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

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Atrocities - Wednesday, 26 August 1914

Turning on their solemn assurance,

Of treading on Belgium soil with respect,

Comes account after account,

Of German’s turn to savage attacks.

But Belgium remains defiant to stoop,

Below any legitimate warfare customs.

Crushed or beaten Belgium quotes

An English King to say ‘we'll never be enslaved.’

The Minister of Belgium states

That when the invasion began,

Placards were placed in all towns (and press),

Villages and hamlets, warning the people,

To abstain from any kind of hostility,

Towards any movement of enemy troops.

Meanwhile the German authorities state

That grave 'imputations' will be treated,

And dire reprisals will be made,

Against attitudes of any Belgium civilian.

Imputations are in opposition

To the facts and no threats will stop

Belgium Government protesting of crimes

Against any children, women and old men.

Too many accounts have been given

To their inquiry of German troops.

The Belgium Ministry of Justice,

Looks gravely on these war crimes.

As upon the following reports

They have received.

The village of Linsmeau witnessed

The fight of Belgian infantry and Gendarmes,

Against the occupying German Cavalry;

With one enemy officer being killed.

The population took no part

In the fighting of that day, but the village

Was again invaded on 10 August,

By a German force of Artillery,

Cavalry and machine guns.

The Burgomaster of Linsmeau assured

The Germans the villagers took no part,

In the previous fighting - but this did not

Pacify the enemy intent on destruction.

Targeting two farms and six houses

These were burnt down to the ground.

Then the male villagers were made

To come forward to give up any arms.

None were found, but un-pacified

The enemy divided the men into 3 groups.

Eleven men being forced into a ditch.

They were later found with their heads

Smashed by the butt of German rifles.

The people of Velm went to sleep,

On the night of August 10, when roused,

By a great company of German Cavalry.

Upon entering their town they turned

On one particular house -

Breaking in to loot and destroy belongings,

They turned on the farmyard.

Burning barns, implements and six oxen.

Then they took the man and woman,

Two miles away, in opposite directions.

The half dressed lady they released.

As she fled the firing of dancing shots,

Kicked the air and dust around her;

But she was not hit.

The man being also fired upon.

Being injured he was left to die.

At Neerhespen an old man,

Having his arm sliced, was then hanged,

Upside down, only to be burned alive. 

Elsewhere at a place called Orsmael,

Inhabitants were made to suffer mutilation.

As the children were brutally maltreated.

So come accounts of other atrocities,

On both civilian and soldiers.

Commandant Van Damme lay wounded,

As infantry fired revolvers into his mouth.

So come in stories every other day,

As they spread across towns, the people

Flee from their homes in terror,

Running for their lives, to become refugees.

by Jamie Mann

Anon., 1914. German Savagery - Official Story of Belgium Horrors - Grim Details. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 26 Aug. p.6. Col.5. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11034816/Daily-Telegraph-August-26-1914.html [Accessed: 26th August 2014].

Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 26 August 2014). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11034816/Daily-Telegraph-August-26-1914.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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