VON LUDENDORFF DIES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 75, 21 December 1937, Page 5

VON LUDENDORFF DIES

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Famous German War Commander PAGAN BURIAL SERVICE

(By Telegraph-

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(Eeceived 21, 8.45 a.m.) MUNIOH, Dec. 20. The death has occurred of General Erich von Lndendorff. Eecently he was operated on for a tumour. He made some recovery, but death followed a sudden relapse. The London Daily Telegraph's Berlin correspondent says: "Flags throughout Germany are flying at half-mast for General von Lulendorff. Newspapers announced his death on their front pages, which had black borders. An obituary lssred by the Official News Agency begins: 'With decp emotion the German people stand at the bier of Erich. von Ludendoff, glorious commander of the World War, who stands out from conternporary history like a peak of primeval rock in the gigantic struggle of the German people against a world of nemies.' " The Daily Telegraph's Munich correspondent says: "Although there has been no official announcement, I undorstand that there will be no public mourning or State funeral. Herr Hitler offered a State funeral, which the widow refused. She has arranged to take the body to their home on the Starnbergersee for private burial. A grave is being prepared in the garden at their home. The service will be conducted in accordance with pagan rites. It is still possible that* the widow's decision will be overruled." The general 's antagonism to Christian ideas and customs is causing considerable difficulty in the funeral arrangements. According to his own wishes he will not be buried in consecrated ground. Meanwhile, Herr Hitler is arranging a State funeral for December 22 near Feldherrendalle, which is contrary to General von Ludendorff 's wish. The ex-Kaiser, who was deeply moved, sent a telegram expressing his deepest personal sorrow to the general's widow. Eecognised by military experts of the present day as the real commander of the German forces during the latter part of the Great War, Erich von LudendorfE was the complete soldier, and the son of a soldier. He was born on April 9, 1865, in the province of Posen, his father being a Prussian oflicer who had servcd in. the wars of 1866 and 1870. The younger LudendorfE entered the cadet school at Plon, and was seconded to the infantry in 1882. Sixteen years later he joined the general staff, and remained there, with the exception of brief periods of aetive service, till early in 1914. From 1904 to 1913 he acted in the operations section of the staff, which was responsible for the planning of the violation of Belgian neutrality which brought Great Britain into the war. Upon German mobilisation he was a major-general on the staff of Bulow's second army, and he took part in the attaclc on Liege, receiving the surrender of the citadel. On August 22, 1914, however, with t e war not'a month old, be became chief-of-staff to Hindenburg on the Eussian front, and was mainly responsible for the SAveeping German success at Tannenberg and for other successes in the following year. When on August 29, 1916, he, with Hindenburg, was placed in virtually supreme command of the German forces, he re-organised the army. In his new methods of attack used in 1917 after tho retreat of Germany to the Hindenburg Line, he used surprise to

the utmost. He relied for his thrust on picked shock troops which ruoved for attaeks from one portion of the line to anothor as required, and supported the assault by gas shclls on a large scale, field guns, and machine-guns — methods he had successfully tested against the Eussians on the Eastern Front. In 1918, still of the belief that the entry of Ameriea into the war was too late to avert a German victory, but faced with the failure of >the U-boat campaign, he instituted a series of attaeks on the Western front with the object of destroying the British army. It was not uutil the counter-attack by Foeh on July 18, 1918, that LudendorfE was finally J eld, and from that time on he suffered a series of disastrous defeats. The storming of the Hindenburg Lino by the British and the col- ■ lapse of Austria and Turkey sliook his nerve, and he immediately called for peace negotiations. LudendorfE was overthrown by the Cabinet of Prince Max of Baden, and after the close of the w: r Jew to Sweden. In 1919, however, he returned to his own country, wliere he became oue of the leaders of reactionary conspiracies. Hc was one of tho initiators and orgartisers of tho "putsch" of 1920 and in 1923 was allied with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to establish a dietatorship in Germany. In 1924 he entered tlie Eeichstag as a National Socialist, and in 1925 unsuccessfully stood for the presi! y of the Keich. It lias been said of hini that, while as a military organiser he was ivitliout peer in modern times, in public life he showed a complete lack of any sense of political . realities and was adject failure/

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GENERAL VON LUDENDORFF photographed with his wife.