595. The First World War: The Battle of the Frontiers (Part 2)
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The Germans were all round us. One could see them in the wood, and they were shooting quite close. The man who finally got me was about fifteen to twenty yards away. His bullet was like a tremendous punch. Then everything was quiet, and a deep peace fell upon the wood.
It was very dreamlike. After about an hour and a half, I suppose, a German with a red beard with the sun shining on his helmet and bayonet came up, looking like an angel of death. I inquired in broken but polite German what he proposed to do next. After reading the English papers and seeing the way he was handling his bayonet, it seemed to me that there was going to be another atrocity. He was extraordinarily kind and polite.
He put something under my head, offered me wine, water and cigarettes, he said, Wir sind Kameraden. Another German soldier came up and said, Why didn't you stay in England? I said, We obeyed orders, just as you do. That was the diary of the British officer and MP Aubrey Herbert. And he sounds a tremendous chap, Dominic, and exactly the calibre of man that I expect to be serving as an officer in His Majesty's forces in the First World War.
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