Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. On the Way to the Front
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i6 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
sation decree. He drives it himself in the service of the
Army and the orderly who is to accompany us is, in peace
time, his own chauffeur. I was told that the Volunteer Auto-
mobile Corps now mustered 350 cars. The owner of a car
reports himself and is paid for his vehicle, and he may at the
end of the war buy back his car from the Crown. It is reckoned
that the serviceable life of a car is five years. If the owner
paid ten thousand marks for his car and has used it for four
years, he only gets paid at the last year’s valuation, i.e. two
thousand marks, whilst if the car is quite new he receives the
full amount.
Three hundred and fifty cars—it doesn’t sound much, but
these cars merely form the Volunteer Corps, and I suppose
you will feel more at ease when I tell you that at the western
front alone there are altogether fifty thousand cars in use,
whilst forty thousand are left in Germany. That means fifty
thousand chauffeurs. When one considers that each car
usually has a crew of two, it will be seen that the equivalent
of over two army corps are attached to the Automobile
Service. There are plenty of men in Germany, plenty for
every purpose. On the eastern front I was told that cars
are useless outside the German boundaries, owing to the
shocking state of Russian and Polish roads. There one has
to ride or requisition ordinary vehicles. But in the west the
cars play a part the importance of which had only remotely
been guessed at, as may be gathered frojm the course of this
narrative.
Finally, von Krum was told to collect all maps (scale
1 : 100,000) that we should require from Berlin to Main Head-
quarters. I myself received the pleasing news that I need only
give ten minutes’ notice before starting, as car, Rittmeister
and orderly were always ready, likewise Dr. Arnoldi’s wolf-
skin coat, which he advised me to take with me.
I had thus every reason to be satisfied with my day’s work.
The trip to Main Headquarters was evidently only the first
step. What was to follow ? Probably a trip along the line
of German lines of communication to the fighting zone, and
possibly to the firing line itself. Perhaps it would be my good
fortune to catch at least a glimpse of a modem fight. After
such a beginning the rest was sure to go well. My excitement
on starting had now changed to longing, and I felt that I was
about to be carried with lightning speed along magnificent roads
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