In the invaded territory of France we found plenty of evidence of harsh military occupation. It was bad at its best, and some local commanders made it more intolerable. The people were taxed without much to show for their money, forced to work for little or no pay, rationed rather slenderly though with enough to sustain strength, had to put up with requisitions of animals, houses and some minor property, such as linen and copper down to bedsheets and the brass knobs off the stoves. They were also dragooned about to various places to do work for their conquerors. I heard plenty of tales in Eastern France and Belgium of terrible experiences and unwarranted executions during the first couple of weeks of the German occupation from witnesses whose word I believe absolutely. After the civilians were thoroughly cowed these atrocities ceased, though many of the lesser hardships of military occupation persevered during the four years.
Most of the French and Belgians told me (though some voiced suspicions to the contrary) that the Germans saw to it strictly that none of their soldiers took the relief goods sent from America. One old lady told me that she had proof that all Germans were robbers; for they give her some patched clothing as coming from America and she knew that nobody in America would send over such stuff as that. It was hard to have to choose between being just and being loyal American. I refuse to state which attitude I took, but I am afraid that the dear old lady still thinks she has an argument to prove that the Boches are robbers.
At any rate, the older griefs of these people are for the soldiers who have come through an intense war experience, echoes of “Old unhappy far-off things, and battles long ago.” They judge the German soldier by their own experience and by soldier standards. They do not fear him, they do not hate him, they do not despise him either. They respected him when he put up a good fight or made a clean getaway, and that was most of the time. It was a rare thing to hear a soldier in a combat division talk about “Huns.” It was always the “Heinies,” the “Jerries,” the “Boches” or, simply the “Germans.”
The fine spirit on the part of our troops was much better, even for military value, than hatred would have been. I cannot see that deep bitterness could have made them any bolder. It would only have made them less efficient. And the spirit is admirable in itself.
At any rate we were convinced from the beginning that our experiences as part of the army of occupation were not going to be as unpleasant as we expected.
Aside from the attitude of the people the things that strike us most are two. Putting the two into one, it is the number and the fatness of the children. There are few children on the streets in French villages; German villages swarm with youngsters. Our coming is like circus day and they are all out, especially the boys. Boys everywhere! And such sturdy little towheads—chubby is the word for the smaller ones. I do not know about the rest of Germany, but the Rhineland is certainly not starved. Perhaps, as in Belgium, it is the townspeople who do the suffering. These children wear patched clothing, but the clothing covers rounded bodies. We find it easy to purchase meals at rates that are astoundingly reasonable after our experience in other European countries. Germany lacks many things—edible bread, good beer, real coffee, kerosene, rubber, oil, soap and fats; and in the cities, no doubt, meat and milk. The people here say that they eat little meat, their sustenance being largely vegetable and based on the foundation of the potato. It scores another triumph for the potato.
But I would like to know how they fatten the children. With good advertising a man could make a fortune on it at home. German breakfast food for boys, with pictures of chubby young rascals playing around American soldiers. But perhaps Germans are plump by nature or divine decree, and it would not work with lantern-jawed Yanks like ourselves.
During this period Lieutenant Colonel Donovan returned to duty with us by direct orders of General Headquarters, Lieutenant Dravo going back to his duties as Division Machine Gun Officer, thus being still near enough to us to keep up the ties of friendship which he had established in the Regiment. We remained in Wershofen and surrounding villages for five days, during which time the equipment was gone over, animals rested and some attempt made to patch up the shoes of the men, which had been worn to nothing by hiking with heavy packs on rough roads. On December 14th, we marched through the picturesque valley of the Ahr river over a good road to Altenahr, the scenery of which looks as if it had been arranged by some artistic stage manager with an eye to picturesque effect. It is a summer resort country and we had the advantage of good hotels for billets. On December 15th, we marched through Ahrweiler, an old walled town which was to be our Division Headquarters, and Neuenahr, a modern summer resort place with good roads, commodious hotels and attractive shop windows, and thence to the Rhine, where, turning north about two kilometers, we entered the most pleasant and excellent town of Remagen-am-Rhein, which was to be our home for the next three or four months.
Remagen was already in existence in Roman days. It is a charming well-built place of 3,500 inhabitants, with a large parish church and also an Evangelical church and a synagogue. In addition, there is on the hillside a striking pilgrimage church attended by Franciscan Friars and dedicated to St. Apollinaris, with the Stations of the Cross built on the roadway leading up to it. The much advertised bottled waters which flow from a source near Neuenahr get their name from this shrine. Remagen has also a large convent, Annacloster, a hospital and a town hall, in front of which our daily guard mounts are held.
I am afraid, however, that these edifices for religious and municipal uses made less immediate appeal to our fellows than the fact that the town possessed a number of large and commodious hotels, some of them ample for a whole company. We immediately took possession of these as well as of stores, beer-gardens and extra rooms in private houses; the principle being that every soldier of ours should have a bed to sleep in, even if the German adult males had to go without. Donovan and I went on ahead to billet for Headquarters. We called on the Bürgermeister, a kindly, gentlemanly, educated man, who was anxious to do everything to make our stay in town a harmonious one. His assistant, an agreeable young man who had been in America for a couple of years and had every intention of going back, came along with us on our tour. We had our pick of two or three modern villas of grandiose type north of the town on the hillside, the only difficulty about them being that they were a little too far away.