A German Jaeger officer recalled of the British at Le Cateau:
They were wily soldiers, tough and tenacious fellows, with iron nerves, even when wounded. They shot well and understood how to use terrain with such skill that it was difficult even for Jaeger to detect them.
I have done a lot of business with these Guys! Grumpy
German men of fighting age must ask the army for permission to leave the country for more than three months, under new rules on military service.
The government has introduced a new military service scheme this year that stops short of conscription but requires men born from 2008 onwards to take a medical exam and fill in a survey about their fitness for service.
It has emerged that a clause in the law also requires men aged between 17 and 45 to obtain a permit from the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, before leaving the country for extended periods.
Germany is rapidly remobilising and rearming, with plans to expand its conventional army in the face of threats from Russia and a possible break-up of Nato.
The purpose of the new rule in Germany is to restrict the movements of men of fighting age in the event of a national crisis such as a war, which may require emergency conscription.
The rule says: “Male persons who have reached the age of 17 must obtain permission from the responsible career centre of the German armed forces if they wish to leave the Federal Republic of Germany for more than three months.”
The clause went largely unnoticed until it was spotted by Frankfurter Rundschau, a Left-leaning newspaper, which said it would cause uncertainty for millions of men.
German defence officials insisted that, in practice, the permits would always be granted during peacetime and also suggested that the rule would be watered down with exemptions in the near future.
An army spokesman said: “The background and guiding principle of this regulation is to ensure a reliable and informative military register for when needed … in case of emergency, we need to know who might be staying abroad for an extended period.”
Germany’s new military service model was introduced to counter a severe shortage in troop numbers and is a modernised version of an unpopular conscription model that ended in 2010.
Friedrich Merz, the chancellor, has a wider goal of transforming Germany into a major European security power with what he hopes will become “the strongest conventional army in Europe”.
Germany has also pledged to spend €153bn (£133bn) or 3.5 per cent of annual GDP on defence by 2029 as part of a long-term goal of meeting a 5 per cent Nato target.
While military service is not compulsory yet, the new legislation allows German ministers to conscript men of fighting age at a later date if they are unable to meet recruitment targets.
German law previously had a similar clause on exit permits for long trips abroad, which said they would only be required during a security emergency, such as imminent or ongoing war.
But the reforms on military service in January changed the rule to apply more generally, meaning that any German man aged between 17 and 45 needs to inform the Bundeswehr if they want a long holiday or to work abroad.
Details of what would happen if a German left without seeking a permit are unclear.
It has also been speculated that the rule was passed by accident, as it risks creating a major bureaucracy burden for the German armed forces.
Germany’s defence ministry acknowledged this and said it was “developing more specific regulations for granting exceptions to the approval requirement in order to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy”.