The Entente Offensive, Autumn, 1916
entailed with great devotion, and, supported "by his excellent Chiefs of Staff, the Bavarian General Krafit von Dellmensingen at the beginning of the war, and now General von Kuhl—met all the great demands made on a Group Commander. He, like the German Crown Prince, was in favour of ending the war without victory either side, but he had no idea whether the Entente would agree to this. My relations with the Crown Prince of Bavaria were always good.
Duke Albrecht of Wiirtemberg, the Commander of the 4th Army, who was also present, was of a more pronounced soldierly temperament than the two Crown Princes. I seldom had the pleasure of meeting him, and have particularly pleasant recollections of the stimulating conversation I had with him. He was a real personality.
In the afternoon we left Cambrai on our return journey through Belgium. The Governor-General, von Bissing, accompanied us part of the way. We arranged with him that the Army of Occupation in Belgium was to be reduced, as if units were to hold longer fronts in various parts of the West Front in the near future, it was advisable that Landsturm formations should be put into line here and there. We also asked for his help in the execution of our plans for the supply of war material.
On my way next afternoon I discussed this matter with Herr Duisburg and Herr Krupp von Bohlen u. Halbach, whom I had asked to join the train. They considered it quite possible, in view of our stocks of raw material, to Increase our output of war material if only the labour problem could be solved.
Early on, the gth, we were back again in Pless. I was now at home in my position and understood my sphere of work. It was an enormous field of labour that suddenly opened before me, and many things were expected of me with which I had hitherto had nothing to do. Not only had I to probe deeply into the inner workings of the war-direction, and get a grasp of both great and small matters that affected the home-life of the people, but I had to familiarize myself with great world-questions which raised all sorts of problems.
Our old offices—in one of the Knight's Houses of the Prince's
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