!!! Handout for the paybook !!!
The buyer did not pay for
France the arch enemy of Germany
Offered is an ORIGINAL German handout with an order by General Georg Wichura who was a High Decorated German general (Pour Le Merit order)
Georg Wichura and his military career can be found on the internet
The offered handout is about the Interaction with the French population and the text reads as follows:
To be kept in the pay book
Instruction sheet for German army personnel Interacting with the French population
The long coexistence with the French population that the war of position entails can lead to a situation where behavior towards the population takes on forms that are detrimental to military interests.
We must always remember that the population belongs to a country that is at war with us. In France in particular, hatred against the Germans has been nurtured for decades and every French person harbors this hatred, even if it cannot be expressed openly in the territory we occupy due to the constraints of the situation.
We must not blame the individual Frenchman for this hatred of the Germans, but we must realize that it has its origin in the great love of the fatherland that is peculiar to the French.
Every inhabitant of France will work joyfully and without hesitation for the good and in the service of his fatherland wherever the opportunity presents itself. From the French point of view, it is a deed of honor if inhabitants of the territory we occupy can transmit news about our army to France.
Every Frenchman, as an enthusiastic patriot, will feel satisfaction if he succeeds in harming us in any way. All friendliness towards us is forced and would immediately turn back into the old hatred if, for example, the French army should ever succeed in liberating this or that village from the German yoke
All the French who greet us now would welcome a victorious French army in their villages with great enthusiasm. Far be it from us to condemn such patriotism, for each of us feels the same way about our German fatherland.
But we must always reckon with such feelings on the French side in our conduct towards the French population. We must always bear all these thoughts in mind anew and resolutely and ruthlessly avoid anything that might in the slightest way encourage enemy intelligence.
This includes the strictest adherence to and constant observance of the following regulations:
1. Be careful when writing letters and diaries. How many letters and notebooks may have fallen into the hands of the French, and how much will have become known to them in this way? Don't write about military matters, not even to your loved ones. You can make yourselves traitors to our cause with a word, with a number that you write down carelessly and without your knowing it.
It is forbidden to indicate the whereabouts on open postcards. For the enemy, every message about us is important. Everyone knows that the field post numbers of the regiments, brigades, disions and corps must be kept secret. What is perhaps less well known is that the enemy is also trying to learn the following things about us:
How is the service operation? What is the composition of the company? How many active, reservists, Landwehr? How strong is the company? How many officers are there question marks, how is the food? What's the mood like? When did the last replacement arrive? Are there recruit depots? Are they very strong?
Every seemingly unimportant piece of information about military matters becomes valuable in the hands of the enemy. It is strictly forbidden to write anything about intended operations.
2. No address shall be known to the enemy or to the population of the territory occupied by us. All envelopes, addresses of cardboard boxes, postcards with addresses must be burned. Never leave military papers lying around in rest quarters. Never throw documents or addresses off the train when travelling by train.
3. All technical means of warfare must remain secret from the enemy. So never give information about the number and equipment of mortars, machine guns, hand grenades, about special engineer formations, protective measures against gas attacks, about airplanes, airships, and so on
4. Particularly important is the secrecy of rail traffic vis-à-vis the population. Here, everyone has to play his part. Information on the number and direction of the trains, on the type and loading of the railway wagons, on the transport of ammunition, the provision of wounded trains, the transport and provision of food supplies can become of the utmost importance to the enemy. Therefore, the population is prohibited from:
a) Staying at train stations
b) stay at level crossings (barriers) while shunting or passing through trains
c) to live in houses from which she can observe the rail traffic
d) Binoculars to use
e) to be in the vicinity of magazines or reception points
5. Exercise the utmost caution in traffic and in conversation with the civilian population. Beware with all your energy from talking to civilians about military matters.
6. It is strictly forbidden to convey correspondence or other communication to the population. You are also not allowed to carry messages from one village to another verbally, because you never know if every word you transmit is not an alias for messages of a different kind
the Commanding General, Wichura, Lieutenant General
!!! I combine shipping !!!