The Revolution
My personal attitude was settled from the start: I hated the whole pack of wretched, nation-swindling party scoundrels intensely. I had long since realized that with this gang it was a question not of the nation’s welfare, but of filling empty pockets. For this purpose they were now even willing to sacrifice the whole people, and if necessary to let Germany go to her doom. In my eyes they were ready for the noose. Having regard for their wishes meant sacrificing the interests of the working people in favor of a set of pickpockets; those wishes could be fulfilled only if one were ready to give up Germany.
And so the great majority of the fighting army still thought. Only the reinforcements from home swiftly grew worse and worse, so that their arrival weakened, instead of strengthening, the fighting power. The young reinforcements in particular were largely worthless. Often it was hard to believe that these were sons of the same people which had once sent out its youth to the battle of Ypres.
In August and September the symptoms of disintegration swiftly increased, despite the fact that the enemy attack was not to be compared with the horrors of our earlier defensive battles. By contrast the Somme and Flanders were part of a horrible past.
At the end of September my division came for the third time to the places which we had once stormed as young volunteer regiments.
What a memory!
There, in October and November of 1914, we had received our baptism of fire. With love of Fatherland in its heart and song on its lips our young regiment had gone to battle as if to the dance. The most precious blood was joyfully given in the belief that this would preserve independence and freedom for the Fatherland.
In July of 1917 we trod this soil, sacred for us all, for the second time. Here slept the best of our comrades, children almost, who had gone bright-eyed to death for the Fatherland which alone they loved.
We veterans, who had marched out with the regiment long
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