Fighting the Kaiser’s War: The Saxons in Flanders 1914/1918

By Andrew Lucas & Jurgen Schmieschek

Pen & Sword Military, 2022

Ron Drees, Reviewer

The Royal Saxon Army—20th & 19th Century

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, archives were opened to researchers, and this book is one result. It is profusely illustrated with photos and maps. The photos are of individuals and group shots of soldiers, along with bunkers, trenches, funeral processions, grave sites, destroyed villages, and drawings of trench layouts.

Saxony is a state in southeastern Germany, south of Berlin and forming Germany’s eastern boundary with Poland and its southern boundary with Czechoslovakia. Leipzig and Dresden are two major cities. In 1914 Saxony had its own king who could not participate in foreign policy, apparently the fiefdom of the Kaiser. However, the men of Saxony went off to war with the rest of Germany. 

Fighting the Kaiser’s War gives the point of view of the individual soldier and his fighting and suffering. The soldiers described here took part in far more raiding of trenches and mining than one might understand from more general texts. One can read of soldiers suffering from lack of food, sleep and the impossibility of maintaining any semblance of personal hygiene. Good friends are lost while mail from home brings a bit of joy—and food and money. Perpetual flooding brought on by autumn rains makes staying dry a priority and an impossibility.

Units did not stay in one place but were transferred from one part of the front to another and sometimes to a totally different front. Units would suffer so many casualties that they were merged into other units and their original identity would be lost.

The text is peppered with German words, many of which are not in the main glossary at the end of the book, making some topics difficult to understand. A very poignant part of the book is the last major chapter where letters of individual soldiers, ranging from enlisted men to a major general, are printed. Some of these men survived the war, including one who died of the flu shortly after returning home. In another case, three sons from one family died.

Perhaps the tragedy of the Great War is summed up in a wedding picture in the last chapter. Neither of the couple are smiling. A soldier, undoubtedly medically discharged, stands with his empty left sleeved tucked into a uniform pocket. His bride, her arm tucked into his right, wears a floor length veil, holds a bouquet but is dressed in a black gown. The caption does not explain if the bride is mourning a lost family member or for Germany as a whole, but it communicates a very bittersweet day.

There are no grand sweeping triumphs in this book, just everyday fighting and dying. It shows the Saxons were much like everyone else; they believed in their cause while profusely wishing for an end to the war. Those who want to understand the Great War at the trench level should read this book, especially if they have an intermediate or more advanced level of understanding of the Great War.

Ron Drees