The War in 1917

Towards the end of 1917 it seemed as if we had got over the worst phases of moral depression at the front.

After the Russian collapse, the whole army recovered its courage and hope.

All were gradually becoming more convinced that the struggle would end in our favour.

The Italian collapse in the autumn of 1917 had a wonderful effect. This victory proved that it was possible to break through another front besides the Russian.

This inspiring thought now became dominant in the minds of millions at the front and encouraged them to look forward with confidence to the spring of 1918. It was quite obvious that the enemy was in a state of depression.

During this winter the front was somewhat quieter than usual. But that was the calm before the storm.

Just when preparations were being made to launch a final offensive which would bring this seemingly eternal struggle to an end, while endless columns of transports were bringing men and munitions to the front, and while the men were being trained for that final onslaught, then it was that the greatest act of treachery during the whole War was accomplished in Germany.

Germany must not win the War.

At that moment when victory seemed ready to alight on the German standards, a conspiracy was arranged for the purpose of striking at the heart of the German spring offensive with one blow from the rear and thus making victory impossible.

A general strike in the munition factories was organized.

If this conspiracy could achieve its purpose the German front would have collapsed and the wishes of the VORWÄRTS (the organ of the Social-Democratic Party) that this time victory should not take the side of the German banners, would have been fulfilled.

For want of munitions the front would be broken through within a few weeks, the offensive would be effectively stopped and the Entente saved.

Then International Finance would assume control over Germany and the internal objective of the Marxist national betrayal would be achieved. That objective was the destruction of the national economic system and the establishment of international capitalistic domination in its stead.

This goal has really been reached, thanks to the stupid credulity of the one side and the unspeakable treachery of the other.

The munition strike, however, did not starve the front of ammunition because it lasted too short a time.

But the moral damage was much more terrible.

What was the army fighting for if the people at home did not wish it to be victorious?

What effect did this move have on the enemy?

In the winter of 1917-18 dark clouds hovered in the firmament of the Entente.

For nearly 4 years, onslaught after onslaught has been made against the German giant, but they failed to bring him to the ground.

He had to keep them at bay with one arm that held the defensive shield because his other arm had to be free to wield the sword against his enemies, now in the East and now in the South.

But at last these enemies were overcome and his rear was now free for the conflict in the West.

The enemy feared and trembled before the prospect of this German victory.

At Paris and London conferences followed one another in unending series. Even the enemy propaganda encountered difficulties. It was no longer so easy to demonstrate that the prospect of a German victory was hopeless. A prudent silence reigned at the front, even among the troops of the Entente. The insolence of their masters had suddenly subsided.

The policy of restricting the offensive to the East had been imposed on the German military by the necessities of the situation. It now seemed to the Entente as a tactical stroke of genius.

For 3 years these Germans had been battering away at the Russian front without any apparent success at first. Those fruitless efforts were almost sneered at. It was thought that:

• in the long run the Russian giant would triumph through sheer force of numbers
• Germany would be worn out through shedding so much blood.

Facts appeared to confirm this hope.

Since September 1914, when for the first time interminable columns of Russian war prisoners poured into Germany after the Battle of Tannenberg, it seemed as if the stream would never end but that as soon as one army was defeated and routed another would take its place.

The supply of soldiers of the Czar seemed inexhaustible. New victims were always at hand for the holocaust of war.

Then, on those cold nights, when one almost heard the tread of the German armies advancing to the great assault, and the decision was being awaited in fear and trembling, suddenly a lurid light was set aglow in Germany and sent its rays into the last shell-hole on the enemy’s front.

At the very moment when the German divisions were receiving their final orders for the great offensive a general strike broke out in Germany.

At first the world was dumbfounded. Then the enemy propaganda began activities once again and pounced on this theme at the eleventh hour. All of a sudden a means had come which could be utilized to revive the sinking confidence of the Entente soldiers.

The probabilities of victory could now be certain. The regiments that had to bear the brunt of the Greatest German onslaught in history could now be inspired with the conviction that the final decision in this war would not be won by the audacity of the German assault but rather by the powers of endurance on the side of the defence. Let the Germans now have whatever victories they liked, the revolution and not the victorious army was welcomed in the Fatherland.

British, French and American newspapers began to spread this belief among their readers while a very ably managed propaganda encouraged the morale of their troops at the front.

‘Germany Facing Revolution! An Allied Victory Inevitable!’ That was the best medicine to set the staggering Poilu and Tommy on their feet once again.

Our rifles and machineguns could now open fire once again; but instead of effecting a panic-stricken retreat they were now met with a determined resistance that was full of confidence.

That was the result of the strike in the munitions factories. Throughout the enemy countries faith in victory was thus revived and strengthened, and that paralysing feeling of despair which had hitherto made itself felt on the Entente front was banished.

Consequently the strike cost the lives of thousands of German soldiers. But the despicable instigators of that dastardly strike were candidates for the highest public positions in the Germany of the Revolution.

At first it was apparently possible to overcome the repercussion of these events on the German soldiers, but on the enemy’s side they had a lasting effect. Here the resistance had lost all the character of an army fighting for a lost cause. In its place there was now a grim determination to struggle through to victory.

Victory would now be assured if the Western front could hold out against the German offensive even for only a few months.

The Allied parliaments recognized the possibilities of a better future and voted huge sums of money for the continuation of the propaganda which was employed for the purpose of breaking up the internal cohesion of Germany.

I was lucky to take part in:

• the first two offensives, and
• the final offensive.

These have left on me the most stupendous impressions of my life–stupendous, because now for the last time the struggle lost its defensive character and assumed the character of an offensive, just as it was in 1914.

A sigh of relief went up from the German trenches and dug-outs when finally, after three years of endurance in that inferno, the day for the settling of accounts had come.

Once again the lusty cheering of victorious battalions was heard, as they hung the last crowns of the immortal laurel on the standards which they consecrated to Victory.

Once again the strains of patriotic songs soared upwards to the heavens above the endless columns of marching troops, and for the last time the Lord smiled on his ungrateful children.

In the midsummer of 1918 a feeling of sultry oppression hung over the front. At home they were quarrelling. About what?

We heard a great deal among various units at the front. The War was now a hopeless affair, and only the foolhardy could think of victory.

It was not the people but the capitalists and the Monarchy who were interested in carrying on. Such were the ideas that came from home and were discussed at the front.

At first this gave rise to only very slight reaction. What did universal suffrage matter to us?

Is this what we had been fighting for during four years? It was a dastardly piece of robbery thus to filch from the graves of our heroes the ideals for which they had fallen.

It was not to the slogan, ‘Long Live Universal Suffrage,’ that our troops in Flanders once faced certain death but with the cry, ‘DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES IN DER WELT’.

A small but by no means an unimportant difference. And the majority of those who were shouting for this suffrage were absent when it came to fighting for it. All this political rabble were strangers to us at the front. During those days only a fraction of these parliamentarian gentry were to be seen where honest Germans foregathered.

The old soldiers who had fought at the front had little liking for those new war aims of Messrs. Ebert, Scheidemann, Barth, Liebknecht and others. We could not understand why, all of a sudden, the shirkers should abrogate all executive powers to themselves, without having any regard to the army.

From the very beginning I had my own definite personal views. I intensely loathed the whole gang of miserable party politicians who had betrayed the people.

I thought that politicians thoroughly deserved to be hanged because they were ready to sacrifice the peace and allow Germany to be defeated just to serve their own ends.

Many in the army also thought this way. The reinforcements which came from home were becoming worse and worse. They became a source of weakness rather strength to our fighting forces.

The young recruits in particular were for the most part useless. Sometimes it was hard to believe that they were sons of the same nation that sent its youth into the battles that were fought round Ypres.