[myrmekochoria]

Fotografia: skutki rozkazów Ludendorffa (fotografia już była, ale nie było do niej żadnej historii i ciężko znaleźć inne adekwatne)

Podczas operacji Alberyk Ludendorff rozkazał żołnierzom niszczenie (i zabieranie) wszystkiego po drodze (tak zwana taktyka spalonej ziemii). Wielu dowódców nie pochwalało tego rozkazu na przykład Ruppert Maria Wittelsbach (następca tronu Bawarii) chciał zrezygnować z dowodzenia z tego powodu, bo dla niego było już to za dużo, ale to człowiek z XIX wieku. Celem było zamienienie ogromnej połaci terenu w bezwartościową pustynie, aby siły Ententy musiały wszystko od podstaw robić, gdy będą chciały uderzyć na szalone wręcz umocnienia linię Zygfryda. Ernst Jünger był obecny podczas wykonywania tego rozkazu i oto co ma do powiedzenia na ten temat (jak wpływa na żołnierzy).

"The villages we passed through on our way had look of vast lunatic asylum. Whole companies were set to knocking or pulling down walls, or sitting on rooftops, uprooting the tiles. Trees were cut down, windows smashed; whatever you looked, clouds of smoke and dust rose from vast piles of debris. We saw men dashing about wearing suits and dresses left behind by the inhabitants, with top hats on their heads. With destructive cunning, they found the roof-trees of the houses, fixed ropes to them, and, with concerted shouts, pulled till they all came tumbling down. Others were swinging pile-driving hammers, and went around smashing everything that got in their way, from the flowerpots one the widnow-sills to whole ornate conservatories.

As far back as the Siegfried Line, every village was reduced to rubble, every tree chopped down, every road undermined, every well poisoned, every basement blown up or booby-traped, every rail unscrewed, every telephone wire rolled up, everything burnable burned; in a word, we were turning the country that our advancing opponents would occupy into a wasteland.

As I say, the scenes were reminiscent of a madhouse, and the effect of them was similar: half funny, half repellent. They were also, we could see right away, bad for the men's morale and honour. Here, for the first time, I witnessed wanton destruction that I was later in life to see to excess; this is something that is unhealthily bound up with the economic thinking of our age, but it does more harm then good to the destroyer, and dishonours the soldier.

Among the surprises we'd prepared for our successors were some truly malicious inventions. Very fine wires, almost invisible, were stretched across the entrances of buildings and shelters, which set off explosive charges at the faintest touch. In some places, narrows ditches were dug across the road, and shells hidden in them: they were covered over by an oak plank, and had earth strewn over them. A nail had been driven into the plank, only just above the shell-fuse. The space was measured so that marching troops, could pass over the spot safely, but the moment the first lorry or field gun rumbled on, the board would give, and nail would touch off the shell. Or there were spiteful time bombs that were buried in the basements of undamaged buildings. They consisted of two sections, with metal partition going down the middle. In one part explosive, in the other acid. After these devil's eggs had been primed and hidden the acid slowly, over weeks, eroded the metal partition, and then set off the bomb. One such device blew up the town hall of Bapaume just as the authorities had assembled to celebrate victory."

#cytaty #fotografia #fotohistoria #historiajednejfotografii #ciekawostkihistoryczne #historia #iwojnaswiatowa #wielkawojna #militaria #myrmekochoria