Of course most of the German soldiers of WW1 were mad, rapacious, baby-eating brutes. But 100 years ago this week Sydney's deeply awful The World's News (the Daily Telegraph of its day) reported two rare exceptions.
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"NOT ALL BAD. GERMANS TENDERLY CARED FOR
"Two stories which do much to relieve the many instances of German cruelty are told by wounded Britishers.
'Not all Germans are cruel,' says a private of the Black Watch in hospital at Newcastle [England]. 'On the Aisne I was lying for hours wounded. A German came along and bound up my wound, under heavy fire. When he'd made me ship-shape he was going to clear off but a stray bullet caught him, and be fell dead close beside me.' "
"Corporal Houston, of the Seaforths said: 'After Soissons I was lying on the field badly wounded. Nearby was a young fellow of the Northamptonshire Regiment. Standing over him was a German infantryman holding a water-bottle to his [the young Englishman's] lips and trying to soothe him. The wounded man was delirious, and kept calling, 'Mother, are you there?' all the time. The German seemed to understand, for he passed his hand gently over the feverish brow and caressed the poor lad as tenderly as any woman might have done. Death came at last, and as the soul of the wounded man passed to its last account I saw the German trying to hide his tears.' "
