Stefan Westmann

In Altkirch we were stationed, we were billeted in a factory. We were fast asleep when all of a sudden a terrific infantry fire started. We rushed out and we fired in the direction where the bullets came from. The reason for this firing was that the German sentry challenged a light and as there was no reply he fired at that light.

The bullet hit a wall next to another German sentry who thought that he was fired on and he fired back, and so two German companies fired at each other like mad. And the whole reason was that the midwife attending the birth of a baby moved about with a lamp in her hand.

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One day we got orders to storm a French position. We got in and my comrades fell right and left of me, but then I was confronted by a French Corporal. He with his bayonet at the ready and I with my bayonet at the ready.

For a moment I felt the fear of death and in a fraction of a second I realised that he was after my life exactly as I was after his. I was quicker than he was. I tossed his rifle away and I ran my bayonet through his chest He fell, put his hand on the place were I had hit him and then I thrust again. Blood came out of his mouth and he died.

I felt physically ill. I nearly vomited. My knees were shaking and I was quite frankly ashamed of myself. My comrades, I was a corporal there then, were absolutely undisturbed by what had happened. One of them boasted that he had killed a poilu with the butt of his rifle, another one had strangled a captain, a French captain.

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