Life in a German Crack Regiment

by Graf von Wolf Ernst Hugo Emil Baudissin

Again the blood rushed to George's cheeks, "I am not conscious of any wrong-doing. If I have acted wrongly, however, I am quite ready to bear the consequences."

The captain turned crimson. "You will soon have to do that, whether you like it or not, but that will not compensate me or the regiment. Whether you get your discharge or not is a matter of complete indifference to us; we have managed to exist without you in the past, and we shall continue to do so in the future. But the matter is not over because you depart."

"Perhaps it may be if severe and righteous punishment is meted out to the offender. If the public see the severest punishment is given for such offences public opinion will soon be allayed."

"Oh, that is what you think, do you?" said the captain, contemptuously. "You will have plenty of opportunity of explaining and justifying your behaviour in this matter."

George was enraged at the unjust treatment which his captain dealt out to him, but he determined to keep to his resolution of making a formal charge against the non-commissioned officer. Next morning the captain returned to the attack when he was summoned to the regimental office. Indescribable excitement reigned there; and although his superiors formally praised his conduct and his strictly just treatment, he was obliged to listen to things there which he had not expected.

"You ought to have remembered that the publicity, and perhaps even the trial would not fall on the non-commissioned officer alone. People will ask how was such a thing possible, how could it have occurred if there had been proper supervision on the part of the superior officers. You, as a lieutenant, know perfectly well that this supervision can only take the form of warning the non-commissioned officers continually that they must not ill-treat their men, and pointing out to them the results if they do so. We cannot be in every non-commissioned officer's pocket, we cannot constantly, by night and day, inspect the barracks, we cannot do any more than is already done to avoid brutal treatment. But, in spite of all this, we superior officers are considered mainly responsible; you will soon see what is the result of this business."

The words of the superior officers plainly showed the fear they had concerning their own careers, and involuntarily George recollected what his former captain had once said to him. It was something of this sort: "The ill-treatment of the soldiers will cease when there is a change in two particulars. First of all, the officers must not be worried by the superior authorities, and the captain and the major must know that one unfavourable inspection will not cost them their posts. How they tremble at the sight of an Excellency: the men are only drilled in what will make a good show. What is good for this purpose the major yells out to the captain, the captain to the lieutenants, and the lieutenants to the non-commissioned officers. The curses get worse and worse as they descend in the scale, and the non-commissioned officers must be veritable angels if they do not vent their anger on the men, who, if not actually, are yet indirectly responsible for the bad report. If a Tommy holds his gun badly the captain is blamed for not laying sufficient stress on the correct manipulation of arms in his company; the reprimand is unfair, and the authorities know that perfectly well, but that does not matter: the point is, the captain gets enraged and lets off steam. Nobody to-day troubles about the training of the men, each fights for his own existence. Discharge daily threatens a man for a thousand different reasons, and simply to postpone this as long as possible all kinds of ill-deeds are committed against the subordinates which cry out to Heaven for justice. The path to advancement to-day is strewn with corpses, and it will only be different when we cease to live in an age of inspection, and when a man no longer works simply for his own benefit, but for the whole army.

"Only then will tranquillity return to men's minds, and they will no longer seek to obtain by blows and ill-treatment what is far more easily procured by kindness.

"That is the first thing. Secondly, this ill-treatment will cease when the superior officers have the courage to look into all complaints, to punish themselves what they see with their own eyes, or to send them to the superior courts for punishment. The only person who has this courage to a certain extent is the very rich officer, to whom it is a matter of no consequence whether he gets his small pay or his smaller pension; or the officer who stands high in the favour of the authorities and can say to himself, 'It will not affect my career if I report the brutalities of my non-commissioned officers for which I am in no way to blame.'

"But the officer who trembles and fears for his future will naturally say to himself, 'I am by no means too secure in my position, and if it gets known that my subordinate officers ill-treat the men I may as well get into civilian's attire at once.' And who will blame a poor captain or major if he tries to avoid reporting a complaint, or warns a non-commissioned officer instead of punishing him when he has struck a man?"