The Confessions of a
German Deserter
Written by a Private Officer
Who Participated in the
Ravaging and Pillaging of
Belgium.
( oiiMiihimI from last week)
These re-enforcements ha1 heen
taken from nil different arms ami tnte
arrivals had been tnken from a division
which hnd heen threatened exactly Ilka
nurs was. This led us to eoncltde that
re could only resist further attncka
provided fresh troops reached ua. If
nly we could get something to eat.
But there seemed no wny to relieve the
hunger and thirst which tortured ua.
Now, horses galloped up to remove
the guns we had left, ami at the sam
Instant the French artillery opened a
tremendous fire from guns of ill call
hers. The shells fell among the M
teams comprising the column. Confu
Ion reigned. Uroups of six horse
comprising each team sprang Into tbt
air, then rnn In all directions, pulling
their carriages with the wheels up he
hind them. Some of the terrified ani
mals ran directly Into the heavleat Are,
only to be torn to shreds with their
drivers.
The enemy now transferred hla Are
to the battery position which we occu
pied. For ua It was only a question of
advance or retreat. Retreat? No I The
order came to retake the posltlona
which wa had lost at the opening of
the battle and which the Frenchmen
presumably had made ready to with
atand a new attack. By this time wa
had been re-enforced with mora can
on fodder and the Insane fight could
begin anew.
We advanced over a wild field, cov
ered by thousands upon thousands of
torn human bodies. No shot fell ; the
only firing was the hostile Artillery
continuing to shell our battery posi
tions. Neither the enemy's artillery
or Infantry was turned upon ua. This
made us auspicious and our apprehen
sion regarding what was to come In
creased as we were permitted to ad
vance unmolested.
Suddenly there was turned loose
pon ua the Are from a multitude of
machine guns. We threw ourselves on
the ground and hunted cover. An In
atsnt later we again sprang up uud
continued our march. Once more we
encountered destruction. By this time
we had lost almost a third of our men
nd, exhausted, we halted.
Scarcely had we taken a position be
fore we were attacked from the front
and flank. We no longer had an ade
quate force to successfully resist this
double blow, as the enemy, In greatly
superior numbers, had practically
crushed our force. The left wing was
Completely cut off and we saw our men
throw up their hands and surrender.
We who were In the center were un
able to come to their assistance; our
ranks were being dad mated from mlii
Ote to minute
"Revenge for So'imiepy," sounded In
my ears.
The right wing broke and carried us
with It In a wild flight. Direct retreat
had heen cut off for us. so we ran
backward across an open field, each
man for himself, with a heart bursting
with horror and fear as the result of
the enemy's murderous fire.
After running a long time we reached
a hamlet northwest of Vltry-le Fran
cols. Without guns, helmets, or knap
aacks. the few who had heen able to
save themselves gathered here.
As a result of this battle the French
acquired a large amount of booty. All
the gnus which hnd bet 'II the center of
ao much tiitter fighting were lost, of
the hundreds upon hundreds of sol
diers who participated in the battle,
scarcely 100 were left. The others
were nil dead, wounded or missing, j
mis is wnnt was none to the Invincible
war machine by the French people,
who. before the struggle, we hnd brand
ed as cowardly and degenerate!
CHAPTER VIII.
We now tried to gather by com
pantea Of our own company only 12
men remained. Presently others strag
Clad In until there were 20 of us as
aemhled. There Is eager questioning
everywhere as each man attempts to
learn about his comrade or acquaint
ance. Pew questions can be answered,
however, as each man had thought
only of himself la that flight
Driven by hunger we approached
the village. The first thtag wa did
was to hasten to the wells and drink.
We drank as If we wanted to fill our
selves up with enough water to last us
the rest of our Uvea Only here and
there were wa able to find anything to
ant A few beets were left In the gar
dens and we ate them eagerly, without
waiting to wash or clean them.
Where Is our company? Nobody
knows. We are the company, we 20
men. And our officers. "Somewhere
nrely," aatd a soldier, "somewhere In
bomb-proof corner."
Bat what were we to do? No one
could decide. Presently a noncommis
sioned officer of the field gendarmes
approached on horseback. It Is the
djtty of this Darticulf r class of defend
ers ot me luinenmio to roinin 3y
slackers behind the front.
"You are pioneers," he called to ut
roughly. "What are you doing here?"
Then he asked us Innumerable ques
tions, which we answered as well as
we could.
"Where are the others?" he asked.
"(ner there," Mid a young Berlin
soldier, and pointed m the battlefield.
"The others are dead or perhaps
prisoners. Several others have men
aged to save themselves and are some
where, perhaps."
"Never mind," the noncommissioned
officer said roughly. The conversation
had become disagreeable to him, "Walt
here, until I come back. Where are
the officers?"
Again no one could answer. "What
are their names? I shall find them.
Perhaps they are In Vltry."
We told him the names of our offi
cers. He gave us identification papers
ao that we might be able to prove to
others Inquiring why we were waiting
where we were.
"I hope his horse falls and he breaks
his neck," said one of our men.
We entered one of the houses which
had been robbed, as were all the others,
threw ourselves down upon the mat
tresses to sleep, sleep, sleep. How
long we slept no one knew. We only
knew that It was night and that some
of oar company had aroused us. These
were newcomers who had been bunting
for as for a long time.
"Come along. The captain Is out
side and he Is very angry. Ha ho
gathered 17 of his men together and la
cursing like the very devil because ha
could not locate you."
Sleepy, and entirely Indifferent to the
future, we left the building. We knew
that we would he Bent Into action
again but no longer cared. I had never
before seen among a body of soldiers
such an atmosphere of absolute indif
ference. We came upon the captain. He sow
us approach minus onr headgear, our
uniforms torn Into shreda and without
guns and knapsacka.
"Why are you running around here?'
he roared. That was our reception.
Nobody answered. Nobody cared.
Nothing could be worse than what we
bad been through, but although every
one among us felt keenly the injustice
of the captain's attitude we all re
mained silent.
"Where Is your equipment? Lost
Lost . This has heen a nice business.
The state equips you. you rebel. If all
were like you "
He raved on for a while after this
fashion, this brave fellow, who, without
any action on his own part permitted
the rebels to retreat while he defend
ed his fatherland In Vltry. 4.26 kilo
meters behind the battle line.
Wa selected guns from those lying
around us in heaps and soon were
readj to tight agalu.
We stood around half asleep, lean
ing on our guns, und waited to be led
once more to the slaughter. A shot
fell In our midst. It struck a color
sergeant and smashed his right hand
lie cried out from the pnin. Ills hand
was quickly bandaged. He was the
first.
An eyewitness told us how this had
happened, lie had rested his hand on
the gun barrel In the same manner
as ilid all the ethers except that his
hand iartb covered the muule. The
orders provide that the gun be locked
if .loaded. Turning to the color ser
geenti aha was writhing with pain,
the captain roared at Mitt: "I shall
rejiort you for punishment fr .vnur
gross carelessness and for mutilating
yourself In the field."
The color sergeant, n noncommls
tinned officer, realized that his military
career was at an end. W all felt for
him. Muring the mouths preceding this
incident he had nlways associated him
self with the privates.
We never learned whether he was
brought before a court-martial. Pun
Ishment for self-mutllntlon was a dally
svent and many severe sentences were
pronounced and then made known to
all the others to serve as u deterring
example. The color sergeant's place
was conferred upon another, after
which the captain disappeared once
more In the direction of Vltry.
We marched away and halted at a
point northwest of the village. Here
we met other pioneers who had been
gathered together from various bat
talions and our unit was once more
brought up to IB men. The officers
told us that we would not enter the
battle today. Our only duty for the
time being was to keep the bridges
over the Marne In good condition for
the German troops fighting on the
other side, so that they could be used
In CHse the battle went against us.
We then marched to our destination,
which was at the point where thf
Saulx flows Into the Murne.
We reached our destination about
six o'clock In the morning. The dead
lay around In heaps everywhere. We
THE ALLIANCE
fin roiilri overlook the country for
many kilometers In all directions We
saw shrapnel bursting by the thou
sands. Utile could be seen of the
men who were fighting despite the fact
thnt many divisions were locked In a
death struggle.
Presently we snw the fighting line.
The Germans wore about two kilome
ters behind the Mnrne, which flowed
by directly In front of us. German
cavalry In grent numbers was en
camped along the banks of the river.
Two temporary bridges In n very dllap
Mated condition constructed of what
ever materials were at hand were lo
cated near us. Preparations had been
made to blow them up with thousnnds
of pounds of dynntnlte. The electric
fuses hnd been strung to the point
where we were located and It was up
to us to tnnnlpulnte the switches. Con
nected with the battle line by tele
phone, we were In a position to destroy
the bridges at a moment's notice. '
The fighting becntne mora lively.
We saw the French rush to attack and
retire again. The fire of musketry In
creased and the attacks became more
frequent. This continued for more
than two hours.
We saw the French continuing to
bring up re-enforcements constantly
despite the German artillery fire.
After an extended DMM the French
made another attack, employing sev
eral different kinds of formatlona.
Each time the waves of offensive
troops were forced bnck. At thtee
o'clock In the afternoon, under a blow
which contained the full power of
france, our troops were forced to re
tire, first slowly, then In wild flight.
The exhausted Germans could not be
rallied in the face of this blow. With
The Fighting Became Mora Lively.
wild confusion all tried at the same
time to reach the bridges beyond
which lay safety.
At thft Instant the cavalry which
had taken cover along the river bank
galloped to the bridge position. In a
moment the bridge was covered with
human bodies, all racing for the op
posite bank. We could see this tem
porary structure trembling under this
enormous burden.
Our officer saw the situation and he
nervously pressed the telephone re
ceiver to his left ear. His right hand
was on the switch. Breathlessly ha
stared at the fleeing masses. "If only
the telephone connections had not been
broken," he muttered to himself. He
knew as well as all the rest of us thnt
he was to act on the Instant that the
flirt order enme over the wire.
It was not much that be had to do.
Merely make a movement of his bands.
Masses of troops continued to rush
across the bridge until more than half
were safely over. The bridge further
above was not in such great demand,
And with the lessened congestion al
most all who crossed here were
already safe. We could see how the
first of the French units had crossed,
but the bridge continued to stand.
The sergeant who manned the appa
ratus at this bridge became restlesa
waiting for orders, and finally on his
own Initiative blew It up. Some
Frenchmen and hundreds of Germans
upon the bridge found their graves In
the Marne
At the same moment the officer
standing next to me received the order
to blow up the last bridge. He hesi
tated to obey, for he could atlll sea
many Germans on the other side. Ha
could see the race for the road leading
to the bridgehead as all sought safety
at the same instant. There a terrible
panic reigned. Many soldiers Jumped
Into the river and tried to swim acrosa
The pressure became greater aa the
thousands still on the other side tried
to get back.
The message over the wire became
more and more Insistent. Finally the
officer sprang up, rushed by the pio
neer standing at the apparatus and a
second later there was a terrible deto
nation bridge and men were thrown
Into the air hundreds of meters. Just
as a river at high tide races along,
taking with It all manner of debris, so
the surface of the Mnrne was covered
with wood. men. torn uniforms and
horses. Efforts to swim were futile,
yet soldiers continued to Jump Into the
river.
(To be continued)
Nicaragua is the twentieth nation
to take its stand on the allied line.
mm lanrB
IIBEST IN THE LONG RUN mlsU
. srifiwa j j. lint: . -,..
a.iL-,j,.,ai it j aw
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9
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