York's famous Machinegun finds a home

[Brad Posey]

Page 2 of the 1919 Thoma statement.

[Brad Posey]

Here are the official translations of this document. As with all of the other German documents I use they were all translated by a German court appointed translator and are therefore considered accurate - official – translations that would be accepted in any German court of law. The court appointed translator seal is seen in the lower right had corner. I only want to emphasize this because it is suspected that previous attempts at locating the true location of the York fight have included faulty and inaccurate translations.

[Brad Posey]

Page 2

[Brad Posey]

Here is Thoma's 1919 statement:

LIEUTENANT THOMA – 7th BAVARIAN MINEUR COMPANY – STATEMET TAKEN BY THE BAVARIAN MILITARY IN 1919

Below is Thoma’s entire 1919 statement. This was officially translated by German court appointed translator.


Landwehr-Lieutenant Thoma

To:
Bezirks-Kommando 3 Muenchen
Hauptmeldeamt

Subject:
Capture
re. K. M. F. 100443 dated 25 August 1919

19.

to a. During the night of 7/8 October 1918 two platoons of the Company in which I served were assigned to the Wuerttemberg Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 122 (2. Wuerttemberg Landwehr Division), subordinate to the Battalion of First Lieutenant R. Vollmer. On 8 October at about 8:00 o’clock in the morning First Lieutenant Vollmer gave the order to occupy a large gap in the front line. I went forward with my platoon. I gave instructions to the second Platoon to remain behind a slope and await further orders until the First Platoon was positioned. The front line lay on a slope covered in bushes and dense underbrush. On the left flank of the gap I encountered a heavy machine gun, with little ammunition, which was manned by infantry. From this ridge one had a good overview. I ordered the platoon leader to send a liaison patrol to the right and to position his platoon as ordered. At first I stayed back with the heavy machine gun and saw that on the opposite hill, further to the left of us, German prisoners were already being led away. We had brought several cases of machine gun ammunition and I ordered them right away to fire at the advancing Americans to the left front of our position. Lively rifle fire was heard to the right rear of our position. Suddenly a call rang from my right: “Unbuckle everything” I immediately ran in that direction with my orderly; after about 100 meters I met some German prisoners, including my battalion commander. I called to First Lieutenant Vollmer: “I will not let myself get captured” He replied: “It is useless, we are surrounded. I will take responsibility.” Since an escape to the rear was impossible I let myself be captured.

to b. Answered with question a

to c. N/A

to d. During our march back we all noticed the immense amount of men and materiel - weapons of the Americans. The column of cars was kilometers long.

to e. Shortly after being taken prisoner I saw how officers’ epaulets and Iron Cross First Class were being torn off by the American soldiers. The accommodations of the German enlisted soldiers, in part including those with high fever, in an American field hospital, the name of which I was never able to find out, were unfit for human habitation. The enlisted had to spend their nights on the stone floors of half constructed barracks, with no windows and only one or two blankets. I was in this field hospital from 13 to 28 October, 1918. I have no particular complaints about my treatment.

to f. I witnessed the behavior of our people to be generally worthy.

to g. N/A

to h. No

to i. Home address: Forester Thoma, Gotzing, Post Thalham

to k. N/A

11 October, 1919

Thoma
(Signed)

[Brad Posey]

Before I get into Thoma’s 1919 statement I will leave tonight’s update with a photo of a 7th Bavarian Mineur Company soldier. Note the numeral "3" on the shoulder board. An 82nd Division Field Message we will see later on may show a connection between this shoulder board and York’s prisoners as they were being led to Varennes.

[Brad Posey]

The following maps summarize what the German 1929 rebuttal tells us about where the German units involved were, where the fight occurred and what happened afterwards. Included are what the Bavarian LT Thoma tells us in 1919 and again in 1929. Interesting to compare what he says in both statements.

I sincerely thank all of you who took the time to read through all of the text posts I made prior to this. It is not as exciting as seeing photos of artifacts being recovered or period photos of the battlefields, but it is necessary to read everything related to the fight in order to understand it.

[Brad Posey]

Map #2

[Brad Posey]

Map #3

[Brad Posey]

Map #4

[Brad Posey]

Map #5

[Brad Posey]

Map #6

[Brad Posey]

Map #7

[Brad Posey]

And finally a photo of some of the artifacts we found at the site. You may notice that there are quiet a few artifacts we found that have bullet holes in them. From the number of holes it would be impossible for that to occur in a fire fight that lasted only a few minutes. To our knowledge and during the field research bullet struck pieces of German equipment were only found in the ravine south of the old dam and on the slope above. These artifacts were deliberately shot at, but why? Much more on that later.

Tomorrow I will start on the German unit histories and field diaries.

[Napalm]

This is a most excellant thread...looking forward to the next installment indeed
Thks a mil

[Chris Boonzaier]

I bow to the master.... fantastic thread in every respect!

Here is a little bit of Vollmer for ya....

According to the diary of the man I have, terrible moral in the unit, the officers stayed out of the front line... he left more than 2 years before the York episode though....