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CHAPTER VII
TO SEDAN
SEPTEMBER 26th. I had been told that if I were at
the railway station just before 9 a.m. I could go by
the train which was to carry the Weimar Landsturm
Battalion to Charleville. I arrived in time, but only to be
informed that an alteration had been made in the train time-
table and that this battalion would not leave until later, but
that an ammunition train for Sedan, of about twenty-two
" N " wagons, covered in with tarpaulins, was on the point of
starting ; if I liked to go by that, a first-class compartment
would be placed at my disposal. A few passenger coaches
were attached to the train, and I seated myself in one of these.
My future travelling companions were the ten or twelve
Ersatz Reservists, belonging to an Ammunition Park Depot
established in Mayence, who were in charge of the train. The
latter had been on the road for eight days and the men had
slept eight nights on the train. Our carriage had strayed here
from the north-eastern regions of Germany, as appeared from
its mark :
" Prussian-Hessian State Railways, North-East."
On the wall of my compartment there was a little map of the
railway line from Berlin to Memel.
I had been advised by a friendly soul at the Hotel Staar
to take with me a supply of provisions, as it was more than
doubtful whether any eatables could be found on the way.
Four substantial cheese and ham sandwiches, three eggs and
two bottles of mineral water had therefore been stowed away
amongst my luggage in the compartment.
And so we started. We glided smoothly out of Luxemburg
Station, and passed a train shunted into a siding and crowded
with soldiers who sat and talked and laughed and seemed to
be in the best of spirits. The town disappears behind us.
We are out in the open country. We pass by flourishing
villages, farms and woods, meadows and pasture lands with
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