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.Nulli Secundus -
'Second to None'
by Terence Cardwell
Chapter Twenty Seven - Uhlan Bridge
Max Hemmler was cursing his lack of fitness as he
marched with the rest of the battalion. They had been
tramping almost nonstop for the last four days, and when
they thought they had arrived they were sent on further.
His body ached all over and he wondered if he would ever
get any sleep.
The soldiers alongside him marched in silence, putting
all their effort into staying awake and keeping in time
with everyone else. No one knew why they had marched so
far. Only that it was part of some master plan.
Dieter Hoffman, Klaus Mueller and the other students
from the university had all been placed with him in the
same company. He was pleased to have friends and people
he knew with him.
They had been equipped with their uniforms and rifles,
given one week’s training, and sent to the front line as
part of the Uhlan Brigade in the First German Army Corp.
‘But this is nothing like I expected,’ Max said to
Dieter. ‘All this marching, yet the Frenchies are only
five miles south of us— it doesn’t make sense.’
They had fought their first big battle at Liege, one of
the major towns in Belgium, where the artillery
destruction was terrible to see. The brigade had arrived
after the artillery had eliminated eight of the twelve
supposedly impregnable fortresses surrounding Liege.
They had used two new Krupp Armouries 420 mm Howitzers
that fired fifteen hundred pound shells, plus nine
Austrian Schlankee 305 mm Howitzers and had bombed the
town from the air with Zeppelin Airships. The onslaught
had turned the fortresses to rubble, killing hundreds of
Belgian soldiers who stubbornly but futilely resisted
the German onslaught until forced to surrender. Their
resistance did nothing to delay the German advance, and
there was little loss of life to the Germans.
The Belgians fought aggressively and bravely, but their
small old-fashioned army, with their out-of-date
artillery and guns, were no match for the might of the
German military power, which crushed and defeated them
in only a few days.
Now, full of their victory at Liege and Namur, Max’s
Corp, the First and Second Army Corps went on to try and
surround the French at Charleroi.
The division finally made a stop behind woodland near a
town called Mons on the evening of 22 August, and
erected their tents and settled in, hopeful that they
had arrived at their destination. They were in high
spirits after their success at Liege, Namur and other
Belgium towns, eager to fight all the way to Paris and
convinced they were well on the way with little
resistance. The exciting news was that the French had
been routed at Charleroi fifteen miles to the south and
were retreating, with the Germans hard on their backs.
‘This is crazy,’ Dieter Hoffman said. ‘If the French
have been defeated and are retreating from Charleroi,
what the hell are we doing here playing Boy Scouts?’
‘Maybe they’re keeping us in reserve,’ Max offered.
‘Well, that suits me. After what we did to those Belgian
towns I’m not so keen about this bloody war and all this
marching,’ Klaus Mueller said.
“Yea, I’ll play Boy Scout any day,’ Max said, smiling
for the first time that day.
The following morning Max received a message from the
sergeant and with a growing fear read it to his platoon.
‘You’re not going to like this,’ he announced, catching
their attention. ‘They’re not Frenchies we’re going to
fight, it’s the Limeys.’
‘Limeys, what are Limeys, something with two heads?’
Klaus Mueller asked.
‘They might as well have— they’re the English, and next
to us the best trained army in the world.’
‘Frenchies or Englanders, it doesn’t matter’ we’ll still
drive them all the way to Paris,’ Klaus Mueller boasted.
‘There are so many of us they couldn’t possibly stop us.
We’ll go over them like a tidal wave.’
‘Vive la France,’ said Dieter Hoffman smiling. ‘We’ll be
there soon.’
‘What about you, Corporal Hemmler?’ Klaus asked, patting
Max on the shoulder. ‘Do you want to go to Paris?’
‘I’ve been carrying a bottle of Schnapps for such an
occasion. When we sweep the Englanders aside we’ll drink
it then.’
‘We’ll be in that, won’t we boys?’ Dieter replied.
Enthusiastic approval greeted him from the others.
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