New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915: April-September, 1915Various
History
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915: April-September, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
The third, Private Z., of the Twelfth Infantry of Reserves, First Corps,
writes, (Fig. 11:)
[Illustration: Figure 11.]
Unfortunately, I am forced to make note of a fact which should
not have occurred, but there are to be found, even in our own
army, creatures who are no longer men, but hogs, to whom
nothing is sacred. One of these broke into a sacristy; it was
locked, and where the Blessed Sacrament was kept. A
Protestant, out of respect, had refused to sleep there. This
man used it as a deposit for his excrements. How is it
possible there should be such creatures? Last night one of the
men of the Landwehr, more than thirty-five years of age,
married, tried to rape the daughter of the inhabitant where
he had taken up his quarters--a mere girl--and when the father
intervened he pressed his bayonet against his breast.
Beyond these three, who are still worthy of the name of soldiers, the
other thirty are all alike, and the same soul (if we can talk of souls
among such as these) animates them low and frantic. I say they are all
about alike, but there are shades of difference. There are some who,
like subtle jurists, make distinctions, blaming here and approving
there--"Dort war ein Exempel am Platze." Others laugh and say "Krieg ist
Krieg," or sometimes they add in French, to emphasize their derision,
"Ja, Ja, c'est la guerre," and some among them, when their ugly business
is done, turn to their book of canticles and sing psalms, such as the
Saxon Lieut. Reislang, who relates how one day he left his drinking bout
to _assist at the "Gottesdienst"_, but having eaten too much and drunken
too much, had to quit the holy place in haste; and the Private Moritz
Grosse of the 177th Infantry, who, after depicting the sacking of
Saint-Vieth, (Aug. 22,) the sacking of Dinant, (Aug. 23,) writes this
phrase:
Throwing of incendiary grenades into the houses, and in the
evening a military chorus--"Now let all give thanks to God."
(Fig. 12.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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