At the critical time a strong movement began at home in favour from the firing and vanish to the But the majority of my di ions fought flawlessly to the very end and preserved their discipline and military spirit. To the very end, they were always a match for the for in morale; despite superiority in numbers, cannon, munitions, tanks and airplanes, "the foe in: sonably succumbed when he ran up against serious resistance. Therefore, the associations of our ex-fighters at the front are right in of setting up a new government for po. ating upon their banners the the now necessary termination of the war. I could not ignore this motto.: "Unbeaten on land and movement, since the old government, during the seven weeks from SAYS ARMY WAS STILL STRONG, had not managed to initiate peace August 8 to the end of September, The achievements of the German fighters at the front and of the negotiations offering any hope of German nation in arms, during four Meanwhile, General von Gallwitz and a half years of war, are beyond all praise. One does not know what and General von Mudra, summoned to "dmire most; the enthusiasm from the front, appeared before me. with which the magnificent youth They gave a picture of the inner of 1914, without waiting for our situation, of the army, laying due emphasis upon the great number of charged on the enemy, or the self-artillery fire to take effect, joyfully shithers behind the front, the frequency of insubordination, the dis-sacrificing fidelity to duty and tenacity with which our men in field-playing of the red flag upon trains gray, sparingly fed and seldom refilled with soldiers returning from lieved, year in, year out, digging by furloughs at home and other similar night, living in dugouts and earth-phenomena. holes by day, or crouching in shell-The two generals considered that holes, defied the hail of steel from the principal cause of the bad condi-the enemy artillery, flyers and tanks.
ions was to be sought in the un- A: ud this army, which one might favourable influence exerted upon have expeciod was to be rated ay the soldiers by the spirit pre-utterly fought to a finish, was able, dominating behind the front and in after nearly four years of war, to the general desire for ending the carry out successful offensive opera-fighting and getting peace, which tions such as our foe could nowhere was spreading from the homeland along the lines of communication boast of despite their colossal superiority, behind the front and was already spite of all this, it was not becoming noticeable even among right to believe the German army some of the troops at the front it-capable of accomplishing the super-self. The generals advanced the human; it was necessary for us to opinion that owing to these reasons, fall back, in order to get breath. the army must immediately be with-The Field Marshal balked at the drawn behind the Antwerp-Meuse order to retreat; the army, he line. thought, should stay where it was, On that same day I commanded for political reasons (peace negotia-Field Marshal von Hindenburg by tions and so on); he also pointed iclephone to effect- as soon as out, among other things, that it was possible the retreat to the Antwerp-necessary, first, to arrange for the Meuse line. The falling back of the withdrawal to the rear of war mater-tired, but nowhere decisively beaten, ials, ete. army, to this position merely signifi-I now resolved to go to the front, ed occupying an essentially shorter acquiescing in the desire exp line, possessing far greater natural: to me by the army that I might be advantages. It was not yet com-with my hard-fighting troops and pleted, to be sure, but the fact was jeonvince myself personally of their to be borne in mind that we had} spirit and condition. engaged in battle on the Somme I could carry out this resolve all while occupying positions composed the sooner in view of the fact that, largely of shell craters. What ever since the new Government had we had to do was to regain opera-been set up, no further claims were tive freedom, which, to my way of made upon my time either by it or thinking, was by no meats impos-by the Imperial Chancellor, which sible; in the course of the war, had made my staying at home seem we not often retreated in order to useless. put ourselves in a situation that The notes to Wilson were dis-was more advantageous from the lenssed and written by Self, the War military point.of view? j Cabinet and the Reichstag, after The army, to be sure, was no Sessions lasting hours, without my longer the old arm.y The new 1918, being informed thereof; until, troops particularly were badly taint_ finally, on the occasion of the last ed with revolutionary propaganda note to Wilson, I caused Self to be and often took advantage of the' given to understand very y Plainly, darkness at night to sneak away through my Chief of Cabinet, that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.