Back to Album containing 117 photos belonging to Colonel F F Colvin 9L including photos and paper ephemera c1917-1920s
Photographs
Item 0017
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Image details
| Accession number | 912L : 2124/5 |
|---|---|
| Transcription |
133 Original im Wallraf - Richartz Museum der Stadt Caln Susi Richter pins COLN a . Rh . Dom Südseite ( 160 m Grundsteinlegung 15. Aug. Vollendet 15. Okt. 188 Baukosten seit 1824 oa . 21 Thotographische Gesellschaft , Berlin Konigin Luise Inese men have seen a lot of fighting sinc they rode into France , and as cavalry patrol and cavalry screens , fighting mounted and dis mounted , in retreat , and in advance , have taken their due share in the battles of the last eight months . But they looked fresh and fit and hard to - day , and their horses were as silky as though they ad come out of racing stables . Lancers and Dragoon Guards and Hussars , with their horse artillery , in which each gun was polished as a pretty tov for pageantry and not for death , they passed in a steady stream which took two hours to flow across that bridge . Down below . on the quayside , was another pro cession which I happened to see when I looked over the bridge . It was headed by two German officers in full uniform , with a white flag on the front of their motor - car . Behind them came a long line of other cars , with the German eagle painted on their panels . They had come into Cologne under a flag of truce to deliver up the cars according to the terms of the armistice . Cologne is orderly and submissive to the regu lations under British authority . The people go about their way with as little notice as pos sible of the foreign troops in their midst , though in the cafés and restaurants one sees them stealing glances at British officers and men who come in to listen to the music of orchestras , which play on gaily as though no tragic thing had come to Germany . The kilt of the Scottish officer breaks down their mask of indifference , and they cannot hide their smiles at its strange ness to them , and now and again the breezy way of young Tommies or Jocks , and their good natured humour , softens the looks of people who , naturally enough , are not inclined to beam at us . Here and there English - speaking Ger mans , who were soldiers until a week or two ago , act as guides to our men who lose their way in a maze of streets , and I have heard them ex changing reminiscences of battles in which they fought against each other . THE UNIVERSAL WORD . But there is no fraternisation there are the Commander - in - Chief's orders against it . And the British soldier has not established a lingua franca , such as he used in France . The German language beats him altogether , and he finds only one blessed word in it which helps him at all . It is the word " bier . " But the shops speak to him through their lighted win dows , and he stares into them like a child outside a toy shop , wondering at the richness of them . The German shops are displaying their Christm goods , and war has made no outward difference to the spirit of that day , soon coming , which is kept in Germany as the feast of home life with as much sentiment or more as in our own . There are thousands of Christmas trees in the shops , lighted when darkness falls with little bulbs , and all spark ling with coloured balls and cotton - wool snow . In the great shop of Tietz , the biggest stores in Cologne , there is floor upon floor richly laden with the accessories and adornments of German home life , fine porcelain ware , beautiful glase , embroideries , and things that women love in their drawing - rooms . And Christmas trees , greener than those that grow in the forest of Eupen , taper high above the counters , with Santa Claus as their guardian angel . German Christmas is coming , and the German people are preparing to celebrate it for their children's sake in the old spirit of their national . traditions But it will be a tragic Christmas for Germany , and there will be more tears than laughter round the green trees with their coloured lights . The ADVANCE FROM RHINE . On Saturday night the War Office issued the Following : HEADQUARTERS ( France ) , Sat. ( 6.35 p.m. ) . Yesterday our advanced troops , completing their occupation of the Cologne bridgehead , reached the general line Ober - Kassel , Seel scheid , east of Hohkeppel , Olpe , Solingen , morth of ri KÖLN - LINDENTHAL TOE E C. Mess . I Corps . KILLLA Fürst Pücklerstraße 56 Dianne CAPT . H HARGREAVES + DIANNE - Cologne 1919 . Ast Camp Comdur II Corpo |
