The Guns of August....German mobilization order

[boltaction]

I have been cleaning out closets and my home office in the last month or so, and unearthing some interesting things. I came across this piece which I had framed but had not hung after our last move--that has now been rectified. I obtained it unframed many years ago--it was apparently in the desk of a mayor in some German town. Anyway, it is an August 1914 Mobilization order for the area of the IXth Armeekorps, for August 2-6th 1914.

It is saddening to read--so many young men from both sides jauntily marching off to a war all were confident would be over by Christmas, but probably virtually none of those reading and responding to that mobilization order survived a war that really no one won.

Ed

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[Flying10uk]

A few years ago I researched an uncle of my mother who served during WW1. I discovered that he served most of WW1 on active duty, including in the Mediterranean, I assume Gallipoli. Unfortunately he was seriously wounded a few months before the end of WW1. The surprising thing that his service record revealed is that he went awol, around 10 times, during WW1 but only received very minimal punishment. One would have thought that he would have been shot at dawn for going awol just once but he got away with very minimal punishment for going awol multiple times. I guess that he took as much as he could stand and just needed a bit of time-out and this must of been recognised by his NCO's and junior officers? Mother remembers seeing a photograph of him not long after he came back from France. He was in a wheelchair, a broken man, physically and mentally.