Poem ~ Diary of a German Officer - Friday, 2 October 1914

A soldier of the 2nd Seaforth Highlanders,

A Private, by name of Crow, writes home,

Enclosing for his mother a copy of a diary, 

That was gained from a German officer.

Recounted are some of the diary's entries,

With the German officer's following thoughts;

20 July - notes he feels that at last the time

Has arrived and all is ready with a challenge. 

'Come who may' that might defy his belief;

‘The world race is destined to be German.’

5 August – says that at Liege their losses 

Are terrible but not to mind, this is allowed.

As the fallen are only Polish – their spilled 

Blood, he states, is necessary to spread 

Desire for war at home. 11 August - refers 

To the English, seen as just farm fighters.

William - or Wilhelm – gives great advice,  

To his German fighters not to forget god,

But to have thoughts of their Emperor. 

The officer adds that their Majesty should

Know, in thinking of him, they think of god.

For their Emperor is the lord’s instrument, 

In this righteous fight.  A 12 August entry, 

By the officer notes how infantry is nothing -

That the war already belongs to the artillery.

20 August – he sees the English as conceited.

He recounts how the German airmen report,

How the enemy, across the frontlines, are stood,

Against the German enemy - at absurd odds.

25 August – the officer laughs in his entry

At how amid the shelling of the English guns

One of them burst over a Red Cross Wagon,

Which was full of wounded English soldiers.

He admires the English swine, that fight well, 

And how one such officer, in agony, swearing 

At the German Emperor then asks for a bath. 

He ends with fact there is little time to bury

Their own dead, so they sink them in the river.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1914. German Officer’s Diary. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 2 Oct. p.8. Col.4. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11134175/Daily-Telegraph-October-2-1914.html [Accessed: 2nd October 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 2 October 2014). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11134175/Daily-Telegraph-October-2-1914.html

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