From a letter written from the front by the Duke of
Altenburg on Sept. 5, and published in the Altenburger
Zeitung.
We have lived through a great deal and done a great deal, marching,
marching continually, without rest or respite. On Aug. 10 we reached
Willdorf, near Jülich, by train, and from the 12th of August we
marched without a single day of rest except Aug. 16, which we spent in
a Belgian village near Liége, until today, when we reached ----. Those
have been army marches such as history has never known.
[Illustration: DJEMAL PASHA
The Turkish Minister of Marine, Who Shares with Enver Pasha the
Control of Turkish Affairs.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: EMIR ALI PASHA
Vice President of the Turkish Parliament, Who Was Sent to Berlin to
Take Back to Turkey Mohammedan Prisoners Captured from the Allies.
(_Photo from Press Illustrating Co._)]
The weather was fine, except that a broiling heat blazed down upon us.
The regiment can point back to several days' marches of fifty
kilometers ----. Everywhere our arrival created great amazement, in
Louvain as well as in Brussels, into which the entire ---- marched
at one time. At first we were taken for Englishmen in almost every
village, and we still are, because the inhabitants cannot realize that
we have arrived so early. The Belgians, moreover, in the last few days
almost invariably set fire to their own villages.
On Aug. 24 we first entered battle; I led a combined brigade
consisting of ----. The regiment fought splendidly, and in spite of
the gigantic strain put upon it, it is in the best of spirits and full
of the joy of battle. On that day I was for a long time in the
sharpest rifle and artillery fire. Since that time there have been
almost daily skirmishes and continual long marches; the enemy stalks
ahead of us in seven-league boots. On Aug. 26 we put behind us a
march of exactly twenty-three hours, from 6:30 o'clock in the morning
till 5:30 the next morning. With all that, I was supposed to lead my
regiment across a bridge to take a position guarding a new bridge in
course of construction; but the bridge, as we discovered in the nick
of time, was mined; twenty minutes later it flew into the air.
After resting for three hours in a field of stubble, and after we had
all eaten in common with the men in a field kitchen--as we usually
do--we continued marching till dark.
The spirit among our men is excellent. Tonight I am to have a real
bed--the fourth, I believe, since the war began. Today I undressed for
the first time in eight days.