Holding up a white flag, the German soldier marched across the burned battlefield. Directly behind him marched a French radio operator who could understand German. Before that, it was his job, in addition to maintaining radio communications, to step in as a translator should German soldiers be captured alive. Even if it was important to contact the Germans as soon as possible, the two were forced to move at a marching pace. If they had run the Germans would have opened fire on them, as this could be mistaken for an onslaught of the enemy. Even if it weren't for the danger of being shot at, the battlefield littered with craters, dead soldiers, barbed wire and ruins would not have allowed faster progress.
The German positions that were only sparsely manned could already be seen and some of the German soldiers pointed their rifles at the two newcomers. The Germans believed they had broken the enemy's resistance with their last offensive and that they had now sent someone to surrender. When the two arrived, however, hopes of a near end of the war on the western front were bashed.
The Germans and their commanding officer did not want to believe the report of the newcomer and were already about to declare him crazy when the French radio operator brought his message to the officer.
"This can not be! The French guy tries to tell me the same thing as our madman here! "
It was just not possible for an enemy soldier to have exactly the same delusions and the French are not stupid enough that they would simply send a crazy soldier to the enemy as a radio operator. There had to be something to the crazy talk.
The radio operator and the soldier were brought to the commander's position where the two of them again reported what had happened to the generals present.
"How crazy it may sound, Mr. General, but it can't be a coincidence that the French send us a radio operator who tries to tell us the same story. We should find out more about what is going on, in no man's land. " said the officer, whereupon the 5 generals continued to argue amongst themselves.
No decision was made and further discussions were considered a waste of time when another officer came to the generals in the tent with a pilot in tow.
"Gentlemen, this pilot told me he saw a gate-like building from which Roman legionaries came and these photographs should also interest you." said the officer to those present.
"That ... that is not possible ... but the pictures show exactly what they told us." said General Erich Ludendorff and turned back to those present.
"According to the testimony of eyewitnesses, this enemy is armed with ancient weapons and armor. There are barely a hundred in the pictures, but if you assume the warfare of the ancient Romans known to us, then whole legions ... thousands of foot soldiers will march out of this Gate. In its time Rome only sent its legions to foreign lands for one purpose, to conquer and enslave. You know what that means for us gentlemen. Now is no time to fight the French. We will immediately work out a ceasefire and contact the French command. We lost too many soldiers in the last attack, we need their help if we want to win this battle."
In the last German offensive on the Marne, the German Empire lost most of its troops and even the Reserve Corps were gravely decimated. The armed forces of the German Empire that had fought on this front could not start another offensive of their own accord. Allying with the French and their allies was the only way to face this new enemy.
"Get a Rumpler scout plane in the air. We need the position of enemy forces at all times. If the enemy is relying on ancient formations, as I expect, we need to find out how and in which direction they will move through the battlefield. Because I don't think that they will come through the crater-infested no-man's-land with their usual widespread formations."