Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-22
"Expectipg 100000 Americans
We Had to Face TrUO Million"
High German Officer Writes

War weary from many long
months at the front. discouraged by
/ the large, fresh American army,
and saddened by the ever-increas-
! ing hardships for their dear ones
| back home-this was the true spirit
! of the German army during the last
I months of the war, as reflected in
a letter recently received by Max
/ Stephany from his brother, a high
! officer in the German army
7 The writer served throughout the
( war in active command of field
/ troops. His letter, which was writ
/ ten from Berlin on the oath of last
( August, states that they had only
( then received two letters from Mr.
Stephany. which were written from
here in January, 1919. Appended is
the letter in translation:
! Berlin, Aug. "a, 1919. MY dear
r:-This day has lifted from
our hearts an untearable load of
anxiety. 1t brought your letter
written last month. And it brought
such splendid news. 1t tells us that
you, your wife and children are
! living and we'll Sister Crete
| brought your letter to us and read
! it to us, that is. to mother, my wife,
and daughter. We felt deeply CRATE
! full. At present she has the letter
at her house; it is not before me.
but | will try to answer some of
your questions, as far as | remem-
Der them.
! was severely wounded in Janu-
airy, 1918; the shot PENETRATED my
Z ltrn oil
lay in the hospital until October,
10 long months. During the first
three months l was in the field hos
pital and then they sent me to the
hospital in CbaPlottenburg Here
my wife and little girl could come
to see me every day; likewise
mother. sister, her husband, and
many friends and acquaintance l
was in the hands of a lady physi
clan in whom | had much conf
dence; male physicians were not
available so far away from the
front The table was fearfully re-
stricted. During the first months,
while my condition was the worst,
| received every day one egg and
little cocoa, a small amount of milk
and meat.
NO DiSsdG1SIaCIiOHa
Everything had to be carefully
weighed and measured, though the
hospitals received their supply be-
fore anybody else. In spite of all
this, there was no dissatisfaction;
everybody was steeled to endure.
But the hardships and necessary
sacrifices grew from day to day.
We finally reached the stage where
it was even impossible to obtain
material to make diapers for the lit
tie babies. Then women had to give
up their last shirt because they
had to be cut up for the above pur-
pose. Still the greatest economy
had to be exercised even then. None
were permitted to be used on
ba bies over nine months old. Every
body was undernourished. A goose,
costing ordinarily IL marks, sold
at $50 marks, butter so marks per
pound Ordinarily l mark and 20
pfennig), cocoa so marks per
pound and coffee 40 marks. How
ever, the troops at the front still
had enough.
{. 5. Army a Surprise.
The great and much heralded Of
fensive in the spring and in July
1918 failed entirely. Our opponents
met US with a superior number of
men and a seemingly limitless
amount of war material. We were
told to count on a few hundred
thousand hastily assembled Amer
leans and were told that because
of transportation difficulties it
would be impossible for them to put