Berlin, September 25, 1919

In war there are always mysteries, and the Great War is no exception to the rule. The all-engrossing mystery here, in military circles at least, is why the High Command detached two army corps from the Western Front just before the Battle of the Marne, where they might well have exercised a decisive influence. Even more mysterious is the fact that they were sent to the Eastern Front, where, evidently, they were not needed and certainly not asked for. By this step, the right wing, the famous right wing of the German invasion in France, was greatly weakened and the “pincer” operation failed. When I was on the Eastern Front in-the spring of 1915, a Colonel Bauer, who was in the Bureau of Operations, and the most active member of it, told me that while the battle of Tannenberg was under way, and apparently there was no doubt as to its successful outcome, Ludendorff was called to the field telephone by General Headquarters. Appreciating that the message would be of importance, Colonel Bauer was asked by his chief to listen in at a second phone. He told me that he heard Colonel Trappen from Headquarters announce that three army corps and a division of cavalry were to be sent to re-enforce the Eighth Army on the Eastern Front, and he asked to what points they should be directed. Ludendorff gave the necessary information, but added that he did not need re-enforcements. Trappen countered with the statement that these troops were superfluous on the Western Front. On the following morning Trappen called again and said that only two corps would be sent and a cavalry division, but that the Fifth Corps would be held in the west.

These unwanted troops that were detached in this mysterious manner were, with the exception of a reserve division of the Guards, all first-line troops. What became of them, I do not know. But I do know that in March 1915, at least six months later, I heard Hindenburg complaining that Headquarters would not let him have any first-line troops, and then he added whimsically, “All my men are grandfathers.” Certainly during my stay with his army I saw no first-line troops, with the exception of a very smart regiment of Baden cavalry, whose activities I have described elsewhere in my account of the retaking of Memel.¹