GERMANY AND BERLIN
_Berne, Saturday, November 28th._ Donait and I left Paris at nine last
evening for Lyons, Culoz, and Geneva with dispatches for Berlin. For
many reasons we are particularly anxious to see Germany and Austria in
war time, and look forward keenly to the experience which we face.
We arrived in Geneva at noon. We were very tired, for our train and
compartment were overcrowded and we had to sit up all night. The
responsibility of the sack of official papers which we carried, and on
which one of us had constantly to keep his mind, hand, and eyes, was
an additional element of fatigue.
* * * * *
We were forced to wait in Geneva until five o'clock for a train to
Berne, where we finally arrived at nine this evening.
* * * * *
_Sunday, November 29th._ This morning Donait and I presented ourselves
at the American Legation and delivered our dispatches. It is the
custom to send all mail for the American Embassy in Berlin to the
Legation in Berne, where it is opened, checked over, and re-forwarded.
In the afternoon we paid our respects to the Military Attaché, Major
Lawton.
German newspapers are accessible to us this morning for the first time
since July. It is most interesting to view the reverse of the shield.
* * * * *
_Monday, November 30th._ Berne is almost as much in a state of war as
Paris. The whole Swiss army of 500,000 is mobilized and has been on
the frontiers since the end of July. The nation is on a war footing
and seems to be about equally suspicious of all the nations concerned
in the "present unpleasantness." A certain quiet confidence, however,
pervades Switzerland, a confidence which even a small nation may feel
when it has an effective army. Every normal Swiss citizen is a trained
soldier, for in his twentieth year he undergoes from sixty to ninety
days of intensive military instruction.
I speak of the efficiency of the Swiss army. I might add that the
Germans would undoubtedly have preferred to invade France through
Switzerland rather than through Belgium. Their flank would then not
have been exposed to the disastrous pressure of the British army and
navy. The fact of the matter is that they feared the British and the
Belgians combined less than the Swiss. So great are the advantages of
reasonable military preparedness.
_Preparedness and military system_ are not synonymous with a large
standing army. A small, well-prepared army may be the nucleus around
which an efficient military system can be built. The Swiss
organization is at present most interesting, for it has saved that
country from becoming involved in the present war. Had Belgium been as
well prepared as was Switzerland, Germany would have observed sacred
treaties and invaded France _across the Franco-German border_.
The efficient Swiss military system, which can put 500,000 trained and
organized men into the field, costs less than ten million dollars a
year. Our ineffective American standing army of 85,000 men costs us
one hundred millions a year, on a peace footing. The difference is due
to the fact that the frugal, thrifty Swiss, like most other nations,
do not consider civilians competent to meddle with military
matters--or that national defense should be subject to the vagaries of
party politics--or that an army is a fit subject for the experiments
of amateur social scientists.
In spite of the cruel calamities which have in the past overtaken the
United States because of her perpetual unpreparedness, we still insist
that because we do not believe in war we therefore need no military
system. It is as if we held that since we do not wish to be ill we
will abolish physicians--or as if we believed that because we do not
desire to have our homes burn down we will do away with the fire
department and with insurance. No matter how pacific a nation may be
it cannot avoid war by signing peace treaties, either singly or by the
bushel. Reasonable military preparedness is the _only_ valid insurance
against disastrous and ruinous war.
We did without this war insurance in the decade from 1850 to 1860,
when we at that time needed insurance only to the amount of 100,000
trained soldiers. This would have cost about seventy-five millions.
Had we possessed this insurance the Civil War would never have been
fought. For the lack of it our country missed disintegration by a
hair's breadth, and escaped disaster only because we happened to have
one of the great men of history as President. The ultimate victory was
won at a cost of which the following items were only a part:
750,000 lives.
10,000 million dollars in national debt and pensions.
25,000 million dollars in property damage.
All this would have been prevented by a protective expenditure of 75
millions a year.
No more fatal delusion was ever cherished than the belief that "it
takes two to make a quarrel." In world history it has seldom needed
two to make a quarrel. Did Belgium quarrel with Germany?
Our legation in Berne has always been the most isolated, humdrum spot
on earth. People stationed here nearly died of ennui; nothing ever
happened, until all Europe suddenly was plunged into the conflagration
of war, and then Berne became, of necessity, the clearing house for
the continent for dispatches, mail, telegrams, money, prisoners, and
refugees. Every telegram which the American Embassy in Paris sends to
the Embassies in Germany, Austria, or Italy is directed: "American
Legation, Berne. Repeat to Gerard"--or Penfield or Page, as the case
may be.
German prisoners in France are numbered in tens of thousands and for a
long time the only means of communication from them and to them was by
means of the two American Embassies through the American Legation in
Berne. The little three-room Berne Legation with its small staff was
simply overwhelmed with work.
Donait and I were sent by Minister Stovall to make a verbal report on
the situation of the Germans in France to Baron Romberg, the German
Minister to Switzerland. I was much impressed in this my first touch
with a German official. He is rather small, slim of body, but keen of
mind, with excellent repose and control. Like all German diplomats, he
speaks faultless English. A startling evidence of the efficiency of
the German Information Bureau was furnished by the fact that he
already knew to the minutest details nearly as much about my work in
Paris in caring for German subjects as did I myself.
He spoke quite unreservedly about many matters but did not attempt to
draw us into indiscretions as do so many foreign diplomats when
dealing with younger men.
This evening I walked out along the embankment in front of the
Parliament Houses and watched a gorgeous sunset and Alpine glow upon
the snow mountains of the Bernese Oberland.
* * * * *
One is not permitted to telephone in English or in any language except
German or French (the native languages of Switzerland), and even then
the telephone girls listen closely to one's conversation.
* * * * *
Donait and I have made all our preparations to depart for Berlin early
tomorrow morning, our dispatches having been sorted out, checked, and
re-pouched.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, December 1st._ We reached the Swiss-German frontier at noon
today. We descended from the train at Basle and drove three miles to
the frontier. Here there were two barriers straight across the road,
the nearer one guarded by numerous Swiss soldiers; the farther, some
twenty yards behind, by soldiers wearing the spiked helmet. Before we
were allowed to pass the first barrier our papers and luggage were
minutely examined by Swiss military and customs officers. We then
walked across the twenty yards to the second, or German, barrier,
where we were conducted into a little guard-house. Here some dozen
soldiers were sleeping or playing cards on cots in the background
along the walls. An efficient sergeant examined our papers and then
allowed us to pass the second barrier into Germany, showing marked
respect for the Herr Lieutenant and the Herr Attaché.
We loaded our suit-cases in a second vehicle, a German one this time,
and proceeded some two miles to the railroad station of Leopoldshöhe.
While we stood on the station platform at Leopoldshöhe, heavy guns in
battle could be heard off toward Mülhausen and once there came the
typical crash of a big shell exploding much nearer, probably not more
than three or four kilometers away. As near as that to a battle in
France one sees a disorganized, deserted, wrecked countryside, with
wagon trains going back and forth and wounded soldiers straggling
toward the safety zone. Here in Germany everything was in the most
perfect order, with no excitement or confusion, and passenger trains
left on the minute by schedule time. It was difficult to realize that
there was a battle within a thousand miles.
The moment one enters Germany one feels efficiency as if one had
passed under a spell. The way the feeling immediately impresses itself
upon one is a curious psychological phenomenon. One senses at once the
wonderful civic consciousness of the nation and respects it. One does
not throw waste paper out of a carriage window, nor take trivial short
cuts, nor walk on the grass, nor attempt to pass through ticket gates
before the proper time. Everything is regulated, all is done in order.
I was momentarily embarrassed and self-conscious when first I found
myself rubbing shoulders with gentlemen in spiked helmets. During the
past four months I had seen them only as prisoners or dead men, and
their only greetings had been by way of their shells and bombs.
After an all-day trip from Leopoldshöhe down the Rhine Valley I
arrived in Mannheim, where I am to remain over-night, as I have
letters which I am instructed to leave with our Consul in this town.
Donait stopped off en route for a day to visit the old family
homestead from which his ancestors emigrated to America. I arrived
safely in Mannheim about ten o'clock, went to the Park Hotel, which I
selected from Baedeker, got an excellent room, and went immediately to
bed.
* * * * *
_Mannheim, Wednesday, December 2d._ At half-past seven this
morning I was awakened from a sound sleep by a pounding at my door. I
climbed sleepily out of bed and, in pajamas, opened the door to two
extremely polite and suave Secret Service men who, nevertheless,
examined my papers with the greatest thoroughness and as carefully
cross-questioned me as to my race, color, and previous condition. They
asked to see my dispatches, whose seals they studied in order to be
certain that I was really carrying some sort of official messages.
Having listened with close attention to my story, they asked me out of
a clear sky where Donait was and why he had left me. They capped the
climax by reminding me that at Leopoldshöhe I had told the sergeant we
were bound for Berlin, which was exactly what I had told him, not
having considered the brief stop at Mannheim of sufficient importance
to be mentioned. When they had received a satisfactory explanation of
the discrepancy (the conversation having staggered along in German, of
which my knowledge is limited) they thanked me politely and withdrew.
I dressed, had breakfast, and presented myself at the Consulate just
before the opening hour at ten.
I was received by the Vice-Consul, Mr. Cochrane, and had not been in
the Consulate five minutes when the police office called him up by
telephone and asked politely if I was "all right." It was my first
lesson with the German Secret Service, but the only one I needed to
prove that while I was in Germany my every move was noted and that I
was to be constantly under police surveillance.
After delivering my packages to the Consulate I waited until after
dinner for Donait, with whom I am to leave for Berlin at nine o'clock.
I took luncheon with Vice-Consul Cochrane, spent the afternoon
sightseeing in the streets of the city, and dined with Consul Leishman
and his wife.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Thursday, December 3d._ Donait and I had a whole compartment
to ourselves last night, which shows how normally German railroads
are running. We arrived in Berlin at eight o'clock this morning,
bathed, dressed, and had breakfast, at eleven o'clock presented
ourselves at the American Embassy and delivered our precious dispatch
pouch to Mr. Grew, the First Secretary.
I was surprised and much pleased to find that an old playmate, Charles
Russell, was Private Secretary to Ambassador Gerard, a position in
which he has achieved a great success.
Our duty discharged, we hastened to take our first walk along the
famous Unter den Linden. The city of Berlin is well laid out, with
wide avenues and numerous and ample park spaces, some of them very
large, but the architecture of the city is a jumble of heavy, clumsy,
gloomy buildings, fussed up with most extraordinarily crude and
grotesque details. For an architect to be in Berlin is next door to
being in hell.
Our Military Attaché, Major Langhorne, has been at the front almost
continuously since the beginning of operations. In his absence, we
called upon the Naval Attaché. I also called at the American Consulate
to leave dispatches and found that the Vice-Consul had been one of my
classmates at Yale. He remembered me as "Fish Wood" the runner, and
probably in true Yale spirit considered my occupation of Attaché much
less important.
The present conditions in Berlin are as unknown to the outside world
as are the domestic affairs of China. In order not to make too many
diplomatic _faux pas_, I spent the first day talking with the men whom
I knew and in accumulating useful data as to danger points. As one in
Germany senses efficiency, one as quickly becomes conscious of the
all-seeing eye and the all-guiding hand of the Government. We have
nothing like that in America, and for an American in France there is
no such supervision. Life in Prussia is at present, for the diplomat
of a neutral country, much like skating on thin ice. Several of the
younger diplomats in Berlin have unconsciously committed acts
considered indiscreet by the German Government, and so ended their
usefulness in Germany.
* * * * *
It is a mistake to suppose that there are dissensions or differences
of opinion in the German nation, or that the Kaiser or the military
party has imposed war on the people. In modern times it would not be
possible for even an absolute monarch to force an unwilling people
into such a momentous step. The German Government is the product and
expression of the German people. They have made it and, having created
it, they are proud of their work. The Emperor is in popular estimation
not much lower than God Almighty, and the two seem inextricably
mingled in the public mind. The world-wide amusement created by "Me
und Gott," or by the Emperor's firm conviction that he and he alone is
worthy of divine aid and approval, is an amusement not shared by any
Germans. If you say to them, "the Emperor seems to think the German
people are the one race chosen of God and that He works only for them
and their advancement," the Germans will promptly and emphatically
reply: "why, of course; all our past history proves that." The God
they appeal to, however, is the God of Battles of the Old Testament
and of the ancient Hebrews, who slew His enemies, destroyed nations,
and annihilated races, who was cruel and vindictive.
* * * * *
The German nation is, up to this date, but little cramped by the war.
The people and the army lack for nothing. All the shops, hotels,
restaurants, theaters, and dance halls in Berlin are open and well
patronized. Several million men fit for military service have not yet
been called out, because they are not needed. At the front they have
such a great body of infantry that a certain proportion of them are by
turns given a vacation and allowed to return to their homes. The
German officers say that Germany did not count on a speedy termination
of the war; they even believe that it may last four years and face
this possibility with courage and with confidence of final victory. As
for the famine conditions, I did not accept German opinion about the
abundance or price of food supplies, but myself asked prices in shops
and public markets and in various restaurants and hotels--all sure
thermometers of any rise in the price of food.
If Germany ever pleads famine it will be for some purpose of
diplomacy. In times of peace she raises each year more than she can
herself consume and is an exporter of food-stuffs. This year she had a
good crop, and, needless to say, it was, with characteristic
efficiency, entirely harvested. She has retained for her own use the
surplus usually exported. Every possible lack that war might bring
had been anticipated and provided for, or a substitute suggested. The
country does not produce as much wheat as she consumes, but German
scientists have produced a potato flour which, when mixed with wheat,
makes excellent bread, as I myself can testify. Potatoes are
plentiful, as Germany usually exports large quantities.
The army appears to lack nothing. Military necessities like wool,
lead, gasoline, nitrates, ammunition, accoutrements, and hospital
supplies they seem to have in superabundance.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Friday, December 4th._ William Iselin left Paris with
dispatches for London and Berlin at the same time that we started via
Berne.
In Berlin, restaurants, cafés, theaters, and concerts are going at
full blast. Donait, Iselin, and I, who have for months been working
like dogs in Paris, which is as dull as a country village and where
cafés close at eight and restaurants at nine and no places of
amusement are open other than a few poor cinemas, are thoroughly
enjoying the contrast. We three dined together at a splendid
establishment where we ate many elaborate courses while listening to
a good band and watching an excellent variety show, which lasted until
eleven. From then until two we wandered about to various dance and
supper establishments.
* * * * *
All the banks in Berlin are open and will pay out gold in certain
limited quantities to anyone who wishes to go to a foreign country.
Gold brings par and no more. Auto-busses are running everywhere and
many private automobiles are seen on the street which have not been
requisitioned by the government. Trams and subways also run at all
hours. In short, the life of the city seems to be pretty nearly
normal. The only signs of war disasters are the convalescent wounded
soldiers who walk about the streets.
* * * * *
One is impressed by the virility and vigor of the Germans as a race.
Their national spirit also is wonderful, exceeded only perhaps by that
of the Japanese. People who one day read the announcement of the death
of a son, a father, or a brother, are seen the next day in the streets
or cafés going about quietly, expressing or betraying neither sorrow
nor regret. The loved one has died "für Gott, für König, und für
Vaterland." That is glory enough, and neither the Emperor nor the
people feel that it is appropriate to mourn for one who has died for
his country.
* * * * *
_Saturday, December 5th._ I went this morning with Donait to inspect
the prison camp at Zossen, which is about forty kilometers from Berlin
and holds at present twenty thousand French soldiers, guarded by
fifteen hundred of the Landsturm. Their camp was surrounded by three
lines of very high and effective barbed-wire fences. In each of the
alleys between these fences German sentinels paced back and forth. The
prisoners seemed to me to be excellently cared for and were healthy,
well-fed, and fairly contented. They were physically better off than
they would be in muddy trenches at the front. They have all been given
some kind of work to do, such as caring for their own prison camps,
cooking, and building sheds for themselves or barracks for the German
army. We saw a procession of about two thousand who came in from a
near-by forest carrying tremendous bundles of faggots for firewood. As
they marched they were singing, with a good deal of spontaneous
gusto, a ribald French song. We considered their condition a great
credit to their captors.
* * * * *
We were shown the famous great parade ground of Berlin. It is an
immense field, quite flat, beautifully turfed, and about one and a
half miles square. In one corner is about one-third of a square mile
of pine woods with little rolling hills and an imitation forest
country where troops can be drilled in skirmish formation. Young
soldiers were being trained thereon in advancing in echelons and in
taking up well-hidden firing-line positions.
The regular army of Germany as it has been recruited each year has
absorbed just over half of the eligible men of the nation. Military
service therefore has by no means been universal, and there are
several million men of military age who have never been utilized. Over
two million of the latter have volunteered since August, only two
hundred and thirty thousand of whom have as yet been accepted for
training. In addition not all of the regular army has yet been brought
into service.
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.
The Kaiser has already awarded thirty-eight thousand iron crosses. He
takes the ground that he is nevertheless maintaining the standard of
1870. He says that the numbers now involved are so much larger and the
demands in courage and endurance so much greater that thousands
deserve to be decorated in the present conflict where hundreds won the
honor in the Franco-Prussian war.
I lunched today with Commander Gherardi, the Naval Attaché, in order
to discuss with him what we had each seen of the war on the western
front. He is making an important study of operations on the eastern
battle-lines and has several times been to the front.
Today I was told that although it was impossible to go into Belgium to
observe operations, it was probable that I would soon be sent to
Brussels with dispatches to the American Minister, Brand Whitlock.
I have recently been introduced to many very interesting Germans, both
diplomats and officers, and have obtained many valuable ideas. The
reply I receive whenever I ask Germans what they want and expect to
gain in this war, and what terms of peace they, at present, hope to
secure, is almost invariably the same. They all say: "we will never
give up Belgium; we mean to keep Poland; we would like to have Calais
and hope eventually to get it, but...." They point out that they have
so far constantly taken the offensive rôle, which must often fail in
modern war, being by far the more difficult part to play. They declare
with conviction that when once they take the defensive they can never
be beaten back. They cite the fact that for the last three months they
have on the Aisne in temporary positions maintained an unbroken front,
despite the persistent efforts of the Allies to drive them back. They
add that except Calais and Warsaw they now hold virtually everything
they want, and to keep it permanently they need only to stand on the
defensive.
A few weeks of victory or defeat will naturally modify their present
ambitions. From a material standpoint it is difficult to refute their
argument, but moral and sentimental reasons have before now turned the
tide against the "strongest battalions," despite Napoleon's verdict.
Germany herself begins to suspect that her brutal invasion of Belgium
has turned the moral sentiment of the world against her, and that her
defeat would grieve few people not of German birth.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Sunday, December 6th._ About the atrocities in Belgium there
is, apparently, no question, but considering the way the Germans
controlled themselves in France, some explanation of their brutality
farther north in Belgian Flanders is necessary. The Germans say that
the cruelties were not all on one side; that the Belgians practised
sniping, impeded the German army, and mutilated German wounded. The
only one of these charges that seems to have been proved is that of
sniping, but even if other cruelties were committed it must be
remembered that the moral status of the Belgians was entirely
different from that of the Germans. The Belgians were aroused to blind
fury by the disregard of their neutrality rights and the unwarranted
invasion of their peaceful country. Even from Germans I have heard no
excuses for the violation of Belgium which might not have been equally
well put forward by a needy burglar who breaks into an unprotected
house and plunders it after bludgeoning its helpless inmates. Is it
remarkable that the liberty-loving Belgian peasant who saw his home
destroyed or his family abused, knew no sufficient reason why he
should stand supinely by and welcome the destroyer? More brave than
wise, too furious to reason calmly, he did what he could to retaliate,
which is against the rules of war. Consequently a merciless foe
inflicted the uttermost penalty upon him, his family, and the whole
region in which he lived. The world has never witnessed more frightful
and disproportionate punishments.
The Germans on the other hand were morally in quite a different case.
They were the aggressors, the treaty breakers, and the invaders of a
peaceful country of neighbors and friends. Their part was to be
tolerant and to make allowance for individual violations of the rules
of war. The world at large will never concede that occasional
instances of sniping can justify the destruction of whole villages,
the execution of thousands of men, and the violation of thousands of
women. When our American marines occupied Vera Cruz similar instances
of sniping were frequent. Our men did not, however, burn, kill, rape,
and pillage. They were forced to fire at the custom-house because it
was occupied by snipers and in so doing they incidentally damaged the
tower of the building. After the fighting was over, the Americans felt
such regret for even this necessary bit of destruction that they
rebuilt what their shells had damaged. Their only retaliatory action
was to shoot snipers when they were caught red-handed.
* * * * *
_Monday, December 7th._ The German infantry, after spending a
certain length of time at the front, are given a vacation and sent
home. I could not ascertain the exact length of their stay in the
trenches although it seems to be about a month. The artillery stay
continuously on the battle-line as their work is less arduous and
nerve-racking, since they are always somewhat toward the rear and
usually well housed. Moreover, they fire only occasionally and have
long periods of inactivity. The cavalry spends one week in action and
then one week in the rear, some ten or fifteen miles behind the
firing-line.
Recently I had a long conversation with a German statesman of
ambassadorial rank, who spoke with intense feeling of the plight of
the thousands of German subjects, men, women, and children, who had
been caught in France at the opening of the war and interned in
detention camps. He said: "It is ridiculous for the French to suspect
any of these people of being spies, for German spies are not weak or
unprotected, but strong, picked men and women, highly trained to make
technical observations. In the present scientific age untechnical
observations are valueless. When I was Minister Plenipotentiary at
---- there were many thousands of German subjects in that city and
not one of them could have given me information of any possible
value to our great General Staff. German spies in France are neutral
or French in nationality, or pretend to be such, and they all carry
unimpeachable papers. For a man to admit frankly and openly that he is
a German is proof enough that he is not a spy. We in Germany recognize
this and do not shut up alien enemies who frankly announce their
nationality."
It was not fitting that I should enter into diplomatic discussion with
a high German official, but if I had been talking as man to man, I
could have reminded him that the spy panic which seized Paris at the
outbreak of the war was entirely the fault of Germany herself, for it
is an open secret that her spy system is her pet weapon of offense;
her enemies therefore, naturally, see a spy in every Teuton. It is
also well understood that, spy or no spy, every German man, woman, and
child is admonished, when traveling in foreign countries, to "watch,
record, and report anything of interest to the German Government."
All the accusations that have been brought against France, that she
did not properly provide for her interned prisoners, that she did not
adequately care for her own wounded or the wounded of her enemy, that
she did not give efficient support to her English allies on the
retreat from Mons to Compiègne, resolve themselves into one
conclusion, that she did not want or expect instant war and was not
prepared for all the emergencies which the German attack precipitated.
But all the world knows that she speedily supplied deficiencies and
remedied defects with great ability and indomitable courage.
In saying that alien civilians in Germany were not interned in prison
camps the German diplomat evidently thought I knew nothing about the
vile detention camps at Ruhleben and of the English men and women who
are there incarcerated to suffer beyond anything that the Germans ever
endured in France.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, December 8th._ I went to the American Embassy this morning
to obtain the necessary paper for my departure tomorrow for Vienna.
Mr. Grew called me into his private office and said that Ambassador
Gerard was particularly anxious that I should go to London instead as
he had dispatches of the utmost importance to send and would feel
indebted to me if I could take them. He warned me that the undertaking
would not be pleasant or altogether safe. I promptly accepted the
mission,--indeed such requests are, in the Army, the Navy, and the
Diplomatic Service, made only to be accepted. I am to leave Berlin
Thursday morning at 8:59 and go through Germany and Holland to
Flushing, where I shall take a boat across the North Sea to Folkestone
and thence to our Embassy in London.
* * * * *
This evening I looked over the casualty lists posted on the walls of
an official building. These lists are published on numerous very large
sheets of white paper. Each sheet has three columns in fine print. The
names are grouped by regiments and companies, so that all the
casualties of one company appear together; each name is given in full,
is prefixed by the rank, and followed by the nature of the casualty,
which is one of five things: Gefallen (fallen, killed); schwer
verwundet (badly wounded); verwundet (wounded); leicht verwundet
(lightly wounded); vermisst (missing). A casualty list is published
every day, comprising from forty to fifty of the above-mentioned
sheets, each sheet containing nearly three hundred names.
The last seven sheets were as follows:
No. 90 published Dec. 1--40 sheets
91 " " 2--50 "
92 " " 3--52 "
93 " " 4--44 "
94 " " 5--52 "
95 " " 6--48 "
96 " " 8--48 "
This gives a rate of more than 12,000 casualties a day. The lists are
complete up to October 30th. Only the last ten lists are kept posted
and thus tonight there were numbers 87-96. The sheets of these ten
lists were posted in a double row on the outside wall of the building
along the sidewalk. They extended the length of a block and then
around the corner another block. As the columns of one regiment
finished, those of the next commenced. I copied the record of a
battalion chosen at random.
Eighty-second Bavarian Casualty List
11th Infantry Regiment of Regensburg
Third Battalion
(Here followed a list of places and dates of actions in which the
Regiment had taken part):
Faxe, August 20th; Manhouè, August 23d; Maize and Drouville,
August 25th; Tourbeffeaus, Sept. 7th to 9th; Spada, Sept.
24th; St. Mihiel, Sept. 28th and Oct. 7th to 24th; Ailly,
Oct. 1st and 2d; Han-sur-Meuse (date illegible).
(Then followed a detailed list of casualties suffered by the four
companies of the battalion):
Company 9 had a list of 148 casualties, of which 18 were
killed, 35 missing, 42 wounded, and badly wounded, and 43
slightly wounded;
Company 10 followed with a list of 146 names, of which 19
were killed, 51 missing, 66 wounded and badly wounded, and 46
slightly wounded;
The Eleventh Company with a list of 188 names.
The Twelfth Company with a list of 143 names;
A German battalion is composed of four companies of 250 men each. Thus
among one thousand men there were more than six hundred casualties in
the first three months of the war, and this seemed to be about an
average list. These lists take no account of those who "died of
wounds," and "missing" is usually a polite way of saying "dead." It
means that the man was too badly hurt to escape, to be helped by his
comrades, or to crawl back, and probably was left "between the lines"
to die. This explains what at first appears to be a singularly small
percentage of killed.
* * * * *
_Berlin, Wednesday, December 9th._ This afternoon I made my final
arrangements for the trip to London. Whenever a special messenger
departs with dispatches from the Embassy a Jäger accompanies him to
the train, carries the mail-bags and pouch, and sees him safely
settled in his compartment. When he arrives at his final destination
another Jäger from the Embassy to which he is going meets him at the
station.