#demobilization

Stevan Dohanos, Homecoming – New York Harbor, Christmas, 1945. Published in either Esquire magazine or the Saturday Evening Post, but it looks more like the Post's style.

Soldiers of a regiment of the 37th Division returning to Berlin; the placard lists the battles in which the regiment fought (mainly on the Eastern Front).

December 10 1918, Berlin--On December 10, nine German divisions returned to Berlin from the front, and were granted a parade through the Brandenburg Gate.  The details had been carefully arranged between Ebert’s government and the Army--the soldiers would be allowed to keep their arms, but not any ammunition.  Tensions were high in Berlin--soldiers had opened fire on a Spartacist rally on the 6th--and Ebert did not want to add nine divisions of armed soldiers to the mix as well.

The atmosphere was almost that of a victory parade.  The decorations reminded astute observers of 1814, when Prussia’s victorious armies returned after defeating Napoleon the first time.  The black, white, and red flag of the German Empire was to be seen everywhere.  Ebert addressed the troops (though it is likely he was not heard over the noise of the crowd) telling them that “No enemy has vanquished you...you return undefeated from the battlefield.”  This outraged the Allies when they heard of it, and this and similar sentiments certainly contributed to the “stab-in-the-back” myth that Germany was not defeated on the battlefield but by the people and politicians at home (chief among them, ironically, Ebert himself).

As the troops came through the Brandenburg Gate, they found that no way had been cleared for them on the other side; the soldiers simply mixed into the crowd of 100,000.  Thus the German army began its demobilization.

12 February 1919 - Letter to Edith Robertson from Fumal, Belgium

Still writing from the Chateau at Fumal, Fred opens this letter with the news that he is in the midst of catching up on correspondence - having six separate letters to answer - “it is so good to get a bunch of them”. Fred’s current accommodations in Belgium seem to come with a bit of downtime. He writes about skating on a frozen pond near the Chateau on old dull skates, “I’m not proud of my exhibition”, his letter exclaims.

Page two of this letter brings the news that Fred - alongside others in his battery - was recently tasked with taking “guns and wagons to ordnance - today we took in our harness and in a few days we shall take our ponies into Huy and leave them there. Doesn’t it all sound gloriously promising”. The demobilization of the Canadian Field Artillery, 1st Brigade is looming, and Fred expects to depart for Le Havre in the near future. Fred writes hopefully of this move, anticipating that it will be the start of his journey home, and to Edith. According to the war diaries of the 1st Brigade, the first group to depart for Le Havre left Fumal on 16 March 1919.

I was tagged by @praximeter to post my favourite sentence(s) I’ve ever written, which is making me nervous because I wrote a LOT of sentences in the past year and I liked quite a lot of them and how do you choose just one? I guess “favourite” is always going to be subjective and I’m definitely overthinking it, so anyway, I’ve chosen two sentences that I think could qualify as favourites. I got a lot of satisfaction from writing them, at any rate.

Un chasseur Yakovlev Yak-3 du régiment de chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niémen est préparé par des mécaniciens russes à l'aéroport de Stuttgart avant de s'envoler pour la France - Allemagne - juin 1945