There’s not the least doubt that we have the whip hand of the Germans
now, and it’s only a question of time until we knock them under
altogether. Their officers simply won’t hear of letting them surrender,
and so long as there’s an officer about they’ll stand like sheep and be
slaughtered by the thousand. They fear their officers ten times worse
than they fear death. When there isn’t an officer about they’re quick
enough to surrender. Some of them have been kept marching night and day
for days on end. It’s a horrible sight to see some of them used up as
they have been; and they hate their officers like poison for what they
have had to go through: _Private King_.