Читать книгу A THREE PART BOOK: Anti-Semitism:The Longest Hatred / World War II / WWII Partisan Fiction Tale - Sheldon Cohen - Страница 12

The tensions of the years of diplomatic and political stalemate in Germany’s relations with neighboring countries suddenly abated when war was declared in 1914. Finally it happened. The consensus was that this will be a short war.

An intense patriotic fervor overcame most Germans in 1914. Street rallies to support the war effort took place all over Germany. In Munich, at one of these rallies, a young man stood in the sea of cheering faces. With his fisted hand in the air, he screamed his support for the fatherland. This twenty-five year old vagabond named Adolf Hitler would later write: To me those hours seemed like a release from the painful feelings of my youth. A fight for freedom had begun, mightier than the earth had ever seen; for once Destiny had begun its course, the conviction dawned on even the broad masses that this time not the fate of Serbia or Austria was involved, but whether the German nation was to be or not to be.

At this young age and even before any political career started, Hitler’s thinking, as we have learned, related to future goals involving German hegemony was clearly manifesting itself.

At the war’s start, the German Kaiser announced that “This war will be over before the leaves fall from the trees.”

Eighteen year old Albert and Samuel, like most young men were not politically astute, concerned at this time with graduating high school and attending college. They were both approximately five foot nine inches tall with a swimming induced supple muscularity. Al had blue eyes and black hair, and Sam had brown hair and brown eyes. They were enthusiastic and excited about this “short break” before “we beat them.” Their parents were not of course, but they were seduced by the enthusiasm of the “short war” philosophy, and hoped that college would be delayed, but certainly not more than a semester…

Great Britain, France and Russia were eager to fight the “Huns.” They also felt that the war will be short. They were all in for a surprise.

Samuel concentrated on science and biology in high school in support of his medical career interest. Owing to his science subjects and obvious interest, he was assigned to the medical corps.

Albert, on the other hand, followed his father’s lead and desired to be a banker. Perhaps he might have hoped for assignment in a quartermaster’s office, but alas he was posted to an infantry unit. For both, college would have to wait, but not just the few months as the prophets foretold…

Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie were assassinated on June 28, 1914 by a Serbian nationalist. Exactly one month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Three days later, Germany declared war on Russia followed within two days by the German declaration of war on France. When Germany invaded Belgium, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia and Serbia declared war on Germany August 6^th. It took about five weeks before all the nations involved in the war lined up for what they all hoped would be the ‘short war.’ On August nineteenth, 1914, the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, declared neutrality, hoping to “forever avoid European entanglements.”

The initial battle lines were established. This would be a two-front war: in the East, Germany vs. Russia; in the West; Germany vs. Great Britain and France.

One of the first battles of World War I took place near the Polish city of Allenstein (Olsztyn) in Northeastern Poland and resulted in a stunning German victory. The German army was so proud of their tactical victory with their smaller army (166,000 to 206,000 Russian soldiers that they changed the name of the battle to the Battle of Tannenberg (another nearby city) where the German army suffered a defeat during the middle ages. This was a German propaganda tactic to let the German people believe Germany had now become a powerful nation.

The leaders of the German army were Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. Colonel Max Hoffman proposed the above successful, but risky tactic against the Russian army. After this decisive victory, the German army attacked another Russian army that had invaded German lands and killed or captured the great majority literally eliminating any threat from Russia. This allowed the Germans to concentrate against Great Britain and France where they had planned a tactic that they were sure would mean a decisive defeat and a short war.

Our two heroes of the story, Albert and Sam, were engaged on the French front. The change from teenager to realistic young men was a rapid transformation for the both of them. They became serious as the realization set in that death was all around them, and it could come at any time, and sometime it was totally unexpected; here you were one minute and gone the next. Unbeknownst to each other, they started each day with a silent prayer…

The initial German victories did not entirely eliminate Russia from the war, even though the Russians were unable to enter Germany again for the duration of the conflict. Nonetheless, the early Russian battles probably had a decisive outcome for the entire war, as the Germans may have been inhibited from occupying France when they had to send troops from the French front to fight the Russians.

The Russians unencrypted messages were intercepted and decoded by the Germans revealing Russian plans in detail. Generals Ludendorf and Hindenburg became the heroes even though it was Colonel Hoffman whose plans were implemented to defeat the Russians. Such are the laws of war; after all, the generals get all the credit. They did indeed approve the Colonel’s plan.

Both Albert and Sam were involved in the offensive in France: Albert as a foot soldier; Sam as a corpsman. Heavy casualties kept Sam very busy, and one of the first wounded he attended was in fact Al, who had taken a French bullet in his right thigh. Sam cut through Albert’s trouser leg, tracked the course of the bloody wound and told his patient, “Don’t worry, Al, it looks like the bullet missed the bone, so it’s just a flesh wound, but I’m sure it needs some work. I doubt you’ll be out of action longer than two weeks.”

“You’re sounding like a doctor already,” said Albert.

“Could you use a pain shot? Are you hurting?” asked Sam

“It’s tolerable,” answered Albert.

“Good. Never take what you could do without,” advised Sam.

“Hope to see you later,” said Albert as he was placed on a stretcher and carted away.

As things would turn out, because of the intensity of the fighting between forces locked in a stalemate, the war produced an overwhelming volume of surgeries. Sam’s demonstrated capacities for battlefield medicine prompted his transfer to a trauma hospital, behind the front where he was trained as a surgical assistant. The twelve hours per day he spent training and assisting qualified him to handle minor cases on his own, a responsibility to which he was eventually assigned as professional surgeons were stretched to the limit by the growing waves of injured soldiers. The accumulated experience in surgical practice would advance the career Sam hoped to pursue after hostilities.

Albert underwent a surgical debridement. His slightly infected wound required more medical attention for the week following initial treatment. After two weeks of recovery, he had only a very mild limp. He was cleared for return to action. He silently thanked God for “only a minor wound.” He and Sam would not meet again until after the war…

Meanwhile the German plan to swiftly defeat France and then the Russians failed. The result was that the “short war” settled down into a four-year battle of attrition in the trenches of Europe after 1914, but not before a million soldiers had been killed. In the meantime trench warfare raged back and forth with very little territory changing hands. Massive casualties were a daily occurrence.

Unrestricted German submarine warfare continued unabated in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean affecting American and other shipping. German attempts to encourage Mexico to join in the war against the Allies were viewed as a very negative trend by the United States. On the strength of these two reasons, the United States entered the war in 1917.

After four years of bloody stalemate, very little territory had changed hands. The initial German enthusiasm for a swift victory had become a desperate struggle for mere survival. Hunger had become rampant on the German home front. People had been reduced to eating dogs and cats, or roof rabbits as they called them. The country was war weary and clamored for peace. Revolutionary movements developed on the right and left of the political spectrum, and general strikes paralyzed the country. The troops began to mutiny, deserting in droves. Soldiers attacked and killed many officers. The situation for Germany had become desperate. The Kaiser abdicated. This ended the Zweiten Deutches Reich (Second German Kingdom). The war was over. The year was 1918.

Both Sam and Albert survived the war and returned to a chaotic Germany. They were now twenty-two years of age, perhaps going on thirty, as the pressures of battle and uncertainty took its toll aging both of them considerably as they bore witness to horrors that no young men should…