Remembrance Day …..we should never forget
Rolf
A. Piro
In 1954 prior for leaving to Canada my
grandfather Eugen Mayer handed me his medals from WWI and requested me as his
grandson to take good care of them along with the memory of his war
experiences. The medals had been neatly placed into a metal cigarette refill
case with a special engraving on the lower left side “Weihnachten 1914”
(Christmas 1914). This metal cigarette refill case meant a lot to me because
Eugen’s troops celebrated Christmas Truce in Ypres with the British and
Canadian troops when fighting stopped across the trenches.
Grandfather Eugen Mayer was a peace
loving man who preferred not to speak about the war. He lived outside the City
of Stuttgart in Germany and at the turn of the century frequently went to
visit the workshop to view the experimental trials of cars that had been
constructed by Carl Benz in Canstatt the suburb of Stuttgart. The year 1905
in contrast to the war years which later followed was an eventful peace time
year. The first cars had been test driven through the City of Stuttgart,
destined to improve transportation for mankind. Fuelling up the cars was not
an easy chore, as for the lack of gasoline stations gasoline had to be
purchased in pharmacies and there were not many pharmacies that sold this
precious petrol.
When the focus turned to war in 1914,
Eugen became enlisted in the military service and in October 1914 went
immediately to the war theatre on the western front. Eugen was assigned to a
military canine unit with dogs to sniff out explosives, explosive devises,
soldiers and movements in hidden areas. During the second battle of Ypres on
and after April 22, 1915 these dogs carried pouches with messages that helped
with intelligent gathering , relaying information regarding enemy positions,
location of guns. This information was vital for the surprise attack by the
German 4th Army on the Allied front line. Fifty guns had been
abandoned on the left line of Ypres when the Canadians took over the left line
of Ypres and rescued the French troops from a hopeless situation. Grandfather
also talked about the outnumbered British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that faced
the might of the German army and mentioned what appeared to be for him “the
tall Canadian soldiers” that heroically held ground and survived the heavy
bombardment. On Christmas day the same year he shared these sentiments with
the allied soldiers in as much that this is war seemed senseless with huge
casualties of young lives on both sides.
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