UP THE MOSELLE AND INTO CONQUERED GERMANY
"Judex ergo cum sedebit
Quidquid latet, apparebit
Nil, inultum remanebit."
CELANO.
The Third Army, which was to march into Germany as the army of
occupation, was all in place on the 15th of November. My regiment was
bivouacked in what had once been a wood, northeast of shell-shattered
Verdun. The bleakest of bleak north winds whistled over the hilltops,
whirling the gray dust in clouds. The men huddled around fires or
burrowed into cracks in the hillside. Here we prepared as well as we
could for our move forward.
Before dawn on the 17th of November, the infantry advanced in two
parallel columns. By sunrise we were over the German lines and the
brown columns were winding down the white, dusty roads through villages
long beaten out of the semblance of human habitation by the shells.
Gazing back down the column, the thought that always struck uppermost
was the realization of strength. The infantry column moves slowly, but
the latent power in the close mass of marching men is very impressive.
The only thing I know which compares with it in suggestion of power is a
line of great gray dreadnaughts lunging across the water.
At one village a young French soldier, who had been riding on a bicycle
by our column, stopped sadly before three crumbling walls. It was all
that was left of his home. His father, the mayor of the village, had
lived there. His mother had died in Germany and he did not know what had
become of his father.
By night we were out of the uninhabited parts and were reaching the
freed French villages. Here we found starving men, women, and children
whom we helped out from our none-too-plentiful rations. These people
were pathetic. They seemed to have lost the power to rejoice. They
looked at us from their doors with lackluster eyes and apparent
indifference. One woman told me that the Germans as they left her house
had told her they would be back soon. I asked her if she believed it,
and she simply shrugged her shoulders.
Next morning we were on the march again. All day long, past our
advancing columns, streamed the prisoners whom the Germans had been
working in the coal mines. They were French, Italian, Russian, and
Rumanian, desperately emaciated for the most part and still wearing
their old uniforms. Sometimes they dragged behind them little carts
containing the possessions of two or three of them. Often I stopped them
and questioned them, but whether they were French or not they seemed to
have one idea, and one only--to put as many miles between them and
Germany as possible.
We had sent back to where our baggage was stored while we were at Verdun
and brought up our colors and our band. Now we put them at the head of
the column and went forward with band playing and colors flying.
The farther we got from where the front line had been, the better was
the condition of the inhabitants. Now we began to see the first signs of
rejoicing. News would reach the authorities in villages that we were
coming some time before we arrived. They would throw arches of flowers
over the streets through which we marched. Groups of little girls would
run by the side of the column, giving bouquets to the men. Cheering
crowds would gather on the sides of the road.
The doughboy had a beautiful time. The doughboy loves marching to music,
with flags flying and the populace cheering. He is very human and is
fond of showing off. For some reason or other there is a current belief
in this country that the average American does not like parades,
decorations, etc. This is just bosh. The average American is just as
keen for such things as anyone else. He likes to put on a pretty ribbon
and come home and be admired by the young ladies. I know I like to put
on my decorations for my wife.
In every little town where we spent the night a ceremony of some sort
took place. Generally the townspeople made us an American flag and
presented it to us. I have some of these flags stowed away at this
moment. They were made with the help of old dictionaries. Sometimes
these dictionaries were very old and the American flag of one hundred
years ago would be the one copied. At one village we were presented with
a flag with fifty stars. The donor explained that he had been in the
United States and knew we had forty-eight and that the two extra were
for Alsace and Lorraine.
Once, while we were at mess in the evening, with great ceremony it was
announced that a committee of young ladies desired to wait on me. I
bowed to the girdle and said, "Will they come in?" They trooped in,
peasant girls from fourteen to twenty years old, dressed in their
Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and headed by the mayor's daughter. They
had a flag with them. First, one of them made an elaborate speech, in
which we were hailed as the sons of Lafayette and George Washington, a
slight historical inaccuracy. Then I replied, calling upon the names of
Joan of Arc, Henry of Navarre, and others, and then the spokeslady, to
the intense delight of my staff, stepped forward and kissed me on both
cheeks. At another time a large, corpulent, much-bewhiskered mayor
endeavored to enact the same ceremony, but forewarned is forearmed, and
I evaded him.
In a short time we came to the Duchy of Luxembourg and marched over the
border. Everywhere here also we were met with open arms. The streets
were jammed as we marched through the villages. All the world and his
wife were there and greeted us as "Comrades glorious" and "Victors."
We sent forward, as was customary, a detail of officers to make sure
that billeting accommodations were forthcoming and that everything would
be as comfortable as possible for the men. When I arrived, slightly in
advance of the troops, the first thing I saw was a procession of
townfolk approaching. At its head was a band which might, for all the
world, have come out of the comic opera. Following the band were pompous
gentlemen in frock coats and top hats, carrying bouquets of gorgeous
flowers done up with ribbons, and making up the body of the procession
were people of every age, both sexes, and every grade in society. I
realized they were heading for me, and with great dignity descended from
the dinky little side car in which I had been traveling. Major Legge and
Lieutenant Ridgely here joined me and explained that a ceremony of
welcome was to take place, and I was to represent the United States! We
three lined up solemnly while the Luxembourgers formed a semicircle
around us. The ceremony was, first, the presentation speech; second, the
keys of the city and armfuls of bouquets, and, third, a cheer for
America; and then the band played. We none of us knew the Luxembourg
national anthem, but felt that this must be it, so we stood at attention
with great solemnity and saluted while it was sounding. When it was
finished the mayor started it off again with a cheer for France and the
same supposedly national anthem. Again we stood at attention. We went
through this same ceremony for six of the Allies, when fortunately the
troops came up and terminated it. Later I found that the tune they
played and to which we had been rendering the formal compliment was the
air of a popular song. The warm welcome would have impressed me more had
I not been certain it had been accorded equally to the Germans when they
marched through.
Meanwhile the Eighteenth Infantry of our division had passed on our left
flank through the city of Luxembourg. That day I ran down with a couple
of officers to watch them parade. It was the first time I had ever been
in Luxembourg. The city is very picturesque. It is built on the side of
a rocky gorge, and on one jutting pinnacle of rock are the remains of
the feudal castle where a medieval emperor of Germany was born. The fete
amused me very much. I felt as if I were living in George Barr
McCutcheon's _Graustark_. The Luxembourg army was drawn up to receive
our troops, all the men being present, 150 sum total. What they lacked
in numbers they made up in gorgeousness. Never have I seen such
beautiful uniforms, so many colors, so much gold lace, and such absurdly
antiquated rifles. The populace had a beautiful time. They are
mercantile by temperament. They realized that a reign of plenty was
coming; that the American goose that lays the golden eggs would be in
their midst and that money would flow as the changeless current of their
own Moselle River.
A couple of days' march farther and we reached the banks of the Moselle.
Here we spent four or five days while the troops cleaned up and rested
in three small towns. The regimental band played for different units
every day. Everything moved smoothly. The inhabitants were gentle and
kindly. Indeed, they were so effective in their kindness that one of the
second battalion headquarters cooks, called "Chops," came to grief.
First, he drank all of their wine he could get, then, in an inspired
spirit of generosity, cooked and turned over to his new friends the
turkey which, with much labor, had been secured for the officers'
Thanksgiving dinner. His generosity was sadly misunderstood by his
commanding officer, for he was returned to duty with the mule train from
which he had come.
On the fifth of December we resumed the march and crossed the Moselle
into conquered Germany. From this time on a new element was added to the
chances of campaigning. Our maps were perfectly impossible. You never
could tell where bridges were and where there were simply ferries. Once
we ran our column directly into a pocket. The map showed what looked
like a bridge. We were not allowed to scout ahead, and the interpreter's
questions seemed to confirm its existence. When we got there we found a
ferry that accommodated only sixteen men at a time and we had to double
on our tracks. On these maps, also, the roads all looked good. The first
day's march in Germany we nearly lost the supply train on account of
this, as a seemingly good highway ended in a marsh.
[Illustration: THE RHINE AT COBLENZ
Drawn by Captain Ernest Peixotto, A. E. F.]
That night we billeted for the first time in German territory.
Regimental headquarters were in the country house of a German officer.
On the news of our advance he had fled farther north, but, with the
characteristic affectation of his class, telephoned, on our arrival,
saying he regretted that he would not be there to receive us and hoped
that we would be comfortable. Next morning he telephoned again, sending
a message to the effect that if any of his servants had not done
everything for our comfort would we please report the matter to him
immediately in order that he might punish the offender.
All the next day we moved up the banks of the winding Moselle through
Treves, where relics of the old Roman buildings frowned down on us as we
passed. At night we stopped in another German house, from which the
German officer had not fled. He was a lieutenant colonel and had waited
to receive us, prepared to be butler or anything we demanded.
A real indication of the character of the German soldier was given by
the terror of the women at our approach. It was clear that they expected
any outrage. On account of this, on arriving in each town, when I would
call the burgomaster to give him the instructions concerning the
behavior of the townspeople, I would finish up by directing him to
announce to all women and children that they need have no fear
concerning the actions of any American soldier, that we were Americans,
not Germans. I had my interpreter see that it was given out in this
form.
Day after day we followed the river or made short cuts inland. As we
marched along, on hilltops on either side, silhouetted against the sky,
austere and dignified, were the crumbling brown-rock towers of medieval
castles. These castles were destroyed more than two centuries before by
Louis XIV as he marched by the same route. On either side of the river
the slopes rose abruptly. They were covered with vineyards, apparently
growing from the brown shale. Once, when we passed through the city of
Berncastle, in the early morning, when the mist choked the valley, I
looked up and saw on the peak that overhung the town, touched by the
morning sun, the old keep framed in the white mist like a cameo set in
mother-of-pearl. Time and again some Hun farmer would stop me and take
me through a cow-shed to see the marble remains of some Roman bath or
villa, the name of whose owner had long since vanished in the mists of
time.
An odd incident of this march occurred when Lieutenant Barrett was
ordered by me to go and instruct a German soldier we were passing
concerning certain of our regulations. When Barrett reported back, he
told me the man had come from his own home town in Indiana.
One thing that struck us all as we left France and reached Germany was
the number of children. In France children are rare. Each community you
passed you felt was composed of grown people. In Germany the streets
were full of them--healthy-looking little rascals, pink-cheeked and
well-nourished, wearing diminutive gray-blue uniforms like those of the
German soldier. Little machine gunners, the men used to call them, for
they looked like so many small replicas of those men we had been killing
and who had killed us. Immediately upon the proclamation going out that
the children would be in no way molested, these little rascals swarmed
over everything. Nothing could satisfy their curiosity.
After weaving our way up the river valley and over the hills, one early
December morning we found ourselves winding down from the surrounding
hills toward the Rhine. As we swung around a rocky corner, the whole
panorama lay before us--the gables and steeples of the town of Boppard
with, as a background, the broad, undisturbed silver Rhine. On we wound
down the rocky slope into the city, the flag flying at the head of the
column. That night I formed the entire regiment in line on the terraced
water front facing the river and, with the band playing _The
Star-Spangled Banner_, stood retreat.
We waited here a day and then marched down the river to Coblenz. On
this march we passed through one village, with old gates, little jutting
houses carved and painted in bright colors, unchanged sixteenth-century
Europe. Next was another village, factory towers smoking, great brick
buildings filled with machinery, plain little board houses for the
workmen, the epitome of modernism.
The night of December 12th we billeted at Coblenz. Next morning, at
seven o'clock, the First Division in two columns crossed the Rhine, the
first of the American troops. As the head of the column reached the
center of the bridge and I looked at massive Ehrenbreitstein and up and
down the historic river, I felt this truly marked the end of an era.
Two days more brought us to the end of the bridgehead, where we were to
take up our position. Division headquarters were in quite a large town
called Montabaur, a name supposed to have been brought back with the
early crusaders, _i. e._, Mount Tabor. Two castles overlooked the town,
one in ruins, the other still used as an administrative building by the
town authorities. The regiment was scattered through the surrounding
small country villages.
Quarters for the men were good in comparison with what they had been
used to. We were able to get washing facilities, food came up regularly,
and now, for the first time, proper equipment. The men really enjoyed
themselves for the first week or so. We had no trouble with
fraternization. Our men had seen too many of their friends and relations
killed to care to have anything to do with their late enemies. Like true
Americans, they played with the children and flirted with the women
whenever opportunity offered, but I never remember seeing any attempt to
become familiar with the men.
Now that the work of fighting was over, uppermost in everyone's mind was
the thought, "When do we get home?" The minuteman wanted to go back to
ordinary life and his family. Time and again when I first returned to
this country people would ask me what I thought the soldiers thought of
this or that public question. I always replied truthfully that the men
were so busy thinking about what a good place the United States was, how
much better in their opinion than any of the European countries they had
been to, that all they were interested in was, when will that transport
leave.
In January I was ordered to Paris on sick leave. Shortly after, I sailed
for home on the _Mauretania_ and saw the mass of New York lift on the
horizon, where my three children, who had practically forgotten me, were
waiting. So ends the active participation of an average American with
average Americans in the war.