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Updated: June 2, 2025
Von Heeringen must have realised that the offensive was being wrenched from his grasp. And the Crown Prince was throwing himself in vain upon the forts of Verdun and Nancy. That night, too, somewhere behind the French lines, a man of very different stamp from the Kaiser was putting the final touches to the preparations of the greatest counter-attack in History.
Lying there, in another man's bed, I felt like a burglar and I slept like an oyster the oyster being, as naturalists know, a most sound sleeper. In the morning there was breakfast at the great table the flies of the night before being still present with General von Heeringen inquiring most earnestly as to how we had rested, and then going out to see to the day's killing.
It is a significant fact, that, whenever there is any tension in Europe, especially between Germany and France, General von Heeringen or his comrade in arms, General von Thulsen Haeseler also a great strategist and iron disciplinarian, immediately takes command of Metz, the most important base and military post in the Emperor's domain.
At his call they came Von Heeringen and Von Hindenberg and Von Zwehl, to mention three names that speedily became catchwords round the world with their gray heads full of Prussian war tactics; and very soon their works had justified the act of their imperial master in choosing them for leadership, and now they had new medals at their throats and on their breasts to overlay the old medals they won back in 1870-71.
He is reputed to have an army of 30,000 lead soldiers with which he plays the moment he opens his eyes much in the same manner as Moltke, who used to request his chess-board the first thing in the morning. In military circles Heeringen is looked upon with the same respect and accredited with quite as much strategical knowledge as Moltke was.
A distinguished, quiet, unassuming gentleman, he is known to be high in the confidence of Francis Joseph. I found the War Minister very fond of salmon fishing, and got quite into his good graces by enthusiastic tales of fly fishing in New Zealand. Admiral von Tirpitz and General von Heeringen came next.
A part of the Fifth Army was to be detached for operations against the French fortress of Verdun. The Sixth Army was concentrated at Strassburg in Alsace, under General von Heeringen. As inspector of the Prussian Guards he bore a very high military reputation.
One had been famed for his accessibility; the other for his inaccessibility. So, because of these acutely dissimilar things, I marveled to myself that day in London why, when I looked at Kitchener, I should think of Von Heeringen.
Field Marshal von Heeringen held a deserved reputation as one of the most brilliant as well as one of the most iron-willed of the German military leaders. He had been the backbone of the crown prince's movement against Troyon, a movement which, given a day or two longer, might have meant the capture of Verdun.
Three weeks later, less a day, I met by appointment Lord Kitchener and spent forty minutes, or thereabouts, in his company at the War Office in London. In the midst of the interview, as I sat facing Kitchener I began wondering, in the back part of my head, who it was Lord Kitchener reminded me of. Suddenly the answer came to me, and it jolted me. The answer was Von Heeringen.
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