When he had finished he drew out of his pocket the diary of a German officer killed at the Yser during the first days of the fighting, and read it aloud.  It is a great human document.  I give here as nearly as possible a literal translation.

It was written during the first days of the great battle.  For fifteen days after he was killed the German offensive kept up.  General Foch, who commanded the French Army of the North during that time, described their method to me.  “The Germans came,” he said, “like the waves of the sea!”

* * * * *

The diary of a German officer, killed at the Yser:—­

Twenty-fourth of October, 1914: 

“The battle goes on—­we are trying to effect a crossing of the Yser.  Beginning at 5:45 P.M. the engineers go on preparing their bridging materials.  Marching quickly over the country, crossing fields and ditches, we are exposed to continuous heavy fire.  A spent bullet strikes me in the back, just below the coat collar, but I am not wounded.

“Taking up a position near Vandewonde farm, we are able to obtain a little shelter from the devastating fire of the enemy’s artillery.  How terrible is our situation!  By taking advantage of all available cover we arrive at the fifth trench, where the artillery is in action and rifle fire is incessant.  We know nothing of the general situation.  I do not know where the enemy is, or what numbers are opposed to us, and there seems no way of getting the desired information.

“Everywhere along the line we are suffering heavy losses, altogether out of proportion to the results obtained.  The enemy’s artillery is too well sheltered, too strong; and as our own guns, fewer in number, have not been able to silence those of the enemy, our infantry is unable to make any advance.  We are suffering heavy and useless losses.

“The medical service on the field has been found very wanting.  At Dixmude, in one place, no less than forty frightfully wounded men were left lying uncared, for.  The medical corps is kept back on the other side of the Yser without necessity.  It is equally impossible to receive water and rations in any regular way.

“For several days now we have not tasted a warm meal; bread and other things are lacking; our reserve rations are exhausted.  The water is bad, quite green, indeed; but all the same we drink it—­we can get nothing else.  Man is brought down to the level of the brute beast.  Myself, I have nothing left to eat; I left what I had with me in the saddlebags on my horse.  In fact, we were not told what we should have to do on this side of the Yser, and we did not know that our horses would have to be left on the other side.  That is why we could not arrange things.

“I am living on what other people, like true comrades, are willing to give me, but even then my share is only very small.  There is no thought of changing our linen or our clothes in any way.  It is an incredible situation!  On every hand farms and villages are burning.  How sad a spectacle, indeed, to see this magnificent region all in ruins, wounded and dead lying everywhere all round.”