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| Ottweiler, 2010 |
We left Ottweiler for [Bad] Kreuznach on Friday, Dec. 13, just a week ago. Nothing of importance happened there. We continued to make the old lady’s Cafe our headquarters. We found a billiard table in the Kaiserhof and most our time was spent in playing billiards, cards and writing letters. Our mail truck found us there and has been able to follow us pretty well since.
Bad Kreuznach is a nice city. It’s one of the water and mud bath centers of Germany. It’s now being used for a French headquarters town and there was some discussion among the higher French officers when they found us in the town. It is an unwritten law in the French army that no foreign troops shall be stationed in a headquarter’s town. Our French captain was quite severely reprimanded by his colonel for ordering us into the town. We lived in barracks and were very happy for the three days we were there.
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| Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) |
We ran onto a Cafe in town run by a lady who had lived 22 years in England. She had four children while there and her husband was a loyal citizen of England though he had never taken out his naturalization papers. He laughed at the idea of war and postponed taking out his papers from day to day. War came. He was interned; their oldest son, 18 years of age, was conscripted into the English army and she was given the preference of internment with her remaining three children or a return to Germany. She took the latter. She holds no grudge against England, is very glad England won the war and is very anxious to return. She doesn’t like the French very well, however. She made the statement one night as we were sitting around our beers that she wished the Americans would come to Kreuznach instead of the French. A Frenchman was sitting at our table who could understand English well enough to get her meaning. It didn’t make much of a hit with them. It spread around like wild fire among the French. Then the Petit Parisien published an account of the American occupation of Coblenz [Koblenz] in which it was stated that the Americans, both officers and men, were saluting German officers and that German policemen were not saluting the Americans. If this is true it’s atrocious and very sad. At any rate it made the French wild. We had several very warm discussions in the Cafes after this. We passed out many a cigarette during these periods. Since then the French have left us pretty much to ourselves. They don’t want us up here and the fact that we are merely being endured & tolerated is very evident.
The Germans are placing heavy odds on Pres. Wilson & his peace policy. They rely on him to make things easier for them. If Pres. Wilson does not see the situation while he is over here and does not take the hint to get out and leave the spoils to Italy, France & England there is bound to be trouble. No American, not even Pres. Wilson, who hasn’t lived over here since 1870 can appreciate the situation. France & England know what is best for Germany and will see that she is properly dealt with. Let us Americans, who have played our part and reaped our benefits, modestly retire and merely applaud our allies. This is our part.
We left Kreuznach on Tuesday, Dec. 17, and are now most comfortably situated in a big caserne in Mainz on a hill overlooking the Rhine. The weather has been so miserable that we haven’t had much opportunity of getting out and around. We have the whole first floor of one of the buildings to ourselves. Our rooms are well equipped with electricity, furniture and stoves. There is plenty of coke in the cellar. There are two tiled wash rooms on this floor. Johnny, Fraser, Luykx and myself are living together in a room nicely calcimined and lace curtained. We have real beds to sleep on and altogether are very happy. We even have a dining room arranged like a cafeteria.
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| Ambulances parked in Mainz |
An unfortunate state of affairs has taken place in the board of sergeants. McCrackin came back from the officers’ training school and announces his intention of refusing every commission offer which may come to him. He wants to stay with the section. This makes four sergeants, one paid & official and three acting. Too many -- and what is to be our status? Who is to be top? What are our duties to be? Snader would keep his job regardless of whether he was called “sarg.” or “General” so he is out of the discussion. Swain and I are not stuck on our jobs, and both would be glad to give up his respective tasks. Which one shall it be? It can’t very well be both because it really takes three to run the section. If I get out, that leaves Swain with McCrackin and the two don’t fit. If Jack gets out that leaves me with McCrackin and there’s sure to be a fight. McCrackin and I don’t agree at all. The gang is anxious to see us all stay because McCrackin is not very popular (he’s a pupil of Lt. Anderson) with them. The Lieutenant doesn’t like Mac and would like things to proceed as before, but he doesn’t know what to do with Mac. A queer situation and a rather embarrassing one.
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