Through Luxemburg to Arlon

‘We unloaded in Busendorf. It was so hot that our horses threatened to fall over. For the next few days, we marched north towards Luxembourg. In the meantime, I had found out that my brother had ridden the same route with a cavalry division about eight days earlier. I was even able to track him again, but I didn't see him until a year later. Nobody in Luxembourg knew how this little country behaved towards us. I still remember today how I saw a Luxembourg gendarme from afar, surrounded him with my patrol and wanted to capture him. He assured me that if I didn't let him go immediately, he would complain to the German Emperor, which I realised and let the hero go. We passed through the city of Luxembourg and Esch and were now approaching the first fortified towns in Belgium. On the march there, our infantry, like our entire division in general, performed pure peacetime manoeuvres. We were terribly excited. But such a manoeuvre outpost picture was quite digestible from time to time. Otherwise we would definitely have gone over the top. Troops from various army corps were marching to the right and left, on every street, in front of and behind us. There was a feeling of chaos. Suddenly the confusion turned into a march that worked like a charm. I had no idea what our airmen were capable of back then. In any case, every airman gave me a tremendous dizziness. I couldn't tell whether it was a German or an enemy plane, I didn't even realise that the German planes carried crosses and the enemy planes carried circles. As a result, every aeroplane came under fire. The old pilots still talk today about how embarrassing it was for them to be shot at equally by friend and foe.’