My War Memories, 1914-1918
before. What made this war different from all others was the manner in which the home populations supported and reinforced -their armed forces with all the resources at their disposal. Only in France, in 1870-71, had anything of the kind been seen
before.
In this war it was impossible to distinguish where the sphere of the Army and Navy began and that of the people ended. Army and people were one. The world witnessed the War of Nations in the most literal sense of the word. In this mighty concentration of effort the Great Powers of the earth faced each other. And not only between the armed forces did the combat rage along those huge fronts and on distant oceans. The moral and vital force of the civil population was assailed with the purpose of corroding and paralysing them.
With big battalions it is neither difficult nor very risky to wage war and fight battles. But in the first three years of the war the Field-Marshal and I never found ourselves in that enviable position. We could but act as duty and conscience dictated, and adopt the measures we deemed necessary to secure victory. During this period success crowned our efforts.
When, in March, 1918, we attacked with the balance of numbers more in our favour than had previously been the case, our strength sufficed to win great victories, but not to bring about a rapid decision. Then it dwindled, while the enemy grew stronger
II
This world-wide war of nations made enormous demands on us Germans, on whom its whole overwhelming burden fell. Every individual had to give his very utmost, if we were to win. We had literally to fight and work to the last drop of blood and sweat, and yet maintain our fighting spirit and, above all, our confidence in victory: a hard but imperative necessity, in spite of the dearth of food which the enemy imposed on us, and. the onslaught of his propaganda, which was of amazing force, if unobtrusive*