OLD GERMAN ARMY

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1939, Page 12

OLD GERMAN ARMY

GRIM CODE OF HONOUR. In pre-war Germany life was made difficult for army officers by the code of honour. This code —a complicated written law—practically ruled their lives from the day they first donned their uniforms.

Take the business of duelling, for instance. If an officer was insulted, says Mr G. R. Halkett in his reminiscences, “The Dear Monster,” he only had the choice between following the law, which meant not fighting a duel and being expelled from the army, or, following the army’s code of honour, which meant fighting and being condemned to a year’s imprisonment in a fortress.

If the man who insulted you belonged to the “lower classes,” you could, of course, draw your sword and run him through. If you happened to be in mufti you might settle the affair without a murder —but you were seldom out of uniform. There was also an alternative for the officer who would not fight a duel: he could kill himself—and his honour was rei deemed. The code of honour for privates was simpler: — “If a civilian offends you, finish your beer quietly and walk out. If he aims a blow at you, draw your bayonet or sword. You are not exactly compelled to kill him, but never mind if you do. You get punishment only if he gets the better of you. No German soldier off duty ever walked about without his -weapon.” On the day the conscripts were released after their three years’ service, says Mr Halkett, the streets were apt to be rather dangerous. It was an old custom of theirs to make walking sticks out of steel cleaning rods, “and to make the round of all the pubs in town, always with their eyes skinned

for the chance of a good fight. Thej did not mean any harm: it was jus traditional to celebrate the new freedom by singing the old ReserveLieder, cursing the n.c.o.s. and beating up any and everj- civilian who dared to say anything against or in favour of the army. But. you did better to keep well out of their way.’ Then there was for the officers a sort of ordeal by drunkenness. Mi' Halkett can speak about it from experience, for in spite of his name he is a German and was in the Royal Russian Cadet Corps, where boys were

'trained to become officers. In the : regimental mess during dinner, he •says, senior officers used to send an • orderly round with a message that “Captain X desires to drink with you sir”:-— “Then you stood up, raising your glass and draining it. You had to drain it, and the captain took a sip. There were about a dozen older officers showing their interest in you at every meal. After supper we usually had lectures on military subjects in tho mess, and afterwards the real drinking started and seldom ended

before three or four in the morning. Our duty began at five or six.” During the four months he was with his first battalion. Mr Halkett says that he was sober for at the most four days.