The Seattle Star Newspaper, November 3, 1919, Page 11

Moltke warned the German people Beainest invasion of Russia. He Bhought of the country as a feather Thea, in which the deeper an army ot, the more it would smother Teadendortt was to learn this lew by hard experience after the ad ince of the summer of 1915. The fan atmy, which had gotten way in good condition, thanks large. . f@ the divided counsels of the Ger q Ludendorff Describes Lootin Troops in Poland; Ice Endangers the Army | man army chiefs, was able to make a, stand on the Hnes south of Riga where it had good communications and could anchor ite Hines in the chain of lakes and swamps running | from the Dwina south to the Pripet, | The Germans, on the other hand. had many serious problems to solve | and their life wae not an easy one that fall and winter, as Ludendortt | | testifies, “MY THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS” By Gen. Eric Von Ludendorff Published by The Star thra ape Copyrighted, 1919, by od in Great Ee Spain by Messrs. Seix alia, AU rights reserved for navian countries At the close of the great operations Of the summer of 1915 the circum under which the Bastern were living were makeshift unsatisfactory in every respect; » conditions, in the territory had occupied in the course of its, had to be reorganized Im order to get a better grasp of and be in closer touch with troops we went to Kovno at the of October. ‘The fiekt marshal, the officers of general staff and I were quarter. tm two villas belonging to Herr Arrangement with the McClure Newspaper per and Mrothers All rights reserved. | Tilimann, | Germans in Russia, He himself had | been in Germany from the beginning of the war, The field marshal, | Colonel Hoffmann and myself lived | together in one of the villas. Here | also was the staff mens, I have spent | many hours in this house and it ts | indelibly engraved on my memory The offices of the general staff |were in the barracks, The six: penny portraits of the tsar, the }tsarina and the tsarevitech were ‘typical of the Russian culture of that & German whose family name was in good repute among the | time. The rooms were large and suit- able for our purp and could be Well heated for the coming winter Kovno is a typical Russian town, with low, mean, wooden houses and comparatively wide streets, From |the hills which closely encircle the town there Ix an interesting view of the town and the conf! of the Niomen and the Villa. On the further bank of the Niemen there stands the tower of an old German castle of the Teutonic Knights, « symbol of Ger. man elvilization in the East, and not far from it there is a memorial of French schemes for the conquest of the world: that bili upon whiet Napoleon stood in 1812 as he watched the great army crossing the river, D FUTURE ITY My ming was flooded with over. whelming historical memories. 1 de termined to resume in the occupled |territory that work of civilization at which the Germans had labored in those lands for many centuries, The | population, made up as It ix of such ja mixture of races, would never ac |complish anything of its ow: and left to itself would succumb to Polish domination. | 1 was @roud to think that, over a |hundred years ago, after a period of great weaknega and tribulation in Store Hours, 9 to 6 Every Day Gottstein’s Customers comfortably and well. Thanksgiving Sug Simila@ to illustration—chairs 4 ? Have Many Advantages Our “Added-to-Account” feature is i greatly appreciated by patrons who find i necessary to select needed articles from time to time. This they can always do without making the usual first payment. Gottstein policy, which makes it easier to furnish the home in itself a convenience It is part of the —M. A. GOTTSTEIN FURNITURE CO. Spe have cane instead of wood pancis _ Tuesday’s Attractive ‘Offerings gestions 8-Piece cial $197.50 _ Beautiful quartered oak suite, finished Jacobean, consisting of 50-inch Buffet, 48-inch Table (extending to4 feet), 5, genu- | ine Leather Slip-Seat Chairs, and one Arm Chair. The regular value is $227.75. Special Tuesday »i Week $197.50 Our Usual Easy Terms An attractive 8-piece suite in mission design indludes roomy buffet with 45-inch top, fitted with plate glass; 45- inch ‘top, dining table, extending to 6 fee t, with quartered oak top; 6 slip-seat chairs. Regular price $107.50. (Our Usual Easy Terms) One Economy register heats every room in the j Buck use evenly. ’s saves half the fuel. Daily demonstra- tions. Special $89.75 BUCK’S FAMOUS Wood or Coal— All Sizes Better Prepare Now for the Colder Days to Come BUCK’S STAND SUPREME BLANKETS—COMFORTS—BEDDING Customers are privileged to add to account cold weather needs, such as Blankets, Comforts, Sheets, Pillow Cases, Bedspreads, Heaters, ete. This is part of the GOTTSTEIN store service. BUCK’S Union Made SEATT 'M.A.GOTTSTEIN FURNITURE CO. LE°S POPULAR HOME FURN BUCK’S Union Made iia) HEATERS g of German |Germany, we had thrown off the for clan yoke, Now that same ¢ firat beaten by Napoleon bi Was decadent and subsequently united by the efforts of a few great men, stood victorious in this world j war against enemies who far out |numbered her and added fresh glo |riew to her record I had faith in final vietory ing was possible. people had been thru t jn such a were leading Germany only nm to develop her latent powers to add fuel to the holy fire burning—aw I jthen thought—in every German heart A happy future of assured pros perity seemed to be opening out for the Fathertand ADMITS LOOTING OF HOUSES Our work, of course, was not in terrupted for a single day by the mi eration from Loteen to Kovno, The necessary telephone connections were quickly made in the office, and the |Dare necessities in the way of furni ture were improved upon, | Tha this additional furniture was |taken from other houses, which had heen deserted by the inhabitants, could not be helped. It was done in as orderly a manner as possible, but ® certain amount of confusion was ‘Inevitable, These are the regrettable conditions Impored by the exigencies of war. | The belligerent or individual soldiers jare not to be blamed for this, Cir jeumatances are too strong for them. To the Individual civilian who wut |fers, it is a matter of indifference |how he loses his property. He un. | demetands nothing of the necessities of war, and therefore is ready enough to talk about the enemy's barbaric methods of warfare. We found plenty of furniture at Kovno, but later, when we ‘got to Brest-Litovek, we were confronted |by empty barracks, We therefore had furniture sent Noth elwe tioned some from other places ax |well. War Is a rough trade, and \there was no help for tt. In this town I usually attended | the evangelical services which Pas |tor Weasel held in the fomner Ortho- |dox church, @ magnificent butiding, typical of the Russian despotic rule in that country. There I heard for the first time on foreign soil the beautiful old melody sung as a hymn: T have given myself * With heart and with hand, To thee, land of love and tife, My German Fathertand, I was deeply moved. This hymn | Ought to be sung every Sunday in all |the churches and should be engraved jon the hearts of all Germans. GREAT SHIFTING |OF ARMY A number of rearrangements on «| large seale were necessary. Where the main offensives had taken place there was a congestion of troops, At jother points the line was too thin. |A proper balance had to be «truck. |Cavalry divisions had to be relieved \by infantry divisions, Tt was a long time before these | Movements were completed and the troops arrived at positions where they could be left for the time being. But there could not be any question as yet of real test. The line had to be consolidated, and meanwhile other troops had to hold long stretches of |front. Both these tasks taxed the strength of the men. The positions jto be strengthened were generally those where the fighting had been flercest. Points which it was impos. sible to hold were to be abandoned, |but both commanders and troop re- | signed themselves to this course with great reluctance. The construction of trenches and billets, and indeed conditions at the front as a whole, suffered from the j bad railway connections. The Rus- sians had everywhere completely de- stroyed t! railways, The bridges over the Niemen and other large | rivers had all been blown up. the rail- way stations burnt, the water sup plies destroyed and the telegraph wires broken down, The railways had been torn up in places, and the sleep- ers and rails removed. The military railway authorities, with their labor and engineer com- panies, and the telegraphists for the Jextremely important work of re-es: |tablishing the telegraph, had a co. }lonsal work before them. ‘The direc {tor of railways in the east knew his | Job. | ONE LINE FOR | THREE ARMIES | The completion of the railway | bridge near Kovno was of the great- jest importance. It was possible to luse it by {he end of September, and | for @ long time it was the only chan for supplies to the Tenth and | Twelfth armies and the right wing |of Scholts’s army group. At that time I was satisfied if I could count lon two trains a day for Lida for the | Twelfth army, but, as it turned out, lit was not so simple to obtain the jtrains themselves, which were re: quired by the army. Communication with our own rail- ways was very bad. On one ocossion the Twelfth army had urgently re- quested a trainioad of fodder and re ceived a trainioad of seltzer water! That is a trifle during a great war; but the well-being of man and horse | is dependent on a series of trifles, and so the latter assume a great and fionate im; . The Russian railways in Lithuania; and Courland had a surprisingly small capacity, even in peace time. This would not have been the case if Russia had really needed the ports of | Windau and Libau for her domestic and commercial existence, On the long stretches from Vilna to Simorgon and Vilna to Dvina condi- tions were not so difficult, but even here the provisional water tanks! froze in winter and there were all| sorts of obstacles, surmountable and | insurmountable. E PUTS ARMY IN DANGER It was long after Christmas before) traffic was made safe and compara: tively regular on all the lines, #0 that! at last the longed-for leave trains! coud be put op. And then a peculiarly critical situ- ation arose, After a spell of intense cold the ice on the Niemen and Win- dau began to break up. ‘The masses of ice swept away the | | | | Safe Than Sorry” The young man or woman who early in life adopts Davey Crockett’s motto as their own rarely has to look back with re- gret tion habit. upon the past. of ‘ afe” includes the form ng of a weekly Nothing in the world is a better toxin against disaster than a well filled bank book. TODAY is the time to start the ever-elusive TOMORROW may stretch into years. fully compiled statistics show that at 60 years of age 95 per cent of men are either dependent upon their daily earnings or on their children or charity for support. This is particularly true if their interpreta- vings deposit Care- Determine TODAY whether or not you will be included in the other 5 per cent. This strong bank, made doubly secure through its membership in both the Washington Bank Depositors’ Guaranty Fund and the Federal Reserve, will gladly help you learn the thrift habit. Largest Savings Institution in the Pacific Northwest ~_ Alaske Puliding, Nome of the Capital and Surplus $1,000,0000.00 Resources Exceeding $22,000,000.00 SCANDINAVIAN | MERICAN BANE Member Federa! Seattle, Second Ave. & Cherry St. 1 Reserve Bank) U.S.A. ~ bridge stood firm. Once more we passed thru a period of great ai lety, altho for a different reason. If this bridge had also been destroyed the armies would have been in a crit-| displayed in decorative embellish: | p ical position, By degrees the other bridges across the Niemen were completed. The extension of the railways progressed; trafic became regular amd conditions on the eastern gront were regulated more satisfactorily. The railways have opened up the country and facilitated the work of civilization. To this extent these dis tricts are in our debt. Behind the front there arose a system of light railways for the direct supply of the troops. ROADS BECOME SLOUGHS ‘The roads in the districts occupied by the troops continued to be of great importance. The great main roads from ,Grodno to Lida, Kovno to Dvinsk and Tauroggen to Mitau were put into excellent repair. The other roads were repaired as far as possl- ble, At the season when the snow was melting they were transformed in places into a slough in which horses were drowned if they hap- pened to fall, As the work on the railways and roads progressed the consolidation of the front also went forward, The troops cut wood for themselves, and some of the barbed wire was manu- factured on the spot, ‘The proximity of war underground made the con struction of the trences peculiarly difficult. The geologists rendered good service to the troops in this connec uon, Behind the front arose workshops for the repair of all kinds of war ma terial. The numerous captured Rus sian machine guns were altered to suit German ammunition in a spe cially erected factory. Of course, I did not deal with these matters in detail, and confined my- self to stimulating and organizing activities. I wag particularly concerned about the welfare of the men and the horses, POOR DUGOUTS FOR THE MEN The quarters were, in themselves, not so bad. The war had passed com- paratively rapidly over the region which we finally occupied, and there- fore had not been very destructive. Nor had the Russians burned down everything, as they did further south in Poland. All the same, there remained a great deal of work to be done in the construction of billets for the troops, expecially close behind the line. The dugouts, which took a long time to build, were made as habitable as possible by the troops, But only those who have been thru it can know with how little officers and men had Hutments for men and horses had -|to be built further behind the line. The troops became great experts at |this work, Their artistic sense was| ments of birch wood. | was not enough fodder for) |green fodder wan too scarce to be! supplied in sufficient quantities. | | Many horses died of debility. In the | jend we had to add sawdust to their) food, It needed special care to prevent | the supplies which had been brought |up at such pains from going bad at| | the railway stations, Of course, there | Were no sheds or tents there. I had| |to see to this, also, Good will was | universal, but the difficulties accum- | ulated until they took the heart out) of even the lowest ranks. In deal-| ing with the Christmas parcels there were similar difficulties to be over- come, . TRIED TO KEEP UP HEALTH The health of the men and horses had my special attention. 1 went into both these subjects in detail | with the officers responsible for them 1d It had been difficult to look after the wounded during the advance, but conditions had now become some what easier, There still remained, however, & great deal to be done by the responsible authorities. The few hospitals which we found in the oc- cupied territory were hardly worth considering. I urged that as many wounded as possible should be sent home, but I had to be very patient Later on cases of slight illness or wounds were not sent home, but re tained in the occupied territory, where, during convalescence, they were given light duty. We were spared the epidemics to which armies are liable; only spotted fever occurred from time to time for & short period. As regards measures against vermin, very thoro pre cautions had been taken at the frontier to prevent the troops from going home infected. Thanks to the energy of Surgeon General von Kern and the conscientiousness of the army doctors, the whole medical service was in perfect order, Herr von Kern is a philosopher, and this would appear to show that philosoph- ers can also be men of action, The horses suffered from glanders and mange. We mastered the gland. ers ‘by means of blood tests, but not the mange, and this did extensive mischief. Many remedies were tried, but an effective one was not discov- ered until the war was almost at an end. Veterinary hospitals wei ‘rect: ed in large numbers, and t ftice: of this service had plenty to do, Their devotion was rewarded by great suc- censos, The supplies and accommodation for the horses were not always all the to be satisfled, und were sutisfed, | they should have been, I often repre- | woolen wear, and the delivery of pit- |the horses, There were not oats, and | child's dose on each bottle, sented to the army headquarters staff that they should devote more care and attention to their horges. The replacement of clothing, the rovision of winter clothing and{ Props for the trenches were beset with many difficulties, I had to bring all my energies to bear Leave was begun as soon as possible. It was granted more and more freely as the situation on the railways improved, I went into the question of the speedy delivery of letters and news- Papers. I was most anxious that the men should be as closely in touch with home as possible, and I was able to help in that direction, Behind the front and in the large towns soldiers’ and officers” clubs Were established. There could not be too many of these, as far as I was concerned. The soldiers’ clubs in the Kast met deeply-felt’ need; this was shown by the numbers who fre- "SMP OF Fig “GHD LAME Look at tongue! Remove poi- sons from stomach, liver . and bowels Accept “California” Syrup of Figs only—look for the name California on the package, then you are sure your child fs having the best and most harmless laxative or physic for the little stomach, liver and bowels, hildren love its delicious fruity taste. Full directions for Give it without fear, Mother! You must say “Califor- nia.” * Branch at Ballard’ | quented them. The people at gave me real assistance, and women who came out to the sold clubs did good work. thi I was particularly gratified ru the agency of Pastor friends of the field marshal and se! If offered to equip certain libraries for the use of the Looking after the intellectual of the troops was a labor of love us, and we eagerly accepted this fe: in getically. ‘. Pastor Hoppe took the m han nd carried it thru On my birthday in he handed me a conskerable for heartfelt words: “The spirit c1 r the same purpose with h weapons and brings victory.” I thy e field libraries were useful to troops. They could not, of cou entirely satisfy their demands books; military bookshops were up in great numbers. local newspapers. th at The armies produced their I arranged em to have a good news se! The getting up of concerts, res and cinema shows were in hands of the army authorities, we encouraged these undertakinga. th In view of the enormous dem at the high command of the had been obliged to make on troops it was a real pleasure to ev co) ly troops was not negl Was promoted as far th erything I could for them, and m leagues helped me most effecti in this work, f The military efficiency of the ‘glected, ‘Traini possible, 0 schools could not be establish on the same scale as they were thy ie West. How he put all the conquered lands under strict military con- | trol and insisted that their peo- ple should work .in fields and factories to help Germany over- come the haps of the naval blockade is shown by Luden. dorff tomorrow. He admits grounds for the storm of crit- } iclsm that this policy met in” Germany, but excuses it on the grounds of military necessity, SEATTLE PEOPLE Mi The quick action of simple witch hazel, hydrastis, camphor, mixed in Lavoptik eye wash, i One ‘su ete, a rprise Seattle peop! with weak, strained eyes y cor a sing! uld hardly sew or read because: eye pains. In one week she, too’ benefited, We a