“All we know is that, sometimes, in our battles with the Russians, we had to remove the mounds of enemy corpses from before our trenches, in order to get a clear field of fire against fresh assaulting waves.”

— Paul von Hindenburg

The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War (2013) by Peter Hart, p. 242
Undated

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Paul von Hindenburg 13

Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and president of … 1847–1934

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“Is to accept the leadership of a crumbling country a crime? Is to prevent the Russians, the natural enemy of Germany, from obtaining our arms and manpower a crime? In Russian eyes it probably is. But I'm referring to the eyes of a westerner. I knew that we had to capitulate and I wanted it to be to the Americans and British, and not to the East. I'm not even accused of war crimes in the sense of the atrocities. It's clear they have no case against me. I came into a powerful position in 1943. How can I be accused of a conspiracy?”

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original German: Wovon wir weg mussten, war uns klar. Wohin wir kommen würden, stand allerdings weniger fest
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“All we know is that, sometimes, in our battles with the Russians, we had to remove the mounds of enemy corpses from before our trenches, in order to get a clear field of fire against fresh assaulting waves.”

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Paul von Hindenburg 13

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