German soldiers

“ From [237] east and south rolled the thunder of the guns and across the street from a muddy yard that was strewn with Russian dead, I saw five German soldiers, picking the caked dirt from their boots and singing a song. And as we left behind the last squalid house of Augustowo I saw a squad of smiling soldiers crowding around a captured Russian field kitchen. But the odor that assailed my nostrils was not of steaming food; in the road nearby lay the carcass of a horse. ”

“ But the old German army that came raging through Belgium and northern France in 1914 is gone. Germany is well past the peak in man power, as shown in the soldiers of the line. It is also likely that the morale of the German line has its best days behind it. The American ambulance men in the Verdun sector told us of a company of German soldiers who had come across a few nights before to surrender, after killing their officers. ”

“ Again, besides the dark blue with red facings of the Prussian Infantry, and the Bavarian light blue with green facings, I could count up Hussars of all colours, red, black, and white, light blue, dark blue and gold, and the Würtemburg green. The German soldiers are certainly a magnificent body of men; and, although at the bottom of my heart my sympathies and affections are altogether with the French, despite their shortcomings, I am bound to declare the superiority of their adversaries, as men of fine physique and manly bearing, and of cool undaunted courage ”

“ Do not believe it! The German soldier is splendid in every way. His courage, his thoroughness, his organization, as well as the equipment and bearing of the troops, challenge comparison. The German soldiers always take the offensive. I have the greatest admiration for them, and so has every one who knows them."
NOT ALL HATE!
Chancellor Lloyd George has contributed a message to the London Methodist Times, in which he says:
"I recently visited one of the battlefields of France. I saw in a village being shelled by German guns a prisoner of war just being brought into the French line. ”

“ From the darkness came a voice calling in perfect German, 'What is the matter with you? Are you soldiers? Are you Germans? Are you men? Why don't you get forward and attack the Russians? Are you afraid?'
"Bewildered by these words coming up to them direct from the nearest wire entanglements, the Germans turned a searchlight in the direction, discovering the speaker to be a Russian officer who had taken his life in his hands on the chance of drawing the Germans from the trenches. His audacity cost him his life, for instantly he fell before a volley of bullets. ”

“ So this was what these young soldiers had come to—here was the real thing. Drums beat, trumpets blare, the Klingelspiel jingles at the regiment's head, and with flowers in your helmet, and your wife or sweetheart shouldering your rifle as far as the station—and you should see these German women marching out with their men!—you go marching out to war. You look out of the windows of various railway trains, then they lead you through a ditch into another ditch, and there, across a stretch of mud which might be your own back yard, is a clay bank, which is your enemy. ”

“ All German soldiers are close-cropped. To show, apparently, that they have the courage of the conviction they deserve.
⁂
The German officers in France are said to be extremely careful as to what they eat, betraying a great fear of being poisoned. ”

“ We expect from the new Eastern Front nothing different from that which German soldiers had to do during four Russian war Winters twenty-five years ago. Every German soldier must set an example to our faithful allies. ”

“ While millions of German soldiers of the Army, Luftwaffe, and Waffen SS took part in these battles, others could not be spared at home as they were needed for the buildup of the local reserve formations. Many of the most capable officers-as bitter as this was for them- were forced to conduct and oversee the training of those soldiers who, as reserve units, or perhaps in new formations, were to go to the front only later. ”

“ These uniforms had been [59] standardized and fitted for the millions of men enrolled in Germany’s regular and reserve armies. Rifles, great pyramids of munitions, field kitchens, traveling post-offices, motor lorries, a network of military railways leading to the French and Belgian border, all these and more had been made ready. German soldiers had received instructions which enabled each man at a signal to go to an appointed place where he found everything in readiness for his long forced marches into the territory of Germany’s neighbors. ”

“ Soldiers, in the year of war, 1940, the National Socialist Armed Forces of Greater Germany have won glorious victories of unique greatness. With unprecedented audacity, they have beaten the enemy on land, at sea and in the sky. ”

“ From this statement of mine, which I can conscientiously swear to, it can be clearly seen that on the night of August 25th to 26th, and also on the forenoon of August 26th, the inhabitants fired repeatedly and frequently upon German officers and German soldiers without any cause, that is to say, without a German officer or a German soldier having first fired upon the inhabitants. ”

“ The studious and impartial observer must also give the German privates the palm over all others of the rank and file, the English troops always excepted. They look healthier, larger, stronger, with more staying power, than the common soldiers of Austria, France, or Italy.
These officers and these men are machines with [Pg 198] souls. We are looking at some wonderful automatic exhibition. Every arm and every leg of every soldier responds to the orders as if pulled by invisible wires. When they march in company columns, the line along the waist-buckles of the men is perfectly straight. ”

“ In this struggle, the German Wehrmacht yet faces enormous tasks. Still, there can be no doubt that this struggle will end in victory for us, not only, because our weapons are the best, our organization is the best, and we can call the best soldiers and the best leadership our own, but also because behind these soldiers today stands truly the best Volk. ”

“ The French, aware that the battle was lost, had become panic-stricken, and getting completely out of the control of their officers, their retreat on Sedan was, in plain truth, the stampede of a thoroughly disorganised and routed army. It was a strange sight, and by no means easy to picture. A huge and miscellaneous collection of men, horses, and materials were jammed into a comparatively small space, all in the utmost disorder and confusion. Soldiers of every branch—cavalry, infantry, artillery—flung away their arms, or left them at different places, in stacks four or five feet high. ”

“ The francs-tireurs were to a man evil-looking figures such as I have never in my life seen before; they were shot by the German sentries standing below. Our men took great care to spare women and children, who were allowed to leave the burning houses without interference. I have not seen a single case in which a woman or child were hurt. Some of the women and children even assembled in the square round us and were very well treated by the German soldiers. ”

“ As for soldiers, we know that every man in Germany must stand ready to defend his country. He must serve his time in drilling and training for war. He is a necessary part of that Fatherland he loves so dearly. ”

“ The German officers have, since the opening of the war, adapted themselves to changed conditions with unexpected flexibility. They immediately relaxed their ordinary overbearing manner and assumed a closer relationship with the private soldiers. They do not, as their enemies report, drive their men but they themselves lead to battle. They are idolized by the nation as a whole and by the army in particular. They do not address the soldiers of the rank and file in the second person singular, but in the more respectful second person plural. ”

“ He said, "Yes, for weeks I have been preaching this from the pulpit, and my flock listens to me. I have told them that if they wished to fight, they should go to Antwerp, put on uniform, and obtain a rifle. The enemy is only doing his duty; his soldiers are children of the same heavenly Father." ”

“ We must not imagine that all German soldiers are brutal and treacherous. Let us always remember that they are very brave, and that many of them are worthy foes. There is a little story which illustrates the chivalry of a German lancer and the gratitude of the man whom he spared. "At Le Cateau," said a wounded corporal of the Coldstream Guards, "I made a bayonet thrust at a German lancer, and fell. ”

“ We're fresh troops, you know, and haven't had it yet. I suppose when spring comes on, they'll have us working as farmers when we're not on duty."
I asked him what he meant, and he told me that all the captured farmland of Belgium and France that could be planted during the fall had been sown by German soldiers, and that when the crops were ready that the soldiers would harvest them. And again the marvelous details of this German machine amazed me. ”

“ When we reached German soil, we were scattered, two going one place, two another, and instead of having any interpreting to do, we were outfitted as soldiers and attached to different regiments. Men kept coming day after day. I dare not say how many thousands of Germans have been taken out of the United States in this way. We were virtually prisoners. ”

“ The German artillery ceased to fire, and from all sides their infantry came rushing on, their faces expressing the terror caused by such great calamities. They were no longer soldiers longing to destroy, but human beings hurrying to go to the assistance of other human beings. ”

“ German non-commissioned officers are accustomed to kick and beat German privates, and the behaviour of German soldiers to fellow-subjects is aptly illustrated by Lieutenant Förster fighting a pitched battle with a lame old cobbler in Zabern.—Author. ”

“ Countless German men staked their lives at the front with the greatest bravery and are still doing so unflinchingly. What so many of our men are achieving in our regiments, in our tanks, in our airplanes, in our submarines, on our ships and everywhere else in our formations is without parallel. Better and braver soldiers have never existed.
We old National Socialists are particularly proud of them, for we are nothing but a party of ex-soldiers-the ex-soldiers of the Great War. ”

“ Again, when any one says to you, "There is not much doing in the West," imagine a three hundred mile line with three quarters of a million soldiers standing in muddy brown water, and three quarters of a million more, too, whom they have just relieved, lying on beds of straw, too exhausted to remove their uniforms until it is time to wash; think of that line in which for every five minutes of every day a German [128] is being killed—and God knows how many English, French and Belgians. ”

“ Reservist Kluge, with some other comrades, in searching a house, found on the floor a German soldier who had been shot, and close by him a civilian busy with his rifle and ammunition, whom they shot. The observations of the non-commissioned officers and men of the 7th Company are of a similar character to those made by me. Here Privates Uhlmann and Neumann were wounded by small shot fired from the houses. Acting-Sergeant-Major Schaefer and several men noticed that civilians (men) had fired on German soldiers. German cartridges were also found here on the civilians. ”

“ German prisoners to fight against their brothers. Therefore the six million of Allies' soldiers have no support behind them. But the Germans impress all conquered peoples and lifted into the air if the observer had a glass powerful enough, he would behold back of the German six millions another six millions of impressed prisoners and conquered peoples, who support the German army. These men, driven forward by an automatic pistol and the rifle, work within half a mile of the rear German trench. ”

“ German Soldiers on the West Front Reading War Bulletins.
In the main cities in the territory captured by the Germans, in Lille, Brussels, Warsaw, Lodz and 104 Vilna, they have established very good papers printed in German. Then they have papers issued for the soldiers at the front, like the Champagner Kamerad, and the Landsturm. These papers contain war news, stories, jokes and poems.
A Traveling Library for Soldiers.
German newspapers never call their enemies ugly names, and they have remained very dignified sheets. English newspapers are very much read in Germany. ”

“ There the Prussian Guard encountered the Marines, the Iron Division and the other heroic organizations of America’s new army. There German [4] soldiers who had been hardened and trained under German conscription before the war, and who had learned new arts in their bloody trade, through their service in the World War, met their masters in young Americans taken from the shop, the field, and the forge, youths who had been sent into battle with a scant six months’ intensive training in the art of war. ”

“ Captured cars filled with boots and fur lined vests made the soldiers more comfortable, and when they found one hundred and ten Russian field kitchens filled with warm food, the joy of the young German regiments was complete. ”

“ While the German homeland is not directly threatened by the enemy, with the exception of air raids, millions of our soldiers, after a year of the most difficult fighting, confront a numerically and materially far superior enemy at the front. Victories, as never before witnessed in world history, have been secured in battle thanks to the conduct and bravery of officers and men. ”