Part 20 (2/2)
Evidently the nation awaited and hoped for a decision which would leave Paris at the mercy of the invading army. They are still awaiting that decision, but whether the waiting is seasoned by hope cannot easily be determined.
A soldier present at the battle of the Marne has chronicled his experiences.[167] ”We pa.s.sed over long, undulating hills and valleys, and towards 1 p.m. obtained our first glimpse down the beautiful vale of the Marne. Standing on the heights of Chateau Thierry, we beheld the town nestling on both sides of the river in the valley below.
[Footnote 167: H. Knutz: ”Mit den Konigin-Fusilieren durch Belgien und Frankreich,”, p. 49 _et seq_.]
”Then we entered the town and saw on all sides the tokens of street fighting. All the windows were smashed by sh.e.l.l fire; some houses had been entirely gutted. Dead Frenchmen lay around in heaps, some corpses so mutilated by shrapnel as to appear hardly human. With a shudder we turned our eyes from this horrible scene.
”Crossing the Marne by a sand-stone bridge, we climbed the opposing heights under a burning sun. At the top we deployed, but for that day our artillery sufficed to drive the enemy in headlong flight to the south; the night we spent under the open sky.
”Sunday, September 6th. Before breakfast we intended to bathe in a stream, when our dreams of a rest-day were dispelled by an order to hold ourselves ready for the march. 'The 17th division is under heavy rifle fire and the 18th must advance to their support.' Meanwhile, the chicken soup was almost ready, but the order 'form ranks' resounded, and with empty stomachs we marched through Neuvy up a hill and dug ourselves in behind a wood.
”The thunder of the enemies' artillery is terrible; shrapnel is bursting on our left. Captain von Liliencron discusses the situation with the major and then turns to us. 'Our regiment attacks! go for the dogs, children!' he exclaims with gleaming eyes.
”Next we advance round the wood and lie down behind a hedge; axes are held in readiness to hack a way through the latter. Five steps from me a machine gun hammers away at full speed; it is now impossible to hear commands, so they are roared from man to man--it could not be termed shouting. 'Ambulance to the right!' somebody is severely wounded, but the ambulance men have more than they can do on the left.
”The h.e.l.l-music is at its loudest; shrapnel is bursting in the wood behind us; suddenly there is an awful explosion half a dozen yards away; I hear the screams of my comrades, then we rush forwards. The rush across the field was awful--flank fire from the right. Here and there a comrade bites the gra.s.s.
”At last I throw myself down, but there is no cover; the wounded crouch there too. None of my company are there; it seems that the two last sh.e.l.ls have played havoc with them. The enemies' (French) main position is nearly a mile away in a forest.
”Up the next slope our dead lie thick around, and here too a deadly bullet had found the breast of our heroic captain. But in the strip of forest French and Turko bodies are still thicker. The cat-like Turkos have climbed into the trees and are shot down like crows. A maddening infantry and artillery fire greets us as we reach the top. Every ten to twenty yards sh.e.l.ls strike, and shrapnel bursts, filling the air with earth, dust, smoke and smell.
”Forward! till almost exhausted I throw myself down again; a hundred to a hundred and fifty Fusiliers form a firing-line. Columns of infantry pour a murderous fire on to us from the forest. It cannot go on thus; one after the other is wounded or killed. We have advanced nearly eight hundred yards over open ground. On the right there is a small thicket of reeds. Some of the company have already sought shelter there, and I make a rush there with the same hope.
”'For heaven's sake, lie down, corporal,' screamed a man as I came up.
In fact, the reeds afford no cover whatever. Wounded and dead lie there and bullets keep hitting them. In front of me lay a man from the fourth company; a bullet had entered his chest and pa.s.sed out of his back; the blood was oozing out of a wound about the size of a s.h.i.+lling. The horror was too much for me, and I crept to the other end of the strip.
”There I found everything far worse, but I cannot describe the terrors which I saw. One poor fellow begs for a drop of water; there is just another draught in my bottle. With grateful eyes he hands it back to me, and in the same moment I feel a stinging pain in the shoulder. My arm is numbed and helpless; hardly one of us who is not wounded.
”We can offer no resistance to the enemy; but the awful way back! At last the run back over eight hundred yards of open field begins. Now and again a comrade sinks to the ground, never to rise again. My breath is nearly gone; one last effort, and in truth I have escaped from the hail of bullets.”
It is remarkable and noteworthy that German writers charge the French armies with looting and destruction in their own country. Probably this is merely a device to get rid of unpleasant accusations raised against the German army. Furthermore, the most reckless charges of uncleanliness are made. In commenting on the lot of the Landsturm troops quartered in the villages of Northern France, one author[168] writes: ”The Landsturm men pa.s.s their time as best they can in these holes, whose most conspicuous quality is their filth.”
[Footnote 168: Erich Kohrer: ”Zwischen Aisne und Argonnen” (”Between the Aisne and the Argonnes”), p. 25.]
The same author gives his impressions of a visit to Sedan. ”Only one house has been completely and another partly destroyed, otherwise appearances are peaceful, and as far as possible, life goes on as usual.
Here, too, many of the inhabitants have left their homes and fled. The stupidity of this flight becomes evident at every step. In numerous small hotels whose proprietors have remained, one sees German soldiers buying bottles of splendid Burgundy wine at a s.h.i.+lling a bottle.
”But in another hotel whose proprietor had fled, is it a matter for surprise that the men caroused on discovering a cellar containing three thousand bottles of wine? On the route I have myself purchased some of the oldest and best wines from our men at a price of three cigars a bottle, and the recollection of them belongs to the pleasantest memories of my sojourn at the front.
”Certainly the owner of Chateau Frenois, situated a few minutes' walk from the town, will be more unpleasantly surprised on his return than the hotel proprietor. In his home, French marauders and plunderers have destroyed and devastated the entire contents. It is impossible to comprehend the senselessness of this conduct, for which no reasons of military necessity can be advanced.
”Ancient family pictures which could not be taken out of their frames have been ruined by bayonet stabs, and from the shape of the cuts they were certainly the work of French bayonets. Even the library, which contained a valuable collection of old prints, had been robbed.
”Not far from this scene of desolation stands Chateau Bellevue, where King William met Napoleon in 1870. There, too, the traces of French plunderers are painfully evident; it was left to the 'Hun-Kaiser' to save this historic spot from complete annihilation. In September Wilhelm II. visited the chateau and seeing the signs of rapacity, ordered the place to be strictly guarded to prevent further desecration.”[169]
[Footnote 169: Ibid., pp. 22-3.]
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