guarded by soldiers and no one was 
 allowed to go into the city. We were ordered 
 to remove our chevrons and insignia because 
 no one was supposed to know who we were or 
 where we came from. That was an excellent 
 way to confound spies. 
 
 At ten o'clock we left Sedan and the follow- 
 ing morning, at four o'clock, we passed through 
 Sarrelouis, where coffee was served. The day 
 before everything around us had spelled ruin 
 and desolation. Today we were back in civili- 
 zation, far from the war and the thunder of the 
 guns. We could hardly believe our eyes. 
 The ladies of the Red Cross were very sympa- 
 thetic when we told them that we came from 
 Champagne. The coffee was excellent and 
 the soldiers drank as much as they liked of it. 
 At six o'clock we rode on toward Kaiserslau- 
 tern. Now we were sure that we were bound 
 for Russia, either to the Carpathians or on into 
 Serbia. The soldiers were delighted, for they 
 knew very well that the fighting was not nearly 
 so severe on the Eastern front, as it had been 
 
Across Germany and Austria 157 
 
 in France. They sang and seemed suddenly 
 to have forgotten all the horrors of the war. 
 What seemed strangest to us was that we no 
 longer heard the whizzing of shells above our 
 heads. 
 
 At eleven o'clock we arrived at Kaiserslau- 
 tern, where Paymaster Herbert, Rickert and I 
 were ordered to distribute provisions among 
 the various companies. It all went very well 
 and quickly, because everything had been pre- 
 pared in advance. A meal had been prepared 
 in the station restaurant for us, and you may 
 be sure we did not leave a single crumb on our 
 plates. 
 
 After dinner we tooJi a little walk on the sta- 
 tion platform to limber up. Many wounded 
 were coming in from Argonne and the Vosges 
 where they had suffered a great deal. A 
 crowd had formed around one of the stretcher 
 bearers. I went there and a Red Cross nurse 
 told me: "It's a wounded Frenchman, who 
 doesn't know any German." I drew nearer 
 and spoke French to this soldier, whom I told 
 that he had nothing to fear, because really it 
 
158 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 was only the English who were hated in Ger- 
 many. The man told me that in France every 
 one was sure of winning the war, and of get- 
 ting back Alsace and Lorraine. 
 
 All the way from Klein- Steinheim to Hanau 
 the soldiers were joyfully anticipating passing 
 through our own depot. They hoped to have 
 the chance to see and kiss their parents and 
 their wives. All along the tracks a crowd of 
 civilians had rushed up to see the 2nd Bat- 
 talion go by. I don't know how they learned 
 of our coming. The train proceeded very 
 slowly in the midst of the hurrahs of soldiers 
 and civilians. 
 
 At the station, wounded officers of our bat- 
 talion were waiting for us. Relatives and 
 friends had been admitted to the platform. 
 One may imagine what heartrending scenes 
 took place. The meal served to the men was 
 excellent — by far the best of the whole trip. 
 Civilians overwhelmed us with dainties and 
 presents. 
 
 We left Hanau at eight o'clock, on May 5th. 
 We passed through Chemnitz and Goerlitz. 
 
Across Germany and Austria 159 
 
 In the latter place the stop was rather long, 
 the station being filled with the militia so that 
 no one could go out. Two of our men suc- 
 ceeded in sneaking through the guard. They 
 were stopped by the militia and taken to the 
 station by six men with fixed bayonets. Eger 
 asked them: 
 
 *'Why did you go out?" 
 
 "We wanted to do some shopping," they an- 
 swered. 
 
 "And you had yourselves arrested by these 
 civilians." (This was Eger's term for all non- 
 combatant troops.) "Aren't you ashamed to 
 be in my battalion and to get yourself locked 
 up by those donkeys who haven't been to war 
 ataU?" 
 
 Eger sent away the two soldiers without 
 punishing them, because he hated all stay-at- 
 home troops. 
 
 The food prepared for the soldiers was not 
 fit to eat. The men complained and said that 
 they would raid the station kitchen if they 
 weren't allowed to eat in the city. The officers 
 tasted the soup and told the station-master that 
 
160 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 it was scandalous and wicked to treat soldiers 
 just back from the front in this way. 
 
 In spite of that no one was allowed to go 
 out, because we were to leave at ten o'clock. 
 
 At Koenigshutte we had our last meal on 
 German soil, and entered Austria. We passed 
 through Lansashutte, Kallowitz and Magsol- 
 witz. We were in Galicia. 
 
 At Wadowicz we were served by the Aus- 
 trian Red Cross ladies who were even more 
 amiable than the Germans. They told us to 
 lick the Russians good and plenty, so that the 
 war would soon be over. 
 
 We met a train stuffed full with Russian 
 prisoners. In some coaches the sick and 
 wounded were lying all in a heap on a bit of 
 straw. No one bothered about them. 
 
 On May 7th, we were at Neu Sandec and 
 on the eighth, we got off at Biezc. From 
 Neu Sandec to Biezc the train proceeded very 
 cautiously, because the Russians had torn up 
 some of the tracks during their retreat. 
 
 In the depot at Biezc we saw huge piles of 
 ammunition, machine guns and a considerable 
 
Across Germany and Austria 161 
 
 amount of other material, which the Russians 
 had abandoned in their retreat. Then we un- 
 derstood why we had been given Russian guns. 
 Biezc was in ruins. War was to begin again 
 for us. 
 
 Our trip across Germany and Austria had 
 lasted five dayi§. 
 
 The 56th Division was to assemble here and 
 await orders. 
 
 Now we knew that we were to pull the chest- 
 nuts out of the fire for our dear allies, the 
 Austrians, many of whom, as we shall see later 
 on, did not themselves wish to fire on the 
 Russians. 
 
XX 
 
 IN GALICIA 
 
 We of the staff could not take a moment's 
 rest, for we had to study maps and receive 
 orders. We were going to take up quarters 
 at Jablonica. We went ahead to prepare 
 them. Our maps were not bad, but as the 
 Russians had built new roads during the war, 
 we lost our way twice. People of whom we 
 asked directions would not open their mouths, 
 and looked as though they were making fun 
 of us. Our dear allies even refused to give 
 us water. The roads were wretched. We 
 had to carry our bicycles, sinking up to our 
 knees in sand. 
 
 Because a battalion of the 118th Infantry 
 and a hospital unit had preceded us, we could 
 find no quarters for our men. It was all we 
 could do to hunt out a place to house Eger 
 who did not like to sleep in the open. The 
 
 162 
 
In Galicia 163 
 
 place we found for him was an unbelievably 
 filthy hovel, where about ten persons, men, 
 women and children, slept in a single room, all 
 jumbled together in two beds filled with straw. 
 
 A frightful, musty odour greeted us. A 
 nmnber of chickens ran unmolested around the 
 room. We opened doors and windows, and 
 began to clean up a bit, and chased the chickens 
 out. A woman brought us sheets and fresh 
 straw, and sent the family away. She only 
 consented to this on the condition that she 
 would be well paid; but she is still waiting 
 for her money. Eger made a face when he 
 saw his quarters. In spite of the airing the 
 smell was awful. These people were ac- 
 customed to live on dung heaps, and this ex- 
 plains why there were not more epidemics. 
 Moreover, wherever we went in Galicia it was 
 the same; the people were repulsively dirty, 
 and covered with lice. 
 
 Eger, Rickert, Loffelhardt and I had to 
 sleep in this hovel. When we went in we 
 found a young man and woman sleeping in 
 our bed. Eger chased them out. The rest 
 
164 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 of the family were lying on tables. Two old 
 women slept on straw mattresses in front 
 of the fireplaces. We could not close an eye 
 all night for lack of air and because of the 
 "cooties," which did not give us a moment's 
 peace. On the following day we saw one of 
 the women carefully inspecting the head of 
 another woman. In answer to our question, 
 she said she was looking for lice. We had 
 obtained permanent guests during that night 
 in the hovel. These new companions did not 
 leave us during our entire stay on the Eastern 
 front. 
 
 At ten o'clock we left for Jaslo. The bat- 
 talion's march was very fatiguing, for the men 
 were continually sinking into the sand. Rick- 
 ert, Loffelhardt and I, who had gone ahead 
 on horseback, met the famous General Mack- 
 ensen, whose quarters were about two kilo- 
 metres away. All the troops along the road 
 cheered him. He passed by without saying 
 anything, as though he were weary of hearing 
 soldiers shout. 
 
 The Russians had blown up the great rail- 
 
In Galicia 165 
 
 road bridge at the southern entrance of the 
 village. The troops crossed the Wistoka over 
 a pontoon bridge, built by our engineers. In 
 order to proceed more rapidly we found a ford 
 which our horses could cross easily enough. 
 
 The Jaslo station was completely destroyed, 
 we could not tell whether by the Russians or 
 the Austrians themselves. In any case it had 
 not been done by those Russians who had just 
 evacuated the town about four days ago be- 
 cause we could see that the work had been done 
 long, long before. 
 
 The Galicians who stayed behind did not 
 speak very badly of the Russians, except the 
 Jews, who told frightful tales but at the same 
 time seized the opportunity to cheat us terribly 
 whenever we bought anything of them. 
 
 As the inhabitants did not understand Ger- 
 man, we talked to them by means of signs. 
 Rickeii; got down on all fours to show that he 
 wanted a stable. 
 
 On May 10th we rejoined the rest of the 
 division. 
 
 The 188th led, followed by the 88th Infan- 
 
166 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 try, and the 111th and 112th Artillery; the 
 35th Infantry brought up the rear. 
 
 An Austrian regiment was marching along- 
 side of us. Some of these men shouted insults 
 at us in Polish. 
 
 "Cowards !" answered our soldiers. "You've 
 gotten a good hcking from the Russians, and 
 now we've had to come to your help in this 
 dirty country, full of lice." 
 
 The officers forbade the men quarrelling 
 with the Austrians. 
 
 Columns of Russian prisoners were also go- 
 ing along the same road. Rogge, upon seeing 
 them, said to his men: "Do me the favour of 
 letting those pigs carry your knapsacks, and 
 you take their tobacco and cigarettes." In an 
 instant the soldiers had obeyed his order. 
 There were many wounded among the Russian 
 prisoners. 
 
 Everywhere the roads were in a terrible 
 state, and the men, weighed down by their 
 knapsacks, advanced painfully slowly, sinking 
 in the sand. Eger spoke harshly to them, 
 saying that they weren't making rapid enough 
 
In Galicia 167 
 
 progress. He even threatened to cut down 
 their rations. Howls of protest and cries of 
 anger were heard among the soldiers. "Pack 
 of thieves," they all yelled at once, "as it is 
 we've got almost nothing to eat, because you 
 take all the best stuff, and now you're shooting 
 off your mouths, because you're on horseback 
 and we've got to carry our knapsacks, while 
 we trudge along in the sand. But one day the 
 war'll be over and then we'll see who'll be the 
 boss — who'll be the bravest then!" 
 
 Eger was furious and spurred his horse on 
 the men, holding his crop aloft and wounding 
 one man with it. Nevertheless, and although 
 they all hated him no one dared move to give 
 Eger a lesson. Rogge, whom he told about 
 the whole affair, approved of it and said: 
 "Those pigs need a bullet in their hides, it's a 
 regular mutiny. The beasts don't even de- 
 serve to fall in battle." On hearing this we 
 wondered who did deserve to fall in battle, 
 for it was a well known fact that Rogge never 
 ventured in a place where he might be under 
 fire. 
 
168 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 German newspapers reported that the Gali- 
 cians had been maltreated by the Russians. 
 We saw that this was absolutely false. Dur- 
 ing the six months of the Russian occupation 
 everything was peaceful. The fields were cul- 
 tivated and everything was ready for the har- 
 vest. It was the Germans, the so-called liber- 
 ators, who on the contrary destroyed every- 
 thing. And so the Galicians were very 
 displeased that we had come to rid them of 
 the Russians. Soldiers offered women rings 
 and jewelry stolen in France, if they would 
 give themselves up to them. Rogge himself 
 ordered a good looking young woman to be 
 brought to him for the night, saying: "What 
 has been done by the Russians can be done 
 over again by the Germans." Eger was cer- 
 tainly a tyrant and a brute, but he never 
 showed himself to be the coward and satyr that 
 Rogge was. Such conduct only served to spur 
 on the soldiers who followed women into the 
 churches where they had taken refuge. The 
 Galicians will never forget their liberators. 
 
 The Jews never missed a chance to rob us 
 
In Galicia - 169 
 
 and always asked exorbitant prices for the 
 goods they offered. In order to trick us the 
 better they began by flattering us, saying: 
 "Oh, what brave and generous soldiers the 
 Germans are — oh, how great and good your 
 Emperor is! How happy we are that you've 
 delivered us from the Russians. The whole 
 world admires the Germans. ..." 
 
 But some soldiers who wanted a certain ob- 
 ject did not hesitate to take it without paying, 
 if the Jews asked too big a price. In such 
 cases, Eger always sided with his men. 
 
 "You damned dirty Jews," he said to the 
 merchants who complained to him, "how dare 
 you cheat Prussian soldiers?" 
 
 The Jews had the cheek to answer: 
 
 "Captain, the Russians have robbed us so 
 that we must sell our goods a little higher in 
 order not to go bankrupt." 
 
 Eger was furious, and ordered them to 
 be off at once, or he would have them beaten 
 by the soldiers. The children of Abraham 
 departed hurriedly. Eger formally author- 
 ized his soldiers to take anything they wished 
 
170 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 without paying for it, if they thought the Jews 
 were asking exorbitant prices. One can easily 
 understand that the soldiers no longer re- 
 frained from stealing. 
 
 X 
 
XXI 
 
 FIRST BATTLES IN GALICIA 
 
 On June 15th, 1915, we were quartered at 
 Albigowa where we were to stay two days to 
 make our final preparations for going into the 
 first hne trenches. 
 
 But at 4 A. M. we were ordered to leave 
 immediately for Markowa, where we would 
 find the general staff of the division. 
 
 Four hours later we found there the follow- 
 ing order signed by the lieutenant general com- 
 manding the 56th Division: 
 
 "The 88th Infantry will march at the head 
 
 of the 56th Division. No precautions must 
 
 be neglected because the regiment is about 
 
 to meet the enemy. I hope that the regiment 
 
 will do its duty here as it has done it in France. 
 
 I count absolutely on the brave and heroic 
 
 soldiers of the 88th. This order is to be read 
 
 to the troops." 
 
 171 
 
172 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 The horrors of war were to begin again for 
 us. 
 
 We left in the direction of the San and 
 passed through the village of Przeworsk, where 
 there were a great many wounded, for a fierce 
 struggle had just taken place. 
 
 Since most of our German horses had fallen 
 owing to the heat and the bad roads, we had 
 replaced them by little Russian ponies which 
 were much hardier. 
 
 In spite of the battle the inhabitants had 
 chosen to remain behind. The Russians, dur- 
 ing the entire time of their occupation of Gali- 
 cia, had devastated nothing and had scrupu- 
 lously respected persons and property. But 
 we and the Austrians were now laying waste 
 all the country. Dr. Meiniecke said to us : 
 
 "It's not surprising that these people hate 
 us. Just consider I The Russians did not 
 touch their houses, their gardens or their fields. 
 We, on the contrary, destroy everything. In 
 the houses and villages from which the Rus- 
 sians had just retired I did not see any trace 
 of pillage as in France and Belgium. After 
 
First Battles in Galicia 17 S 
 
 all these people have a right to complain about 
 
 us." 
 
 But Eger answered him: 
 
 "Doctor, we're going to show these Slavish 
 pigs, these lice-infested peasants, what stuff 
 war is made of. We who have fought the 
 Russians and French will force them to go 
 down on their knees to us for a piece of bread. 
 If I ask one of these brutes for a drink and 
 get no response, I strike him across the face 
 with my crop. I'll show them what a Prussian 
 soldier is!" 
 
 No one said a word because Eger could 
 brook no contradiction. He was a real Prus- 
 sian, after Kaiser Wilhelm's own heart. 
 
 At six o'clock we were eighteen kilometres 
 to the north of Jaroslav and on the banks of 
 the San. The day before, the Russians had 
 retreated, leaving their unburied dead behind. 
 The struggle must have been desperate, and 
 no mercy shown for the skulls of many of the 
 dead had been smashed by musket blows. 
 
 We crossed the San on a bridge built by 
 our engineers. Hardly had we reached the 
 
174 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 other side, when Rogge ordered us to form 
 in skirmish line. That was f oohsh, for as yet 
 we had no idea where the enemy was and we 
 didn't even know if we were to attack him. 
 
 Rogge assembled the officers in back of a 
 little hill and addressed them as follows; 
 
 "At last we are going to match ourselves 
 against the Russians. I hope, gentlemen, 
 that you will exert yourselves to the utmost, 
 to spare us the shame of defeat. During the 
 combat I ask you to keep in close touch with 
 me, so that I can from time to time give you 
 the divisional orders. Captain Eger with the 
 2nd Battalion will advance against the enemy, 
 about six or seven metres in front of the rest. 
 The 1st Battalion will be on his right and the 
 118th on his left. Captain Radke with the 
 3rd Battalion will remain with me in reserve. 
 Now, gentlemen, good luck to you!" 
 
 Loffelhardt and I handed our horses to our 
 orderlies and took our bicycles, in order to 
 carry orders of which the soldiers were co know 
 nothing. 
 
 It was 7 P. M. We were advancing on 
 
First Battles in Galicia 175 
 
 the village of Wiazownica, which we were to 
 attack from the left. Hardly had we arrived 
 within three metres of the village, when we- 
 were greeted by machine gun fire which did 
 us no harm, hoAvever, because the aim was 
 very bad. Eger ordered a rest and tele- 
 phoned Rogge for instructions, but got no 
 answer. So he had us advance again and 
 many of us were killed and wounded. See- 
 ing that we would gain nothing, Eger again 
 stopped our advance. I stayed with him, 
 Rickert and Loff elhardt in a sand pit, to which 
 some soldiers a little later brought Lieutenant 
 Daucher of the 8th Company. He had a 
 bullet in his abdomen and seemed to be suffer- 
 ing intensely. He begged us to kill him. We 
 had no means of affording him any reUef. 
 He died a little while afterwards. When the 
 battle was over Eger had him buried on the 
 banks of the river. 
 
 Eger, not knowing what to do, sent me with 
 Loffelhardt and a first class private to Rogge, 
 for instructions. Bullets whizzed all around 
 us, we started to crawl, and finally landed in 
 
176 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 the midst of the 2nd Company. They had 
 been without a word from their battahon for 
 four hours. A young reserve officer said 
 boldly that Rogge had shown himself abso- 
 lutely incapable of commanding his regiment. 
 Finally we found Rogge's adjutant, Lieu- 
 tenant von Stein, who, without listening to 
 us, said that the orders weie to take Wiazow- 
 nica at two o'clock. 
 
 We extracted a written and signed order 
 from him, because this young fellow was quite 
 capable of issuing such instructions on his own 
 responsibility to distinguish himself and so get 
 the Iron Cross of the first class. We promptly 
 returned to Eger, who immediately ordered the 
 battalion to hold itself in readiness to attack. 
 
 We advanced without a single shot being 
 fired at us. A patrol that had gone ahead re- 
 turned to say that the town was heavily forti- 
 fied. We told Rogge of this, and he said noth- 
 ing. Eger then ordered us to attack and to 
 our great surprise we entered the town with- 
 out a single shot being fired at us and without 
 
First Battles in Galicia 177 
 
 finding a single Russian soldier there. The 
 enemy had retreated. Such was the capture 
 of Wiazownica which was the subject of a 
 magnificent communique and which all the 
 German newspapers celebrated as a great vic- 
 tory of the 56th Division. The soldiers all 
 laughed and made fun of us and above all of 
 Rogge, who had not even yet arrived on the 
 scene, so afraid and distrustful was he of the 
 Russians. 
 
 Toward ten o'clock we took possession of 
 the Russian trenches, which led from the town 
 to the river Lubaczawka. Hardly were we 
 settled there when we were ordered to return 
 to the town: every one thought that our ofii- 
 cers did not know what to do, and were em- 
 barrassed. Suddenly the first Russian shell 
 hit us, killing about six men. As Rogge had 
 announced that we would not resume our 
 march for another hour we had time to bury 
 our dead. 
 
 "Give no quarter," said Eger in the speech 
 that he made on this occasion; "this band of 
 
178 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 beasts deserves no pity. If you let yourselves 
 be captured you will have to work in the mines 
 of Siberia, with your feet in chains." 
 
 Punctually at one o'clock, our artillery 
 opened fire. Our gunners aimed well and we 
 were able to advance, pipes in our mouths and 
 arms shouldered, without the slightest difficulty. 
 Lieutenant Schaller, who was a forester by 
 profession, advanced calmly, gun slung over 
 his shoulder as if he were off for a hunt. The 
 Russians were massacred in these woods by 
 our shells and later we found their dead and 
 wounded. It had been a veritable carnage. 
 
 The battle was now practically won, but we 
 still had to capture Radawa to prevent the 
 enemy from attacking our flank. Lieutenant 
 Knell, at the head of a patrol that had only 
 to fire a few shots, took the town. Its only 
 defenders were a few Cossacks who retreated 
 at a gallop. 
 
XXII 
 RADAWA 
 
 Eger^ who was in command, had chosen the 
 best house in the town for us. As we were 
 setthng ourselves there in his absence an 
 officer of the Uhlans who was adjutant of the 
 35th Infantry, came in and addressing him- 
 self to Loffelhardt asked us to get out and 
 make room for him. Loffelhardt explained 
 to him that these were Eger's quarters and 
 that the latter was in command of the town. 
 
 "Shut your damned mouth," cried the 
 trooper, "you fool, a one year volunteer. You 
 think I'm going to sleep in a hovel full of peas- 
 ants while you lounge about this beautiful 
 house? Get out; away with you, and the 
 quicker the better." 
 
 But Loffelhardt shook his head at the Uhlan 
 who disappeared, furious, only to return a few 
 
 179 
 
180 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 moments later accompanied by an elderly 
 colonel. 
 
 *'Where is that blackguard," said he on en- 
 tering, and his eyes sought Loffelhardt. I 
 took a hand. "What do you want," roared 
 the old colonel. I tried to explain to him 
 that we had been the first to arrive and that it 
 was om^ place because the battalion was 
 actually in the town while the 35th had only 
 reached its outskirts. 
 
 'T see," said the colonel, "y^^ ^^^ ^ league 
 with this wretch." 
 
 Things were beginning to look serious for us 
 when Eger arrived on the scene. As he never 
 was afraid of anything, he explained the affair 
 to the colonel, who went away leaving his 
 adjutant to disentangle himself as best he 
 could. Hardly had he gone when Eger, who 
 did not have too much patience, said to him : 
 
 *'What are you doing here and why did you 
 make so much noise in my house? Do you 
 think that you are in your stable? Get out 
 of here and quickly or I'll have you put out 
 by my men!" 
 
Radama 181 
 
 The brave Uhlan did not dare answer Eger 
 and left like a whipped dog. Eger told us 
 that we should have kicked him out ourselves 
 and showed him what proper treatment was. 
 
 We had a good meal with Eger, but could 
 not close an eye all night because of the cooties. 
 The suffering those creatures caused us while 
 we were in Galicia was perfectly incredible. 
 
 The next day we repaii^ed to the woods 
 called Radawa, leaving the town of that name 
 behind. We wandered about, first to the right 
 then to the left. Apparently our officers did 
 not know what to do. In the evening we re- 
 turned to the town for food. Then the bat- 
 tahon encamped at the edge of the woods. 
 
 During this time the 35th threw up defences 
 along the Lubaczawka to prevent the Russians 
 from crossing. The Lubaczawka is a little 
 river that empties into the San at Monasterz. 
 We were to stay in this position foi several 
 days without advancing. 
 
 On the twentieth we began to dig trenches 
 in the woods. Our men cut down great quan- 
 tities of trees for dug-outs. They were offi- 
 
182 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 cially forbidden to destroy things wantonly in 
 Galicia, but the truth is that the German of- 
 ficers did exactly what they liked in Galicia 
 and to the Galicians and all the Austrians 
 in general. 
 
 During the night of May 21st we lef^ the 
 woods to occupy an excellent position between 
 Radawa and Monasterz. We were well shel- 
 tered there, and only about twenty metres 
 from the river where the soldiers could bathe. 
 
 Unfortunately, and it was the case during 
 our entire sojourn on the Eastern front, the 
 provisioning of the soldiers was badly man- 
 aged, and the soldiers often complained of 
 not having enough to eat. Where were the 
 chickens and the good wines of France? 
 
 Rickert, who had charge of provisioning the 
 battalion, came to Eger one day and said : 
 
 "I noticed some cattle on a farm five hun- 
 dred metres from here. The owners refuse to 
 sell them. How shall I get meat?" 
 
 Eger, delighted, immediately gave orders to 
 seize the cattle. Lieutenant Bortger, Loffel- 
 hardt and I were ordered to accompany Rick- 
 
Radawa 183 
 
 ert with several men on this very noble errand. 
 We went into the backyard of the farm, where 
 several women and children were gathered. 
 With tears in their eyes they implored us to 
 leave them their cattle which constituted their 
 entire fortune. Without them, they said, they 
 would surely all die of hunger. 
 
 "What nonsense!" cried Lieutenant Bortger, 
 **We'll take four cows, one for each company, 
 and a fifth for the regimental staff. Come, 
 men, hurry and be sure 'to choose the fattest 
 ones." 
 
 The soldiers hastened to obey, but the poor 
 women fell on their cows as if they were their 
 children threatened by danger. It was impos- 
 sible to loosen their hold. It became a verit- 
 able battle. The frightened cows ran into 
 their backyard, dragging the clinging women 
 along with them. The angry soldiers, en- 
 couraged by us, bullied the women and kicked 
 them about. 
 
 One of the latter held her hand clasped to 
 her breast, as though trying to hide something 
 in her blouse. Bortger, perceiving this, com- 
 
184 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 manded us to search her. We were scarcely 
 able to make her let go of the beast, one of 
 whose horns she was holding with her other 
 hand. Bortger and Rickert ^ drew their re- 
 volvers and threatened to kill her. 
 
 By Lieutenant Nolte's order, he having also 
 joined our expedition, the soldiers tore every 
 stitch from the unfortunate woman, and there 
 she stood quite naked before us all. 
 
 Then we saw that it was a crucifix that she 
 held, clasped fiercely to her breast. The sol- 
 diers on seeing a naked woman let go the 
 cattle and came to amuse themselves about 
 the hapless creature who was crying from 
 shame. Bortger and Nolte then began to spit 
 on this woman's body, while Adjutant Hoff- 
 man of the 8th Company and several soldiers 
 closed round her and touched her with their 
 dirty hands. 
 
 It was only at the end of an interval that the 
 woman was permitted to dress. 
 
 "What say you, Nolte?" said Bortger. "It 
 certainly was fimny. What a lovely picture! 
 
 1 This Rickert had been a theological student. 
 
Radawa 185 
 
 I shall never forget it. I nearly died laugh- 
 ing." 
 
 "Too bad all the soldiers were there," an- 
 swered Nolte. ^'Otherwise I should have . . ." 
 
 Bortger was to forget that scene sooner 
 than he thought, as he was killed on the next 
 day. May 23rd, 1915. He was buried behind 
 the trenches without a single word of regret 
 being spoken over his grave. At the moment 
 that the body was being lowered. First Class 
 Private Bender took off Bortger's leggings be- 
 cause the latter owed him some money. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth, between six and seven 
 o'clock we suddenly heard the Russians "hur- 
 rahing" in their trenches. Thinking that they 
 were about to attack us, our artillery sent them 
 a shower of shells. They still continued their 
 yelling and even began to sing. We did not 
 understand what was happening, when sud- 
 denly the singing stopped and in the midst 
 of the silence a loud voice shouted: 
 
 "Brothers, Italy has declared war on Aus- 
 tria. You had better surrender, as all resist- 
 ance is henceforth useless." 
 
186 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 This was not joyful news for the German 
 soldiers. They said it was a diplomatic fail- 
 ure, etc. But Eger told them to have no fear, 
 because the Italians were cowards, incapable 
 of serious fighting, and that soon the Austrians 
 would be in Venice. To annoy the Russians, 
 the men were ordered to sing "Deutchland 
 Uber Alles" and ''Die Wacht Am Rhein/' 
 That evening. May 23rd, was of the pleasantest 
 of the war for us, as the Russians and Germans 
 both sang all through it— -one from joy, the 
 other out of spite. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth. Captain Lindwurm, 
 who had been slightly wounded at Lengher and 
 had since succeeded in staying in hiding in 
 Mayence, returned to his regiment, and being 
 older than Eger, took command of the 2nd 
 Battalion. The latter took command of the 
 10th Company. No one regretted his de- 
 parture. But his successor was one of the 
 greatest cowards in the army. 
 
 Lindwurm, who had not yet been in the 
 trenches, was horribly afraid of catching the 
 "cooties." He did not dare eat with us nor 
 
Radawa 187 
 
 touch anything that we had handled. He al- 
 ways spoke to us from a distance of live or 
 six feet. He made fun of us, called us lousy 
 fellows, and was ever so proud of being clean 
 himself. Loffelhardt and I tried our best to 
 make him catch some of the dirty little crea- 
 tures but always in vain as we could not get 
 near him. But at last Loffelhardt had an 
 ingenious idea. We put a few of these insects 
 into a match box, and during his absence put 
 it, half opened, into his bed, and awaited the 
 result. By the next day we knew that we 
 had succeeded. Lindwurm asked us to dinner 
 with him, a new and unheard of thing. 
 
 "There is no use in isolating myself any 
 longer, because some day I'll catch these fleas 
 anyway," said he; "it seems to be quite in- 
 evitable." It was funny to see him scratching 
 first his arms, then his throat and legs all dur- 
 ing the meal. "Gentlemen," said he at last, 
 "I think that I have caught the damned things, 
 though I don't know how it could have hap- 
 pened, I've been so careful to use insect pow- 
 der all the time." 
 
188 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Then we showed him why the powder was 
 of no use at all. A flea buried under a speck 
 of powder would emerge from it as fresh and 
 gay as ever. After that evening we always 
 dined with Lindwurm. 
 
 We occupied this position until June 4th. 
 
 At our left was the 98th Imperial and Royal 
 Austrian Regiment. One day a soldier from 
 this regiment came to our staff and asked per- 
 mission to speak to the commander of the bat- 
 talion about a matter of importance. Eger 
 was then in command during Lindwurm's ab- 
 sence. Here is what the soldier said to him. 
 
 "Some Russian prisoners of ours told us 
 that their regiments are going to attack us 
 this evening in order to retake the town. 
 However, all of my comrades, who are mostly 
 Bohemians and Czechs, have decided to make 
 no resistance but to surrender as they have had 
 enough of war. The officers have also decided 
 to give themselves up for they know what's 
 going on although they have said nothing. 
 But I am a German- Austrian from Vienna 
 and I don't want to see it all end this way. 
 
Radanjoa 189 
 
 That is why I come to warn you what those 
 dirty Slovaks are planning to do." 
 
 Eger immediately telephoned for reinforce- 
 ments. The 92nd Bruns wicks were immedi- 
 ately sent to us. Our artillery was ordered to 
 fire on the Austrians if they retrec,ted. The 
 92nd was to do the same. 
 
 The Russians attacked at the hour that our 
 informant had promised and as they advanced 
 the Austrians began their retreat. But we 
 were prepared for that very contingency. 
 While Lieutenant Huck of the 5th Company 
 of our regiment advanced against the Russians 
 our artillery and the 92nd Brunswicks started 
 shooting at the Austrians, who on finding 
 themselves between two fires, began to advance 
 again. 
 
 If the Russians had been able to hold their 
 town our entire battalion would have been 
 captured. On the following day, the Aus- 
 trians were replaced by German troops at the 
 request of the commandant of our division. 
 Our officers spat in disgust at the Austrians 
 and the men did likewise. 
 
XXIII 
 
 LAST BATTLES IN GALICIA AND 
 OUR RETURN TO FRANCE 
 
 During the night of June 3rd we aband- 
 oned our position to go to a bend in the Lubac- 
 zawka to the right of Radawa. On the fourth 
 at eight o'clock we were to open the general 
 offensive which was to put us in possession 
 of the other bank of the river and drive the 
 Russians out of Galicia. Everj^thing was 
 ready. We had an excellent bomb thrower in 
 our trenches and a captain of the 111th Ar- 
 tillery who was with us to time the firing, 
 thanks to his telephonic instructions (too far 
 to the right, too far to the left, too near, too 
 far) , helped marvellously. This bomb thrower 
 was a small cannon, about the size of a German 
 machine gun. The gunner aimed, pushed the 
 lever and the bomb mounted into the air with 
 a sort of grumbling sound. It carried in the 
 
 190 
 
JLast Battles in Galicia 191 
 
 neighbourhood of four hundred metres, and 
 on bursting destroyed everything within a 
 radius of about thirty metres. The explosion 
 was accompanied by a cloud of heavy black 
 smoke which took several moments to dis- 
 appear. The Russians, demoralized by our 
 artillery, surrendered themselves in a body. 
 The captain told us that had we had the 
 French to fight, things might have turned out 
 differently for us, and that many of us would 
 have fallen, as the latter were good fighters 
 and knew how to defend themselves. 
 
 Toward ten o'clock the Russians had to draw 
 on their reserves. 
 
 The 6th Company was isolated for a while 
 and might easily enough have been captured. 
 
 During the fight, Lindwurm, scared silly, 
 had hidden in his dugout. When it became 
 necessary for him to rejoin us, he had himself 
 surrounded by six soldiers who served as a 
 shield. This cowardliness did not prevent him 
 from shortly becoming commander. 
 
 A little later we had to attack in order to 
 get possession of the hill in front of us and 
 
192 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 so continue to drive back the Russians. We 
 also captured the woods to the right of the 
 hill. During all this time no one saw Lind- 
 wurm. Rickert, Loff elhardt and I had all the 
 responsibility. Without too great loss the 
 battalion rapidly obtained all its objectives. 
 
 Until June 7th we occupied the line from 
 Gaydy to Zaradawa, and then we continued 
 our advance. During all this time food 
 reached us irregularly and in insufficient quan- 
 tities. 
 
 On the tenth we were in Dobra. The fam- 
 ished soldiers began to pillage the houses. 
 Lindwurm was the first to approve of this. 
 
 On the eleventh we were the reserves in a 
 wood north of Rudka. On the twelfth we 
 were relieved; we then went to Rudka for our 
 next orders. Our march was very painful. 
 At Rudka we received bread, eggs, milk, but- 
 ter and cheese. We sat down to eat without 
 waiting for Lindwurm who was never about. 
 He had spent the night in a hole that a child 
 could hardly have crept into. Just imagine 
 a man with a paunch sleeping in a cradle! 
 
Last Battles in Galicia 193 
 
 Such was the spectacle that the brave Prussian 
 captain presented. It was hard for us not to 
 bui'st out laughing when we saw him. As the 
 Russians were still retreating, we dug a suffi- 
 ciently large shelter and asked Lindwurm to 
 join us. But he was paralyzed with fright 
 and would not move but remained where he 
 was, occasionally scratching himself on account 
 of the fleas. Out of pity for him we dug a 
 trench between his hole arid ours so that he 
 could join us without exposing himself. He 
 almost wanted to kiss us and could not thank 
 us enough. 
 
 On the next day we went to Dobza. The 
 Russian artillery fire was intense. Lindwurm 
 commanded the sections to advance on the run, 
 but far from setting the example himself he 
 remained on his belly in a trench. How could 
 the soldiers be brave when their commander 
 was such a coward? At Dobza, he had the 
 impertinence to rebuke Lieutenant Schaller 
 for having exposed us all to the enemy's fire 
 by crossing the open field with his company. 
 Schaller answered with some irony that he had 
 
194 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 quite forgotten to ask the Russians not to 
 fire while Commander Lindwurm passed. 
 
 At Dobza there was a Bavarian division. 
 One of these regiments, the 19th Infantry, 
 joined our division. On June 13th we passed 
 Kawale, where a desperate battle had taken 
 place two days before, apparently between 
 the Russians and Bavarians. No quarter 
 had been given and we found many Russians 
 with throats cut and skulls smashed by blo>vs 
 from the butts of rifles. The Bavarians said 
 quite frankly that it was far better for all the 
 Russians to die than not to have enough to 
 eat. Every one knew that our own rations 
 were in truth insufficient. Anyway, the Ba- 
 varians made a practice of butchering their 
 wounded and prisoners. A Bavarian heuten- 
 ant himself said that he gave no quarter. "It 
 is serious warfare, war to the knife," said he, 
 "and I want to see blood flow." 
 
 From Kawale we proceeded to Cisplice. 
 We spent a bad half hour ascending a little 
 hill where the Russians bombarded us heavily. 
 The 7th and 8th companies had many casual- 
 
Liost Battles in Galicia 195 
 
 ties and lost nearly all of theii privates. Ser- 
 geant-Major Heer was wounded in the neck 
 and lost his right arm. 
 
 We were now under a general who com- 
 manded a Bavarian army corps. We were 
 ordered to take the village of Wolezasby. 
 Lindwurm, following his usual custom, stayed 
 behind with the telephone and it was up to 
 us to lead the battalion. We took the village 
 without very great difficulty or heavy losses. 
 In the evening Rickert and I went to look 
 for Lindwurm, who as I have said had been 
 out of sight the entire day. When we told 
 him that we were in possession of the town he 
 had the audacity to say to us proudly : 
 
 "I am happy to be in command of so noble 
 a battahon and I thank you, my friends, for 
 assisting me so splendidly in the execution of 
 my orders." When we were alone again we 
 burst out laughing. 
 
 On entering the village we noticed a Russian 
 captain at the edge of the road. He was 
 wounded and apparently in agony. We went 
 up to him to see whether we could do anything 
 
196 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 for him. He had several bayonet wounds and 
 had ahnost lost consciousness. As we raised 
 his head he opened his eyes and said : 
 
 "Away with you, assassins! Why do your 
 men commit such awful crimes? I was no 
 longer an enemy when I surrendered with 
 my company. Unarmed, we were all mas- 
 sacred. At least blow out my brains so that 
 I may no longer suffer." We called the 
 nurses and left him. Afterwards the nurses 
 told us that they had ended his sufferings as 
 it had been impossible to move him. In any 
 event we knew that he had spoken the truth 
 because we saw the Russian muskets piled up 
 fifty metres behind the place where we had 
 found him and his butchered men. 
 
 We occupied the Russian trenches until 
 June 19th. Our staff was magnificently in- 
 stalled in a church where we had had fresh 
 straw brought. A telephone installed in the 
 sacristy enabled us to keep informed of all that 
 happened in the trenches. 
 
 On June 20th we were ordered to seize 
 the village of Dornach^ scarcely fifteen kilo- 
 
Last Battles in Galicia 197 
 
 metres from the Russian frontier. Lindwurm 
 made a wry face on hearing this ; he told us that 
 it was very easy for those gentlemen in the 
 rear, well protected as they were, to give like 
 orders. 
 
 *'Captain," we said to him, *Vhy do you not 
 have yourself placed on the general's staff? 
 Haven't you proved that you can direct a battle 
 lying hidden in a wheatfield? You've been an 
 adjutant for twelve years and know quite 
 as much as a colonel." 
 
 Lindwurm answered, shrugging his shoul- 
 ders : "I've tried everything. But it's no use ; 
 they don't want me." 
 
 The taking of Dornach was easier than we 
 had thought. We found many dead there, 
 besides dying horses and a lot of damaged 
 material. One man had had his chest run 
 through by a wagon pole. We also found 
 three Russian soldiers killed by bayonet 
 thrusts and stripped naked. Even their boots 
 had been carried off. The inhabitants of the 
 village had fled and numbers of fright- 
 ened cattle were running all over the place. 
 
198 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Rickert seized eight calves and had them killed 
 for our battalion (just the members of the 
 staff) . Dirrig, our cook, was delighted. The 
 extraordinary thing was that we ate the eight 
 calves in two days. There were only about 
 fourteen of us, including the cook and the or- 
 derlies. It is true that we kept eating it all 
 day long and without bread and that it was a 
 long time since we had had anything so de- 
 licious. But still I never would have believed 
 that one could eat so much meat. 
 
 On June 22nd the rumour was about that 
 we would soon be replaced by a division of the 
 11th Army Corps. That very same evening 
 indeed, we were relieved by the 44th Brigade 
 of this corps. We left for Cewkaw, then for 
 Oleszyu, where we were quartered. The city 
 was full of Jews who sold vodka, an alcoholic 
 beverage so strong that all the soldiers became 
 drunk. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth we reached Polank, 
 which had been almost completely destroyed 
 by the Germans. Rogge installed himself in 
 a house that happened not to have been dam- 
 
Last Battles in Galicia 199 
 
 aged, putting its inmates, including an old 
 woman who was ill and in her bed, into the 
 street. In the evening he had the regiment's 
 band play. 
 
 On the twenty-sixth we went to Jaraslaw 
 where we were to entrain to be killed else- 
 where. We changed all of our wagons, but 
 kept our little Russian ponies, which we were 
 to take to France. For it was to France 
 that we were returning after two months' ab- 
 sence. Our train went through Lancut and 
 Cracow where we were given food. At last, 
 on a Sunday, at five o'clock we reached the 
 German frontier of Poland. A disinfecting 
 plant had been put up so that we could at last 
 get rid of our vermin. Everything had to 
 pass through this establishment: men, horses, 
 wagons, even the kitchens. 
 
 Each man made separate packages of his 
 cloth and of his leather clothing. These pack- 
 ages were numbered for identification and 
 handed in to be returned to us later. There 
 we stood in our shirts. Then they took us to 
 tanks in which we plunged into hot water up to 
 
200 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 our necks. We soaped and scrubbed one an- 
 other with a special soap which killed the lice 
 and their eggs. Only then could we realize 
 the damage these dirty little beasts had done. 
 Some of the men's bodies looked like open 
 sores. Then we had cold showers, and each of 
 us got a fresh shirt and a pair of drawers and 
 socks. These had been requisitioned in France 
 and Belgium. They were of every imaginable 
 colour: one man wore a pair of blue drawers, 
 a red shirt and yellow socks; another had on 
 a pink shirt, green drawers and black or white 
 socks. In this outfit we went into a room 
 where a meal was served us. It looked more 
 like a masquerade than war and all the soldiers 
 were very gay. Then we received back our 
 clothes and leather garments which had all 
 been submitted to a high temperature in a 
 special furnace. Naturally they were in a 
 frightful condition, but we were happy to be 
 rid of our vermin. 
 
XXIV 
 HERIN 
 
 Our journey from Galicia to France lasted 
 five days. July 1st, 1915, we reached Brussels 
 where we stayed for several hours. When we 
 were crossing Germany the people had cheered 
 us everywhere, but here no one noticed us. 
 
 July 2nd we were at Valenciennes, four 
 kilometres from the town. Our battalion 
 was quartered at Herin, where we rested 
 for quite a while from the effects of the cam- 
 paign in Galicia. Lindwurm and Rickert 
 were lodged in a castle. Loffelhardt and I 
 found a place for ourselves in a small house 
 where a woman and two children lived. All 
 the 7th and 8th Companies were billeted, the 
 5th and 6th were quartered in the big brewer- 
 ies (those of Sauvage and Giran). The men 
 behaved themselves well and there were no 
 complaints. 
 
 201 
 
202 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 The entire 56th Division was at Valen- 
 ciennes and in the vicinity. The staff -office 
 of the division was at Saint- Saulve with a 
 motorcycle company. The staff -office of the 
 regiment and of the 3rd Battalion was at 
 Valenciennes itself. A company of machine 
 guns was encamped between Herin and Aubry 
 continually on the watch for French and Eng- 
 lish aviators flying over the town. The 
 111th Artillery Corps with its ammunition 
 train was at Aubry. All the cannon had been 
 sent to Douai where there was a huge repair 
 shop. 
 
 We had few duties, for the division was 
 there to recuperate. On +he ninth our gen- 
 eral held a big review and distributed the 
 decorations awarded by Emperor Francis 
 Joseph to our soldiers who had fought in 
 Galicia. Lindwurm was decorated by the 
 general who congratulated him on his excel- 
 lent leadership in Austria. 
 
 The soldiers grumbled and Sansler, a non- 
 commissioned officer of the 6th Company, said, 
 in a loud voice, "We — we are the ones who 
 
Herin 203 
 
 did the fighting, we carry the scars of battle, 
 but the cowards are decorated!" 
 
 After the review Lindwurm had Sansler 
 brought to him and asked him how he could 
 talk that way. Sansler replied that he had 
 refused to be a reserve officer, that he had 
 fought at Roye, at Champagne and in Galicia 
 and that he had been wounded twice, but he 
 had received no decorations. Two days later 
 Sansler was made a sergeant-major and im- 
 mediately received the Iron Cross which he 
 put in his pocket. He did not care to wear 
 it *'like a coachman," he said. 
 
 On July 10th, our brave Rogge was made a 
 lieutenant-colonel and Nolte received the Iron 
 Cross of the first class. Everybody hoped that 
 Rogge would be transferred to another regi- 
 ment where he would be made a colonel. 
 
 On the eleventh an order was issued allow- 
 ing fifty soldiers from each company leave of 
 absence. At this news everybody was happy 
 and all the suffering and injustices were for- 
 gotten. I had my leave and was preparing 
 to start off at seven o'clock to see my mother 
 
204 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 when I got an order to report to headquarters 
 at Valenciennes to act as interpreter. All my 
 eiforts to go into Germany were futile, and 
 Lindwurm in tearing up my leave, said, "After 
 all aren't you in your own country just the 
 same, since you said while you were studying 
 to be a reserve officer, that those who have once 
 lived in France wish to remain there always?" 
 It was true, and it was this very fact that had 
 prevented my being made a reserve officer. 
 
 What answer could I make to this coward 
 who owed so much to Loffelhardt and me? 
 
XXV 
 
 HEADQUARTERS AT 
 VALENCIENNES 
 
 In July, 1915, military headquarters at 
 Valenciennes were installed in the town hall. 
 The mayor was authorized to keep several 
 small rooms for himself and his assistants. 
 The Germans turned the court house, where 
 the water and fire departments had been lo- 
 cated before the war, into a storehouse for 
 revolvers, guns, munitions, bicycles, harness 
 and other articles which they had confiscated. 
 On the second floor was a civil prison and one 
 for German soldiers. 
 
 In charge of headquarters was Lieutenant 
 Colonel Spiers, who was a member of one of 
 the Uhlan regiments of the 13th Ai^my Corps. 
 His adjutant who represented him when 
 necessary was Captain Kolb. Reserve Lieu- 
 tenant Korneman, a coffee salesman in civil 
 
 205 
 
206 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 life, was also connected with headquarters. 
 The court martial was composed of the Im- 
 perial Adviser Dr. Wunder (an attorney 
 at Karlsruhe in civil life). Dr. Lewin, who 
 represented him when necessary, and Sergeant- 
 Major Sohn, interpreter and secretary. The 
 last named was not always present for they 
 distrusted him; but they were afraid to get 
 rid of him because of the many secrets he knew 
 which he might disclose to avenge himself. 
 
 In the right wing was the office where the 
 French and Belgians who had charge of the 
 food supply of the civilians received their pass- 
 ports. 
 
 The Food Commission was composed of a 
 captain in the reserves, a lieutenant of the 
 landwehr, several Americans, and a certain 
 number of French citizens. Among the last 
 I commend M. Dreyfus who did his best for 
 his people and his country. 
 
 During the little while that I stayed at Val- 
 enciennes — that is to say until the 56th Di- 
 vision left for the front — I learned and I saw 
 some very interesting things concerning the 
 
Headquarters at Valenciennes 207 
 
 regulations which the captured peoples were 
 subjected to in this conquered village. 
 
 The civilians were allowed to be about 
 the streets, frequent the cafes and restaurants 
 and the public buildings from six o'clock in the 
 morning till eight o'clock at night. The stores 
 and the cafes were open from eight o'clock in 
 the morning till seven o'clock at night. 
 
 Soldiers were quartered in almost every 
 house. 
 
 The band of the 88th played every day in 
 front of headquarters from twelve until one. 
 On the door of the town hall hung the imperial 
 flag of Germany and the royal flag of Bavaria. 
 On a large shield were the words : 
 
 ETAPPEN KOMMANDATUR 
 
 During the day there was considerable traf- 
 fic in the streets. 
 
 A German canteen sold only to German 
 soldiers. 
 
 The officers and the men of these troops on 
 the staff lived a great deal better than they 
 did in Germany. 
 
208 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 In addition to their salary or advanced pay, 
 the commander received an indemnity paid 
 by the town of thirty-five francs per day; 
 the other officers received ten francs a day; 
 the sergeant-majors six francs and the non- 
 commissioned officers and soldiers four francs. 
 Over and above this they enjoyed free lodging 
 in the hotels for which they paid in four-franc 
 checks issued by the town. In theory the in- 
 demnity was levied for food because their 
 duties hindered them from eating as usual or 
 at mess. But in reality everybody ate where 
 it cost him nothing and pocketed the indem- 
 nity. They all ate at the Saint- Vincent bar- 
 racks in Rue de Lille. Briefly one can say 
 that the troops on the staff were maintained 
 at the expense of the population. 
 
 Up to the present time the war had lasted 
 for more than a year and everything that we 
 had had been stolen; the requisitions always 
 were excessive. We took everything that 
 could have the least possible value. All the 
 bicycles for example had been sent to Germany 
 but we kept on finding more every day. 
 
Headquarters at Valenciennes 209 
 
 The mines and the factories at Anzin were 
 operated by the Germans. Many civilians 
 were forced to work in the mines at a pitiful 
 wage. The fields were cultivated by their 
 owners or by the peasants but the German 
 government requisitioned all the crops and left 
 to the owners barely enough to supply them- 
 selves with absolutely necessary food and with 
 seed for planting the following spring. The 
 grain was sent to a large mill at Valenciennes 
 under the direction of a non-commissioned of- 
 ficer. The needs of the army were supplied 
 and the surplus sent into Germany. 
 
 Many difficulties could have been avoided 
 by the civilians if they had remained on good 
 terms among themselves. But they often did 
 not agree and complained of one another. 
 
 Fines were payable in German money and 
 since the town had only paper money, the 
 people were obliged to go to a money changer ; 
 this was very expensive. 
 
 The police at headquarters were veritable 
 brutes, especially one called Ruff. 
 
 My duties were to act as interpreter for the 
 
210 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 court martial, especially for Dr. Wunder, and 
 to requisition throughout the town and its vi- 
 cinity, motors, and certain implements, ma- 
 chines and tools for harvesting. It was thus 
 that I frequently had an opportunity to com- 
 municate with the French awaiting court mar- 
 tial. The majority of the detained civil pris- 
 oners were charged with smuggling either let- 
 ters or goods from France into Belgium or 
 vice versa. 
 
 Thus a chma manufacturer from Saint- 
 Amand who often came to Valenciennes with a 
 permit was arrested and accused of being an 
 agent for smuggling letters between France 
 and Belgium. 
 
 When arrested, they found no evidence on 
 him and he swore that he was innocent. 
 Nevertheless, he was fined five hundred marks 
 and forbidden to leave Saint- Amand where his 
 factory was. 
 
 Another curious affair was that oi M 
 
 and L . A certain M , a Belgian 
 
 but a resident of Valenciennes, was arrested 
 and accused of selling French newspapers 
 
Headquarters at Valenciennes 211 
 
 which came from Holland through Belgimn. 
 Here is the way this little game was played: 
 some civilian members of the Food Com- 
 mission were ordered to report at the Dutch 
 frontier to purchase provisions. There the 
 Dutch easily gave them some French news- 
 papers. L , editor of the Gazette de Val- 
 
 encienneSy sold these papers at fifteen francs 
 
 apiece to M who lent them to the people 
 
 for three to five francs an hour. When his 
 customers had read them, he sold them at 
 Douai. When he was arrested they found at 
 his house several verses making fun of the 
 Kaiser; this was another offence. During the 
 prosecution Sergeant-Ma j or Sohn never 
 
 stopped annoying Mme. M , who was very 
 
 pretty, with his attentions, assuring her that if 
 she would be agreeable he would do all he 
 
 could to help her husband. L and M 
 
 were fined one thousand marks each for selling 
 
 French papers. M went to prison for 
 
 three months for his verses about Wilhelm II. 
 The mayor of Marly, M. Druy, was im- 
 prisoned for travelling to France by way of 
 
212 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Holland and England to see his son who was 
 at Brest. He had then returned. This trip 
 was possible, for there was in France and Bel- 
 gium a secret organization for people whp 
 wished to escape. Everything was ready so 
 that the fugitives could cross the electrically 
 charged barrier; they did this by means of a 
 double ladder. Naturally that was rather ex- 
 pensive. Sometimes also the sentry was bribed. 
 M. Dreyfus, member of the Food Commission 
 of Valenciennes, thus provided for the escape 
 of fifteen hundred young men. He was sen- 
 tenced to three years at hard labour, about the 
 same time that Miss Edith Cavell was con- 
 demned. As for the mayor of Marly, I don't 
 know what his sentence was since I left Val- 
 enciennes before his trial. 
 
 Two women who struck some policemen 
 were fined one thousand marks each and sen- 
 tenced to three months in jail. 
 
 In the prison at headquarters there were 
 quite a number of German soldiers awaiting 
 court martial for overstaying their leave or 
 for being absent without leave. There were 
 
Headquarters at Valenciennes 213 
 
 some also who had refused to obey orders and 
 had said things against their officers. If their 
 former conduct had been good, they were pun- 
 ished hghtly, but they were always sent to the 
 front line trenches and the actual infliction 
 of their punishment suspended until the end of 
 the war. If they behaved themselves they 
 would then be pardoned. One wonders if 
 many soldiers did not commit offences pur- 
 posely so that they would be sentenced, hoping 
 in this way to escape the war. 
 
 When Prussians and Bavarians were in the 
 same locality, there would often be quarrels. 
 In August, 1915, there was a veritable battle 
 at Douai between the troops of these two coun- 
 tries; eight officers were killed and a great 
 many men; there were also many wounded. 
 Four hundred men were sentenced by the court 
 martial at Lille to from one to twelve years in 
 prison at hard labour. This affair was never 
 mentioned by the German press. 
 
 Every Tuesday a trainload of soldiers, con- 
 victed citizens and persons sentenced to depor- 
 tation, left for Germany. A great many in- 
 
214 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 habitants were deported without having been 
 tried, — simply by administrative act. 
 
 Every one at headquarters from Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel Spiers down to the police had had 
 quantities of shoes made for themselves from 
 leather requisitioned for the needs of the army. 
 They sent these shoes into Germany. Dr. 
 Wunder ordered the non-commissioned officers 
 to act cautiously so that this trick should not 
 be discovered and he himself would mark the 
 cases "Soiled Clothes'' with the headquarters 
 seal. 
 
 The following, however, is by all odds the 
 most interesting story I can tell of my ex- 
 periences in Valenciennes: 
 
 At the automobile station at Valenciennes, 
 there was a boy, from a Munich family, who 
 was a chauffeur and who, although he had not 
 done his year's service as a volunteer, went 
 about with the officers: a young slacker of 
 high birth. This young fellow who passed his 
 time agreeably behind the lines had noticed 
 a very pretty girl, about eighteen years old. 
 Her mother kept an inn between Marly and 
 
Headquarters at Valenciennes 215 
 
 Saultain. The young chauffeur often came to 
 the inn, always ordering the costhest wines 
 and brandies, and trying in all kinds of ways 
 to enter upon friendly relations with the girl. 
 But the latter had such a violent dislike to 
 him that she always left the room as soon as he 
 entered it. Not to be discouraged, he followed 
 her several times into the street but she always 
 found a way to evade him. One day she 
 met him in the market at Valenciennes. He 
 had a scheme, and coming up to her orders 
 her to follow him immediately. The young 
 girl, very much frightened, follows him obe- 
 diently, for as soon as a German soldier tells 
 a civilian that he arrests him, the latter must 
 follow without protest, even though he might 
 later, after examination, be set free. The 
 chauffeur leads the young girl to his house, 
 pushes her into his room, turns the key and 
 goes out again to perform his duties. At 
 night he comes home to find his prisoner. A 
 little while later he goes out again and gives 
 himself up at headquarters where he says that 
 he has just accidentally killed a young French 
 
216 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 girl. They find the body of the young girl 
 in his room; she had been shot through the 
 forehead. 
 
 The chauffeur's story— absurd — is as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 The young girl had consented to give her- 
 self to him. As he was undressing, his re- 
 volver which he was in the habit of placing 
 every night on the table next to his bed, went 
 off accidentally and killed her. 
 
 The girl's parents accused the chauffeur of 
 murdering their daughter whom he had en- 
 trapped because she had refused to give herself 
 up to him. The medical examination showed 
 that the girl had not been outraged. 
 
 The man was condemned to six months' im- 
 prisonment for arbitrarily imprisoning a per- 
 son. The apparent fact of murder was over- 
 looked. As he had spent five months in prison 
 before his court martial, he was released a few 
 weeks afterwards. 
 
 On hearing this wicked judgment pro- 
 nounced, the girl's father protested violently, 
 saying that the Germans were acquitting the 
 
Headquarters at Valenciennes 217 
 
 murderer of his daughter, that there was no 
 such thing as German justice, etc. The poor 
 man was immediately arrested and a few days 
 later deported to Germany. 
 
 The old woman in mourning is now all alone 
 in the inn on the Marly road grieving for her 
 husband and daughter. This story was con- 
 firmed to me by Sergeant-Major Sohn who 
 was at the trial. The entire headquarters 
 staff, one and all, confirmed it. The murder 
 and sentence made a deep impression on all the 
 village but could not possibly cause more 
 hatred than already existed for everything 
 German. 
 
 My stay at Valenciennes ended on Septem- 
 ber 20th. That day I was ordered to report 
 at Saverne, in Alsace, where my regiment was 
 located. 
 
XXVI 
 
 THE BATTLE OF CHAMPAGNE 
 
 (September, 1915) 
 
 On September 11th, I arrived at Saverne 
 (Alsace), where my battalion was quartered. 
 I was going to board with my friend Loffel- 
 hardt who lived with an Alsatian woman 
 whose husband was a lieutenant in the re- 
 serves at the front. This woman told us 
 that all citizens of Saverne (she spoke of the 
 Alsatians) were positive that the war would 
 give them back to France. All the Alsatians 
 hated the Prussians cordially, especially since 
 the Renter and Forsner affair and had but 
 one desire — to become French citizens once 
 again. After dinner we took a walk through 
 the town and talked with a few of the inhabit- 
 ants. They all spoke French and pretended 
 not to understand German. All of them told 
 
 218 
 
The Battle of Champagne 219 
 
 us that after the war Alsace would again be- 
 come French. They complained a good deal 
 of the severe German administration which 
 treated them hke the French and Belgians of 
 the invaded districts. 
 
 We were expecting to spend a little more 
 time at Saverne when we were suddenly or- 
 dered to leave immediately for Champagne 
 where the French were making a big offensive. 
 
 We broke camp that night in a disorder and 
 haste that cannot be described. Many men 
 took this occasion to desert. They were court- 
 martialled later. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth at six o'clock in the 
 morning we left for Savigny by way of Sar- 
 reguemines, Thionville, Longuyon and Vou- 
 ziers. The train made very good time and we 
 hardly stopped long enough at Longuyon to 
 eat. Automobiles were awaiting at Savigny 
 to carr}^ us to the front in great haste. The 
 road from Savigny to Sechault resembled the 
 great boulevards of Paris, there was so much 
 traffic. We could already hear the roaring of 
 the guns and soon we passed the artillery posi- 
 
220 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 tions at high speed. Never have I seen so 
 many cannon so close to each other. We all 
 understood that the French armies were mak- 
 ing a huge effort to pierce the German line. 
 
 Before arriving at Sechault our automobiles 
 had to slow down, so badly was the road en- 
 cumbered. The French shells began falUng 
 in this region and of course did considerable 
 damage. 
 
 For the first time we heard the terrifying 
 noise of the aerial bombs. All the soldiers of 
 the battalion, so happy only two days before, 
 were now sad and discouraged for they believed 
 they were going to their death. 
 
 At Sechault we left our automobiles and 
 reached Ripont by a forced march. We were 
 at the identical spot near the famous "Devil's 
 Hole" where we had suffered so during May, 
 1915. The ground cut up by numerous shell 
 holes was covered with carcasses of men and 
 horses. 
 
 At Ripont we waited till night before going 
 into our trenches. During the journey we had 
 suffered several losses. Reserve Lieutenant 
 
The Battle of Champagne 221 
 
 Abraham had been killed and all of us felt that 
 we would never return from that hell alive. 
 
 We finally took possession of our trenches. 
 They had been half destroyed by the French 
 artillery and we had to get to work imme- 
 diately right under the enemy's infernal fire, 
 to put them in condition. 
 
 At daybreak the French attacked us after a 
 terrific bombardment which had lasted three 
 hours. If the French had not attacked so soon 
 our positions would certainly have been wiped 
 out. However, they were a little prematm^e 
 and the first of them to come at us were shot 
 down or captured. The fire was fierce; we 
 sheltered ourselves behind piles of corpses and 
 we looked around us like madmen thinking our 
 last hour had come. Never expecting to come 
 out alive, we prayed for death to finish us off 
 once and for all. We were not exactly ner- 
 vous but we were dully resigned to the inevi- 
 table. The soldiers acted mechanically. We 
 gazed stupidly at our comrades who fell beside 
 us and we lay quietly down beside them as if 
 we did not understand. 
 
222 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 Naturally our brave battalion chief, Lind- 
 wurm, had, in accordance with his noble habit, 
 preferred not to go into the trenches. He hid 
 himself in a cave between Ripont and Grat- 
 reuil, and all of the responsibility of leading 
 the battahon fell upon Rickert, Loffelhardt 
 and myself. Greatly annoyed, we asked First 
 Lieutenant Zietz, commander of the 6th Com- 
 pany, if he would take command of the bat- 
 talion. He told us that he was not able to 
 take such a responsibility upon himself, that 
 he was not in action and that he had had 
 enough, and that he would be delighted when 
 this dirty business which consisted of killing 
 and of being killed would be over. Then we 
 found Lieutenant Dehes, who was on active 
 service. He said he preferred to die at the 
 head of his company and that he would carry 
 out all the orders he received from us. 
 
 On September 26th hell was let loose. The 
 artillery fire reached the height of violence, the 
 earth trembled and many soldiers lost their 
 minds, becoming living corpses. To stay in an 
 underground shelter was to expose yourself to 
 
The Battle of Champagne 223 
 
 being buried alive. The men wandered like 
 mad through the trenches seeking shelter from 
 death. All at once the French broke through 
 on our right. Passing by our position, which 
 could offer no resistance, and piercing our rear 
 on the run they completely surprised our sec- 
 ond line. The French continued doggedly to- 
 ward Ripont. A few minutes later we saw 
 their cavalry advance. Instinctively, our men 
 began firing at this living target and a number 
 of French troopers fell victims of their brav- 
 ery. The frightened horses bounded at a 
 gallop over the dead and wounded. Some 
 dragged their riders along with them. Our 
 artillery had immediately concentrated its fire 
 on the French cavalry without concerning 
 themselves about us, so that we were obliged to 
 abandon our lines on the run, lest every man 
 of us be killed by our own guns. We did not 
 know where we were or what we were to do. 
 We were surrounded on all sides by the 
 French. Furthermore, it was impossible for 
 us to surrender, as the German artillery swept 
 the position, which wais; as untenable for the 
 
224 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 French as for us. At last we arrived at the 
 second line without knowing what we were 
 doing. There we found heaps of dead and 
 wounded Germans and several crazy soldiers, 
 who were singing and laughing at the uproar. 
 All the rest had been thrown into confusion by 
 the French, who had taken Ripont and passing 
 that place had pushed forward. 
 
 These brave men had to stop before a ravine 
 between Ripont and Gratreuil, where the Ger- 
 man reserves, waiting for them, opened fire 
 on them. But in their dash, they would 
 probably have overcome this new obstacle if 
 unfortunately they had not found themselves 
 just at this critical moment within the range of 
 their own guns. There was nothing left for 
 them to do but to surrender. Many of our 
 soldiers told me afterwards that they were 
 sorry for this for if it had not happened they 
 themselves would have had a chance to sur- 
 render to the French and so be finished with 
 the war. 
 
 Rickert asked Loffelhardt if we could not 
 take advantage of this and retake our front 
 
The Battle of Champagne 225 
 
 line. All our companies except the 5th, com- 
 manded by Dehes, had lost their officers. 
 There only remained as leaders in all the ten 
 battahons, Dehes, Rickert, Loffelhardt and I. 
 We told Dehes to attack and we retook our 
 front line, where we found only a few French 
 soldiers, who surrendered, but were instantly 
 killed at Dehes' orders, for the excitement was 
 so great that no one showed any mercy. Dehes 
 received the Iron Cross, first class, for this 
 brave deed. After all it was only our 5th 
 Company which advanced. The others re- 
 fused on the pretext that they had no officers. 
 Lieutenant Zietz was killed and his orderly, on 
 his knees before him for half an hour, kept 
 begging him to get up. The poor boy had 
 gone mad. 
 
 Back in our first position we were able 
 to get an idea of the awful massacre which had 
 taken place. We literally walked over piles 
 of dead and wounded, French and German 
 mixed promiscuously. Cries, groans, the death 
 rattle, veritable shrieks of pain arose from this 
 field of slaughter. For a moment I thought I 
 
226 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 was going mad like all the rest, for my mind 
 seemed to ramble and my senses were be- 
 numbed. A great many men had become 
 stone deaf and remained sitting on the ground, 
 oblivious of everything. If you spoke to them 
 they just stared at you with a stupid expres- 
 sion. 
 
 Naturally, on this day there had been no dis- 
 tribution of rations and we found our food by 
 searching through the packs of the dead. The 
 men preferred to search the French, who had 
 white bread, boxes of sardines, chocolate and 
 coffee in their canteens, but no spirits. Luck- 
 ily, the canteens of the German dead were full 
 of rum. Sitting in our ruined trenches we ate 
 and drank mechanically, thinking of nothing 
 and without bothering about the battle which 
 was still raging on our right towards Somme- 
 Py, where it must have been frightful, for the 
 shells burst by the thousand, darkening the sky 
 with a huge cloud of black smoke. The 
 ground trembled as if there was an earthquake. 
 
 At last on September 28th there was a com- 
 
The Battle of Champagne 227 
 
 parative lull and we were relieved in the middle 
 of the night. 
 
 Thus ended as far as I was concerned, that 
 horrible Battle of Champagne, through which 
 I did not expect to live. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth, we bivouacked at camp 
 Number Three, between Gratreuil and Ripont. 
 Who had taken our places in the front line? 
 We never knew, everything happened so rap- 
 idly, and the soldiers had taken off their epau- 
 lets, on which were the numbers of their regi- 
 ments. 
 
 We were now able to count our losses. 
 They were terrible. We lost more than two 
 thirds of our force. Only three hundred of us 
 remained in a battalion which, completely re- 
 organized before we left Saverne, had counted 
 a thousand men at that time. 
 
 Our battalion chief, Captain Lindwurm, 
 who, as I have related, had refrained from tak- 
 ing command during the battle and had left 
 us to our own resources, had the effrontery to 
 assemble us and to speak to us in this manner : 
 
228 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 "Dear comrades, I thank you for your 
 courage and for your heroism. You bravely 
 retook the positions captured by the enemy. I 
 am proud to be your leader. You have obeyed 
 all mv orders and have covered the 2nd Bat- 
 talion with glory." 
 
 Such words as these were quite incredible, 
 coming from such a coward as he who, now that 
 danger was over, acted as if he had saved 
 the German Empire. Janecke, a first class 
 private, at headquarters told Rickert and me 
 what Lindwurm had done during the fight. 
 On September 25th, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Rogge, through a non-conmiissioned officer, 
 Zentgroff of the headquarters company, or- 
 dered Lindwurm to report immediately to him. 
 Lindwurm promised to come, but didn't and 
 instead hid himself in a dug-out at Ardeuil. 
 The next day Rogge came himself to fijid him 
 and said to him : 
 
 "Captain, I am sorry to have to tell you that 
 I have proved that the officers of your battalion 
 do not do their duty and do not obey the orders 
 of their superiors. Before you, an officer of 
 
The Battle of Champagne 229 
 
 this company disobeyed my orders and I had 
 to complain about him" (he was speaking of 
 Schmidt), "and yet he was not a coward. 
 You, you seem to be afflicted with the same 
 disease. I want you to note that I hold you 
 responsible if the discipline of your company 
 does not come up to what is expected and de- 
 manded of Prussian troops. I command you 
 for the last time to rejoin your battalion and to 
 lead it." 
 
 Lindwurm started out with First-Class Pri- 
 vate Bastian, but he stopped at Sechault and 
 Bastian reached us by himself. He trans- 
 ferred the orders signed by Lindwurm to us 
 and warned us that all communications with 
 the regiment would have to be sent to Lind- 
 wurm first for his signature. 
 
 All this did not prevent Lindwurm's taking 
 command a few days later. He made us an- 
 other speech at this time in which he had the 
 nerve to speak of the awful battle of Cham- 
 pagne, which he would never forget. What 
 he has certainly not forgotten was the fright 
 he had had. 
 
230 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 On October 8th we returned to the trenches 
 with new recruits which made up for our 
 losses and enabled us to reform our units. 
 Seeing these new mfen one would think that 
 Germany was at the end of her man power, 
 for there were boys scarcely eighteen years old 
 and grey haired men from forty to forty-five. 
 Amongst them there were even cripples, the 
 lame and some poor devils who had already lost 
 a leg or an arm and were being sent to the front 
 just the same. 
 
 On October 4ith, General von Einem, in his 
 order of the day, thanked us for our bravery. 
 This order ought to have been read to the sol- 
 diers, but Lindwurm thought that unnecessary. 
 
 "Those whom it would interest," he said, 
 "are dead, wounded or missing; those who are 
 left have not enough sense to understand it. 
 As to the new recruits, it is none of their busi- 
 
 ness." 
 
XXVII 
 DOUAI— IN CHAMPAGNE 
 
 On November 6th we left our Champagne 
 trenches for the last time and started towards 
 Arras. On the ninth we arrived at Mouchy 
 and on the tenth we were before Arras, where 
 we stayed as reserves. 
 
 Our men were quartered on the citizens. 
 We were forbidden to have anything to do with 
 the Bavarian soldiers, so as to avoid quarrels 
 and disputes. We were also forbidden to hold 
 communication with the natives, for it seemed 
 that most of the allied spies were at Douai and 
 Lille. This order did not, however, prevent 
 monsieurs the officers from running after the 
 women and trying by every means — almost al- 
 ways by force — to find mistresses. I can men- 
 tion for example an awful scandal about our 
 own battalion chief, the heroic Lindwurm. 
 
 231 
 
232 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 He boarded with a respectable woman who 
 lived alone with her daughter, a girl about 
 twenty-four years old. 
 
 Lindwurm decided to become this young 
 girl's lover and he told us of his intention. 
 Rickert, who was a theological student in civil- 
 ian life, gave him a good lecture and told him 
 he was not conducting himself as a gentleman 
 should. But the fine Lindwurm would not 
 listen to him and straightway entered the young 
 girl's bedroom. The latter told him that 
 Monsieur the Commander must have made a 
 mistake and that he was in a young woman's 
 bedroom. 
 
 "My dear young lady," answered Lind- 
 wurm gallantly, "believe what you want but let 
 me tell you that I have decided that you are 
 going to be my mistress. Also please take 
 note that all resistance will be futile. If you 
 do not consent I will have you deported to 
 Germany." 
 
 Rickert and I, who were in the hall, could 
 hear everything until Lindwurm closed the 
 door. 
 
Douai — in Champagne 233 
 
 Rickert, disgusted, went to Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Rogge's headquarters and asked to be 
 relieved from duty as adjutant of the 3rd 
 Battahon. Rogge demanded an explanation 
 and Rickert told him about Lindwurm's be- 
 haviour. 
 
 "Don't get so hot, my friend," answered 
 Rogge. *' These little affairs happen in the 
 best society, you know. Don't get excited. 
 If every one had your scruples it would have 
 been better for Germany never to have gone to 
 war. Maybe you are a little jealous, my dear 
 Rickert, but there are so many women in the 
 streets that assuredly you can find some one to 
 your liking." 
 
 Meanwhile, Lindwurm ordered all kinds of 
 food taken to the old lady's house, chiefly dain- 
 ties, old wines and liquors. When we returned 
 he said: 
 
 "Gentlemen, I am your commander and 
 the master of this house. I ordered these pro- 
 visions and I invite you — no, I order you to 
 help celebrate tonight my marriage with this 
 young girl." 
 
234 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 A few minutes later, I found myself alone 
 with the girl who, weeping, said to me: 
 
 "He threatened to have me deported to Ger- 
 many like all the rest. What would happen 
 to my poor mother if she were left alone here." 
 
 Before dinner we again remonstrated with 
 Lindwurm for uselessly making two women 
 imhappy. But he answered: 
 
 "You go to the devil. That's the custom of 
 the staff and I intend to follow it." 
 
 Loffelhardt, who sometimes spoke frankly, 
 was indignant and did not hesitate to answer 
 him roughly : 
 
 "Sir, if everything went according to cus- 
 tom, how are there the many slackers and 
 cowards at the front, that these gentlemen and 
 I are well acquainted with?" 
 
 Lindwurm paled but did not answer. 
 
 The bridal dinner was funereal; no one ate 
 and no one knew how to act. The two poor 
 women could hardly keep from crying and 
 Lindwurm, crestfallen, did not know what to 
 say and realized what a ridiculous and beastly 
 part he was playing in this very sad comedy. 
 
Douai — in Champagne 235 
 
 The atmosphere became so strained that he 
 could not maintain his position. At dessert 
 he spoke to Rickert and said he was sorry for 
 all this childishness and he begged the ladies to 
 forget it all. We all congratulatedihim on his 
 virtuous resolution. 
 
 On November 23rd we returned to Cham- 
 pagne for the third time. There was now a 
 relative lull on this front in comparison with 
 the horrible battle of September and we were 
 not so miserable. We occupied the same posi- 
 tions as before. 
 
 During our absence the engineers had stub- 
 bornly laboured at burying mines which were 
 to explode under the French trenches. Our 
 battalion was chosen to attack right after the 
 explosion of one of these mines during the 
 night of December 4th and 5th, 1916, at 
 exactly half -past eleven o'clock. At the given 
 time, a frightful report resounded and in 
 front of us we saw a huge red flame suddenly 
 cover the whole sky and rise upward in the 
 midst of an eruption of earth and black smoke. 
 One clearly saw as if on a luminous screen 
 
236 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 several human bodies hurled to a great height 
 by the force of the explosion. 
 
 Lindwurm, as I said before, gave his orders 
 for half -past eleven. But no one moved ex- 
 cept a few new men recently arrived in the 
 battalion. Lieutenant Becker, only nineteen 
 years old, immediately sent word that his com- 
 pany refused to leave the trenches, unless Lind- 
 wurm himself came to the front line to lead the 
 attack at the head of his battalion. Lindwurm 
 replied by repeating the order to attack imme- 
 diately and said that he had to stay behind to 
 direct all stages of the attack. One must ad- 
 mit that in principle he was right, but his cow- 
 ardice in the past had exasperated the soldiers. 
 
 The delay caused by this incident made us 
 lose all the benefits of the confusion brought 
 about by the explosion of the mine. The whole 
 affair was a failure and it was we who were 
 the object of a furious attack from the French, 
 who immediately seized their opportunity. 
 We had to defend ourselves, and it was only 
 through hard work and with great loss that we 
 held our positions. The engineer who had ex- 
 
Douai — in Champagne 237 
 
 ploded the mine and who wanted to win the 
 Iron Cross of the first class, made a brave coun- 
 ter attack with his fifteen men. He was killed 
 and all his men, except two who came back, 
 were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. 
 
 At the close of the affair the regiment was 
 severely reprimanded by the general command- 
 ing the army corps. 
 
 *'It is an act of cowardice and a crime," said 
 the general, " to refuse to obey. It is not the 
 soldier's business what his superior does. He 
 has only to obey and to execute the orders given 
 him. If this happens again, the severest meas- 
 ures will be taken." 
 
 Rogge added his remarks to this reproach, 
 accusing the regiment of mutiny. 
 
 As punishment the battalion had to stay in 
 the trenches several extra days, but the soldiers 
 made light of it, for existence was even more 
 disagreeable when off duty than on. We were 
 not relieved till the 13th of December. 
 Wlien we were sent to the rear, Rogge assem- 
 bled the battalion and made a speech in which 
 he said he was ashamed to be in command of 
 
238 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 such cowards. He announced that sanction 
 had been given for a certain number of men 
 to be chosen from each company and sent to 
 another regiment. When the men had with- 
 drawn, hissing and grumbhng, it was the turn 
 of the officers and the non-coms whom he had 
 detained. 
 
 "You have heard me, gentlemen. I have 
 kept you to tell you that this disobedience is the 
 result of your indulgence of these peasants, 
 who do only what they want. You treat them 
 as equals and they make fun of you and your 
 orders. You must never speak to them in a 
 friendly way, but on the contrary, treat them 
 severely. The disgrace of the 2nd Battalion 
 rests on me. I trust that a like occurrence 
 will not take place again," 
 
 When Rogge was gone, Hamishmacher, 
 who was serving as an officer, said : 
 
 "Rogge is great on making speeches but he 
 never comes within the lines himself and pre- 
 fers to soak himself with wine and iji the com- 
 pany of the biggest drunkards of the regiment. 
 I would like to be selected to leave this regi- 
 
Douai — in Champagne 239 
 
 ment, which is nothing but a society of anti- 
 quated fighters and cowards." 
 
 Lindwurm listened to all of this without 
 saying a word. 
 
 During the seven hours that the battalion 
 was resting, they tortured the men by pro- 
 longed drills as punishment. Many became 
 ill, but Major Fisher of the medical corps said 
 to them: "As long as you can stand on your 
 feet I'll pay no attention to you." 
 
 One day a man of the 7th Company, who 
 was in great pain and whom he had just 
 sent away in this manner, took a gun by the 
 barrel and struck him a terrible blow. Dr. 
 Fisher, almost beaten to death, fell fainting 
 and had to be sent to the hospital. The man 
 was arrested and put in prison, where he hung 
 himself during the night. This accident made 
 the officers a httle more careful during the next 
 few days. 
 
 On December 21st, we returned to the 
 trenches. We had not been relieved when our 
 turn came after the explosion of the mine, so 
 the 3rd Battalion spent Christmas in the 
 
240 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 front line trenches. Christmas Eve, Lind- 
 wurm sent the men great quantities of wine 
 and rum. There was at least one bottle for 
 every four men. The result of this gen- 
 erosity could not be in doubt; everybody was 
 drunk and if the French had attacked us then 
 they would have captured the whole battalion 
 without firing a shot. New Year's Day was 
 celebrated in the same way in the trenches 
 onjy they gave out less alcohol in order to 
 avoid the general drunkenness of Christmas 
 Eve. 
 
 When we reached our resting place behind 
 the lines on January 4th lectures were given 
 every day for the men on the soldier's duties, 
 still on account of their disobedience on De- 
 cember 4th. The men had to repeat and 
 memorize the twenty-nine rules of war. 
 
 The first article is as follows: "I swear be- 
 fore God Ahnighty, to be faithful to His Ma- 
 jesty WiUiehn II, King of Prussia, Emperor 
 of Germany, never to desert him, to help him 
 and defend him under all circumstances on land 
 and sea, in peace and in war." 
 
Douai — in Champagne 241 
 
 On January 15th, 1916, after another so- 
 journ in the front line we were relieved by the 
 81st Reserve Regiment of the 18th Corps, and 
 sent before Verdun to take part in the Crown 
 Prince's big attack on this fortress. It was 
 there that I was severely wounded at the be- 
 ginning of the attack. 
 
 A 
 
XXVIII 
 
 ^ VERDUN— FRANKFORT— 
 MAYENCE 
 
 Feom January 16th to February 18th, 1916, 
 we rested at Savigny without once going into 
 the trenches. Without a doubt they wanted 
 us to recover our strength for the big drive 
 against Verdun. 
 
 On February 18th we left for Thionville, 
 where we spent the night in barracks located 
 near the station. The nineteenth we were at 
 Stenay, where the Crown Prince had his head- 
 quarters, then at Reville, where we rested for 
 several hours. During the night we went into 
 the trenches between Brabant and Beaumont. 
 We were placed between the 35th and 118th 
 regiments of the 56th Division. 
 
 On February 21st, 1916, toward five o'clock 
 in the morning a heavy artillery fire began 
 such as we had never heard before, even in 
 
 242 
 
Verdun — Frankfort — Mayence 243 
 
 Champagne. From the whizzing of the shells 
 we could tell at once that only the heavy pieces 
 were being fired. 
 
 At nine o'clock we were ordered to attack 
 and take the fort of Bras on our right. The 
 French put up a strong resistance and we ad- 
 vanced very slowly. The battle of Cham- 
 pagne had certainly been terrible, but it was 
 nothing compared to what was going on here 
 in the thick of the fighting. One felt that the 
 methods used were of such magnitude that it 
 was beyond the power of the imagination to 
 grasp it. The fire of the heavy German ar- 
 tillery was something terrific; the sensation 
 was as though every conceivable kind of engine 
 of war had been gathered together. We were 
 engaged in a huge battle in which one regi- 
 ment was nothing at all. It was no longer a 
 question of giving and obeying orders (I am 
 speaking of what concerns a battalion) ; that 
 was impossible. We ran forward, for to re- 
 treat was just as dangerous as to advance. We 
 were between two fires: the German artillery 
 firing before us and the French on the site 
 
244 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 which we had just left. At last we arrived at 
 the first French trench. We thought we could 
 take it easily, but we were wrong, for the few 
 soldiers who were holding it fought desper- 
 ately. In several places the wounded kept on 
 fighting furiously before they fell under our 
 blows. Not a section surrendered; such were 
 the orders given the small detachments and 
 even isolated individuals. At last we were in 
 possession of th^ trench, which had been com- 
 pletely ruined by the heavy German artillery. 
 It was a, frightful chaos of human wreckage. 
 One heard groans which seemed to rise from 
 the very bowels of the earth — ^the cries of the 
 unfortunates buried alive in their shelters. 
 We were forced to instal ourselves in these 
 positions and lie down to escape the fire of the 
 French artillery. On the twenty-second we 
 had to search through the packs of the dead 
 for food. We were not exactly hungry but 
 we did not know what to do, and we ate 
 mechanically. 
 
 The following day, the twenty-third, Lind- 
 wurm ordered me to go to the rear with a sol- 
 
Verdun — Frankfort — Mayence 245 
 
 dier to report to the head of the regiment that 
 the battahon had been entu^ely broken up and 
 that many soldiers belonging to other regi- 
 ments were mixed in with us. 
 
 We left the trenches. The shells were burst- 
 ing everywhere. We had not gone quite sixty 
 metres behind the line when suddenly I saw 
 my companion fighting like mad while I felt 
 a blow on my right side. I fell — I remem- 
 bered afterwards — screaming "Help " like a 
 fool. Then I fainted, and I have never learned 
 how long I remained unconscious. 
 
 When I opened my eyes I was in a bed in 
 the field-hospital at Stenay. It was February 
 26th. The orderly told me that I had been 
 brought to the hospital during the night of the 
 twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth. 
 
 I had a wound in my right side. At my re- 
 quest the head surgeon promised me to do 
 his best to send me to the hospital at Frank- 
 fort-on-Main, the headquarters of the 18th 
 Army Corps. He kept his promise. 
 
 The twenty-eighth I was sent away by au- 
 tomobile to Longuyon and was taken at once 
 
246 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 to Frankfort in a Red Cross train, a wonder- 
 ful hospital on wheels, very comfortable, and 
 well organized. There was in my compart- 
 ment a French lieutenant and an Arabian of- 
 ficer, both wounded at Verdun. The doctor 
 gave each of us an injection of morphine and 
 we fell asleep. 
 
 I woke up in the hospital at Frankfort, in- 
 stalled in a comfortable room together with the 
 French lieutenant. 
 
 I was extremely well taken care of by the 
 doctors. Concerning the ladies of the Ger- 
 man Red Cross, I wish to say that they make 
 life very hard for the English and the Germans 
 but pet and spoil the French like little children. 
 I had the proof of this at Frankfort. The 
 lady who looked after the French officer and 
 myself was the wife of Dr. S — — , who was at 
 the front. She gave the lieutenant absolutely 
 everything he wanted, even what the doctor 
 forbade. To me she refused almost every- 
 thing. As she spoke a little French she 
 would come when her patient was not asleep 
 to chat with him. The Frenchman, who had 
 
Verdun — Frankfort — Mayence 247 
 
 noticed that she refused me everything, told 
 me that he would ask her for whatever I 
 needed as if it were for himself. As a result 
 all my desu-es were gratified without her 
 kfiowing it. She did not know that I spoke 
 French, and did not bother about what she 
 said to her lieutenant in front of me. She 
 asked him questions about Parisian life, espe- 
 cially about the women. "Don't you miss 
 your sweethearts? It must be very sad for a 
 young man hke you to be separated from his 
 httle friend," etc., she would say simperingly. 
 I who heard all this and saw her little intrigue 
 enjoj^ed myself immensely where I lay and 
 made a great effort not to laugh on account of 
 my wound. Sometimes when she got too ten- 
 der the French officer politely begged her to 
 let him sleep a while, because he felt tired. 
 
 As soon as she left the room we laughed so 
 hard that we forgot our sorrows. 
 
 One day while we were dozing she came in 
 softly. I made believe I was sound asleep 
 but watched her out of the corner of my 
 eye. She gazed lovingly on the slumbering 
 
248 The Diary of a German Soldier 
 
 French officer and then bending over him she 
 kissed him on the forehead. 
 
 On March 20th I had the joy of kissing my 
 
 mother. Our hospital nurse, Mme. S , 
 
 having discovered that I understood French 
 had me removed to another section, where I 
 was taken care of by an orderly. I stayed 
 at the hospital till June 26th. I had a fifteen- 
 day furlough, which I planned to spend at 
 Fulda with my mother. I was not entirely 
 well, for my mother was opposed to a danger- 
 ous operation which the doctor wished to make 
 and which he told me would either completely 
 cure me or prove fatal. 
 
 During my fifteen days of convalescence I 
 was able to see the suffering of the civiHan 
 population of Germany. 
 
 On July 10th I reported at Mayence where 
 I found our battalion of young recruits whom 
 I drilled for about twenty days. 
 
 At last on August 1st I rejoined my bat- 
 talion at the front which was not far from 
 Verdun, between Neuvilly and Aubreville. 
 Lindwurm, Rickert and Loffelhardt were still 
 
Verdun — Frankfort — Mayence 249 
 
 there. All the other officers were dead, 
 wounded or missing. They were all sad for 
 the big drive against Verdun had failed and 
 our position was anything but agreeable. 
 Loffelhardt and I were thoroughly disgusted 
 with this war in which, however, we had done 
 our duty and risked our lives so often for more 
 than two years. 
 
 On October 20th my wound which had not 
 healed well gave me so much pain that I went 
 to the hospital at Valenciennes whither my 
 battalion had returned. I was sent back a 
 second time to the hospital at Frankfort where 
 they dismissed me in two days telling me that 
 I would not have to return to the front. On 
 the twenty-eighth I received my ticket at 
 Hanau for Ober Jersdal in the north of 
 Schleswig on the Danish border. 
 
XXIX 
 
 AT THE DANISH BORDER 
 
 I WAS enrolled at Ober Jersdal in an 
 auxiliary corps assigned to the duty of build- 
 ing defences on the Danish frontier. Cap- 
 tain Kopp, my chief, gave me permission to 
 live in the town. 
 
 In crossing Germany I was able to notice 
 the many precautions taken to prevent espion- 
 age and indiscretions. Travelling officers had 
 to remove their epaulets so that no one would 
 know to what regiment they belonged or 
 where they had come from. 
 
 I went on duty with my new battalion on 
 November 10th. Almost all the soldiers were 
 war cripples. 
 
 We haa to dig trenches from Hadersleben 
 to Tondern in case of an English attack by 
 way of Denmark. Our sector extended from 
 Nieder Jersdal to Aokaer and Skovby where 
 
 250 
 
At the Danish Border 251 
 
 all cultivation had been destroyed. Huge 
 tunnels had been excavated, regular catacombs 
 and deep concrete trenches fortified by hidden 
 cannon and machine guns. At Skovby I 
 counted in a small space six of the heaviest 
 guns and twenty-four machine guns placed in 
 concrete shelters. At Nieder Jersdal a family 
 were forced to leave their house so that the 
 basement might be mined. A barrier of wires 
 heavily charged with electricity was stretched 
 from Nieder Jersdal to Ober Jersdal. The 
 source of the current was underground. 
 Countless wagons were bringing the materials 
 necessary for the fortifications to Flensbourg. 
 All the inhabitants of this country with 
 whom I had occasion to speak talked Danish 
 and considered themselves Danish. They did 
 not hke to speak German. . . . 
 
 • •.•••' 
 
 (Here end Feldwebel C 's Memoirs) 
 
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