World War I, The Dardanelles
Our professor at my university, doctor Stern was a great professor, a teacher, a tutor and was dedicated in doing a job 100%. We had the most interesting and informative lectures by him, and he was committed to giving his students a well- rounded education. He would, with very relaxed and casual authority, make us deliver all we were capable of and more.
Like on a Friday, before the final ten minutes of the end of class, very casual he would stress the point of wishing us a good weekend by saying: “Enjoy this beautiful, sunny weekend” and then add: “bring me a synopsis at least 500 words on this subject… and he gave each student a subject word we had not anticipated. Mine for that weekend was WWI, the Dardanelles. Oh my, I had no idea how to tackle this. Out of desperation I was thinking, I hope papa will come home this weekend, I could use his help! Knowing, my father never has talked about WWI nor WWII. My wish was granted, and my papa came home Friday evening, and we had a lively conversation about my professor Stern, his demeaner, his teachings and unexpected assignments he sent us home with for weekends. “Enjoy the weekend” that was almost funny. The assignment he gave us left almost no time for any enjoyment, but that was our professor Stern, unpredictable, but soft spoken, like a dictatorship wrapped in admiration and tough love for his students, and we loved and admired him back by studying, learning and receiving good grades.
My papa was a young General in WWI in the cavalry and his story was “the Dardanelles.” I needed my father’s help with important dates, areas, how we, Germany got involved or little anecdotes. I told it, the way my father gave me specifics. Germany provided troops, weapons and horses, but had to somehow get them to Turkey under camouflage. The horses and riders, tanks and cannons were disguised as farm equipment. The soldiers, not in uniform of course, were the grooms for the horses. They arrived by special trains in Turkey and unloaded all the men and horses and equipment. They had to cross an old bridge and as the heavy loads crossed the support structure gave way and the damaged bridge was slowly sinking. They got into a rescue mode and lost only precious time, no solder’s lives, or horse’s lives were lost. The very young officer rounded his horses and riders, and gave his command to move out, heads held high and in step. The band started the music by Franz von Suppè “The light Cavalry” and the regiment was on their way to: “ Constantinople”
WWI began 1914 and at the end in 1918 my papa was taken prisoner by the British and spent two years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Ceylon by India, called now Sri Lanka. My father came home to Germany in 1920.
For my story I was rewarded with an award and an A in that subject for that semester. It was displayed in a glass case in my school. My professor Stern considered the story a great piece of history, well written. I was very proud to be my father’s daughter.
This piece of history, the school and my beautiful city of Darmstadt were destroyed the night of 9-11-1944 by a bombing raid where we lost 20,000 lives.
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