GERMAN DIARY OF WOE

Southland Times, Issue 17633, 18 January 1916, Page 7

GERMAN DIARY OF WOE

TYRANTS IN TTTK ARMY. MI’TX TRKATKO PI KK RPAVKR. SOP HI KIPS PBAf'E POMGINGS. The I’olJowjng extracts ha.ve been taken from the diary of Private. Ranker, 6th Company of the Kraalr. Battalion of the :’,rd hoot Guards, Pandst.urm, Professor of Palin at the Gymnasium of Bonn. They arc. a sad recital of tho brill alii ies to which the German soldiers arc siih.iectcd by their officers and noni'iiiiimissioned officers. JN RPSKIA. Aug, 2 - On again. K.xh ousting march. Many bombarded villages, several completely destroyed. It:id food. J.iad treatment of stragglers, especially of ono-year volunteers. .Pad food, finite insufficient. R.ad treatment of stragglers, insulting language. They arc given extra guards. The officers lounge in carriages. The men arc indignant at if Aug. It--.March in burning heal through demolished villages. No water. All the wells are destroyed; cholera and (lies. Poaihsome dirt. It makes one. weak. < Ine dreams of fresh springs and wells. Prutishnoss. Aug. I March to /CamnsK. I can go no farther. Always the same brutality of the N.C.O.’s towards the men who arc going lanic. Pow spit cfulness. A base. .Aug'. 6 Krasnostarv. I long for peace. Aug. T ManT of from 17 to IS miles. Kvorywlieiv graves, bodies of horses, unburied or only half covered, . . . Plies, dirt . . . One Jives like a beast in the mill.

J 'is.-rnsi ins: enmluel of the officers. The otTnwis 1 1 i il l e ■ (ho presents from home (minus I tiein:-e 1 A fs. They lake away Untent canvas 1 11 > 111 tin- men. and havp, fine (.fills put up foe themselves, in which they uf.nt I Iminsel vis up comfortably. They po Oil Hit- spree, they steal the bread mill wine run nf tin- waKKnns, mul dll the while they arc drawing hijf raiions. . . . Aus. hj We in’*' nmv three miles from the fmu I. T!m I Mnmpany has crime hack; all the men I knew in it are either woumlfri or killed, The men's stories are very dppri:‘iiis, the.' are horribly fired ami their 'Tnoral" is low. Only the off!eeis a *irl N.i'.u.s are in pond shape: llieir uu in her is ast m i ish in K considerim; the hisses in men, ,\na II In a dnp out close to the front. Humour ihar we are polnc: . to elimipe mil- I hen Ire of operations. They say Krapee. 'I lli- iil'h. .a s loul> splendid. They arc i- ■, and a Kvass making Jokes. The men, mi Ihr ol In r 1 1 .in 1 1. ma n-h with their heads down. hnried in their own 1 hunch tr. without speaking. Aug. Id Tim action has hogiiri; we are in reserve. I am tired, ill. wretched, l.ivniiil words. I have an unhealthy lunging for pence. All's. 1:: At two o’clock, forward. The Knn.nan trenches are urbanised ip a masterly manner. Troublesome lire from the Yc;h nlii evening a limp talk n1 a out tiir- iv;i r, Kveryhody is "fed up" At ill; ! 1;. uai ;i ] 1 1 1 (a' j ice ial! y 'With I lie- whole of the military regime. 1 1 -.■. as live o'clock in Ihe afternoon before we got anything to cal., for we had to mare:) hi. I hefore I’rinee Kite I Kriedrich, The I'rinee looked well, and scene d in yood spirits. Me might alum,a have beep IniA'ing a treat. Ana II I n ;i"|i,,n. , . , Awful fire. The regiment ha-' lost about 170 men. ■'ll is stupid In attack so strong a position." muttered •'aplain II- -. All the same that djrl not prevent, him from bring on his own men. An'.',. | -1 ii pursuit of the Russians. Worn out he e\eil opienl mid lumper. I•;>: ni" rant eh- erfn I mss of the offmers. I 1111.11 ■l , pia ior, captain, lan pi i l.oislerly. Tie ir faces beaming. shining mill la I, for ns. hardships, din. lumper. . . . F .iiii— march milil live o'clock. We [ all ill IMssian treiM-hes dim in the 'i;ii ■ ■ Imm 1 1 lardK l;a \ e we s. 11 led ;: ; .1-11 , ; e,‘ l.a mil. on oil r heads, Tim i; I■;a-i aUS as I hey retreat dip I liese treprrica to eid ire ns into them, which ifivcs Them a fixed target.

. . . Tbe young soldiers are grossly treated by the old soldiers, who answer them in monosyllables anti hardly deign to look at them. We are treated like criminals, and worse. All of a sudden, for nothing, one. is threatened with .a heating. The commissioned ranks, from. Major Stillfried downwards, set the example, Everybody is discouraged. Men! 1 of peaceful nature are crushed. Passionate desire for peace, amounting to physical pain. And why should one die? Why? Aug, |t- -Spent the day in holes. Slept;. . nothing to eat,. In the evening made a; line of trenches joining up the sluT.l holes. The German soldier has no personality. he is a machine, and that, is what he is trained to he; as soon as lie is left to himself he is idle, stupid and a blockhead. Aug. Ift- The day before the fight 1 saw. on the march, a colour-sergeant beat a recruit with a stick. March all night without a halt. Major Count Stillfried is ferocious. .Soldiers are lied to trees for eating biscuits and apples, or lying to an officer. Aug. 2!---The officers have tents and tables like tourists, and have an abundant spread. Aug. ?.V Started about four o'clock in the afternoon. Soon deployed in skirmishing order; moderate gun and ride fire. Lieutenant Roinicke is never there when firing is going on. When the danger is over he rushes impetuously to the'front. The whole company laughs at it. He is a grotesque sight. The section leaders grumble and are worried;they don’t know what to do, Aug. 20 -As soon as the attack opened, the officer commanding the company. I .ieutenant. Reinicke, stayed behind, and nothing more wap seen of him: not only so, but the section leaders and the noncommissioned officers stayed behind .The sections and groups advanced without leaders. Indescribable jumble. We had heavy losses, hut one no longer notices them. Aug, .'ll-—Our leaders yesterday remarked. "You shall have something to eat when you have taken the trench? Sept. I—Wo are worn nut. Marches. Sept. 5 food absolutely insufficient. IN FRANCE. Kent. 21-—Lieutenant Reinicke has got the Iron Cross. It is the triumph of this vile regime of masters and slaves. Every morning, drill, with the usual accompaniment of abuse and threats. In itself, what Is required of one at drill is not so bad, hut it becomes a. real torture on account of the system. Everything one does is wrong, blameworthy, and liable to punishment. Always threats of extra drill, not the slightest idea of reasonable instruction, no explanation, no practical examples, nothing hut threats and annoyances. ' . Every day we have to sing stupid songs, always the same, instead of getting them out. of the "Song Rook," and we go singing through the village like children. It can’t, he worse in the Foreign Legion. This morning when we fell in, I made a wrong movement, as (he sun prevented my looking to my front. Immediately Uie colour-sergeant put me down for punishment. Afterwards the lieutenant called me up in front of the whole company and overwhelmed me with nonsense, The whole morning I was threatened, and at last was put in the rear rank.

Sept. 27—One gets stunted intellnct.ually. Ono has no looser a single idea, except to keep going physically. Ahvayi! the sn.me longing for peace, anil before my eyes the spectre of the French front close at hand with the horrors of its artillery' fire. Left Oouai yesterday evening about six o'clock, very hard maj-ch of six to nine miles without halting. .Lieutenant Iteinickc hies been drunk since yesterday.