With the German armies in the West (ePub)

It tells, with the utmost amount of detail, the story of his two months ' sojourn last fall with the German armies in the Western field of battle. He spent a good deal of time at headquarters, passed through Belgium, stayed for some days at Antwerp immediately after its fall, was at Ostend during the bombardment, and saw much at various places along the front, although he rarely penetrated to the actual fighting line. He was always the guest of German officers and consequently he saw nothing that they did not wish him to see. When he left Sweden in September to start upon the tour he was already an ardent pro German sympathiser and his devotion to the Teutonic cause apparently grew more and more absorbing with each day that he spent with the German army. He applauds or justifies everything it has done, even to the burning of Louvain, he devoutly believes Kaiser Wilhelm to be the greatest man of modern times and one of the greatest of all history, the German cause to be entirely righteous, and the German race the coming rulers of the world. And he loses no opportunity throughout the volume to preach this gospel. The book is peculiarly interesting psychologically because of the author's complete obsession, so thorough going that he can see nothing else. As a war book it has a very considerable interest and value by reason of its million minute observations, incidents, and anecdotes dealing with the life of the troops, of the overrun regions, and the happenings in the rear of the army. Hedin dined with the Kaiser, travelled on troop trains, observed batteries at work within the zone of fire, chatted with generals conducting operations, was billeted on inhabitants of the occupied territory, visited hospitals and watched staffs handling problems from headquarters. In all these matters his keenness for detail, his enthusiasm for military efficiency, lend great vivacity and force to an unusual narrative.