Announcement

**Chris Boonzaier** · 11-24-2004, 07:10 PM

My scanner is buggered so i cannot post pics, and these are all rough working copies, but here are a few of the texts with the units that the docs are made out too....

Reserve-Infanterie Regt. 99

Unteroffizier .d.L. Gerhart Sommers

On the Morning of the 1st July the 36th (Ulster) Division was to make the most spectacular advance achieved on the 1st day of the Somme. Coming out of Thiepval wood the Irishmen would manage to break through the German trench lines and advance to the Schwaben Redoubt (Schwabenfestung).

This gallant effort by the Irish battalions was wasted as the units on their flanks had not made the same progress and German artillery and counter attacks would make their gains impossible to hold.

The successes of the 36th Division were by Somme standards spectacular, but they had cost the Irishmen many lives. The Germans of the R.I.R. 99 were to suffer considerably as well.

On this section of the front the defensive positions had suffered badly under the artillery barrage. The Trenches had collapsed, obstacles had been swept away and the deep bunkers had collapsed often burying their occupants. The Trenches of the 9./R.I.R. 99 had suffered the most, and it was here that the Irish assault hit the hardest.

In front of St Pierre-Divion the 12./R.I.R. 99 and the 1./Bayer.R.I.R. 8 were able to stop the 108th Brigade in their tracks. Next to them the 10. and 9./R.I.R. 99 were not so lucky. The attack arrived with such a force that only two of their machine guns were able to open fire, these were soon silenced.

Taking up positions in the remains of their trenches they were not able to break the momentum of the attack. Lt. Hille of the 9./R.I.R. 99 fell as the Irishmen broke through his right flank and rushed through in the direction of the Schwaben redoubt and bit by bit the remains of the 9./R.I.R. 99 pushed back into the positions of the 7./R.I.R. 99 who had hastily erected a cross wall to stop the enemy advancing along the Trench. Taking up position behind the barricade the men of the 9. engaged in a desperate handgrenade battle and according to a veteran of the Regiment the Germans were able to keep the upper hand because of the greater range of their stick grenades.

Defending their trench the men of the 9 company did not take part in the fighting for the redoubt. Here the Irishmen had fought to the point of exhaustion, their reserves had already been comitted and their ammunition was getting very low. The supply lines they had hoped to stretch accross no mans land were under accurate machine gun fire from the 5. and 8./R.I.R. 99 dug in to the South at Thiepval.

German artillery and trench mortars were beginning to take a heavy toll and counter attacks threatened to cut the Irishmen off behind enemy lines. The salient rapidly became more of a liability than an asset and the men of the 36th were slowly pushed back by counter attacks, leaving the German lines by the hole they had so bravely punched through that morning. It took a couple of days more to clear the last enemy soldiers out of the old positions of the 9.

The Reichsarchive paid tribute to the Irishmen... "..The plan had failed, and his undoubtably brave Division had lost half its men on the battlefield of Thiepval, among them a high percentage of officers. In and around our positions there were thousands of dead, not including those who had died in Thiepval forest."

R.I.R. 99 started the war as part of the 26. R.D., a division that was highly regarded by the allies and rated on a par with the regular divisions. The Regt. was to suffer heavy losses on the first day of the Somme and in the days that followed, a total of 48 officers and 2070 men were listed as casaulties. At the end of 1916 the R.I.R. 99 transfered to the 220. I.D. and would fight at Arras, Cambrai and in Flanders in the following year.

Soomers was awarded his cross on 10 August 1916 and the document was signed signed by a Hauptmann and battalion commander.

**Chris Boonzaier** · 11-24-2004, 07:12 PM

Bayerische Infanterie regiment 14

Hoboist-Vizefeldwebel Rommel

In 1916 the British high command was forced to address the problem of "Live and let live" on various sectors of the front.

Wheras a number of units actively aggressed the enemy in front of them, some units were content to ignore the enemy between majot combat actions. As a result, units were ordered to conduct trench raids to capture and kill enemy soldiers.

Since the war it has been argued by many veteran officers that many of the raids served little purpose and caused a large number of allied casaulties, but during the war years the raids were what kept the trench fighter on his toes.

The BIR 14 (16 B.I.D.) found itself cursed with Canadian neighbours in Febuary and March 1917 after it had replaced the 6 B.I.D south of Lens. The Canadians were avid raiders and it had been the Canadians who had developed the modern trench raid as opposed to the simple fighting patrol. In goups ranging from 10 to 200 men the raiders would break into the enemy trench, kill and wound as many enemy soldiers as possible, and then dissapear across no mans land to their own lines. The raids were often preceeded with a short sharp barrage that then curtained off the area being raidd so no reinforcements could be rushed forward.

There were variations as to how the raids were carried out, but a Bavarian NCO describes a raid on his trench.

"...They lay like Indians in front of our wire, unconcerned and without blinking as their mines exploded in our positions. This way they could reach our trenches before we came out of our holes.

The "Stoßtrupp" consisted of Bombers with explosive charges, headhunters and clubbers. The killers also had carpet rolls with them to throw over our barbed wire and to facilitate rapid crossing.

The clubbers were the worst. They were men with just a pistol and a rubber club filled with lead. One hit would crush a skull. These men showed no pity, except for a lucky handful who were taken as prisonners.

In these attacks there were three kinds of dead. The lumps of meat killed by explosives in their holes, those with battered skulls, and those killed by the artillery curtain as they chose death in a barrage as a better alternative to a crushed skull....

... Over 40 Germans were found were the English had broken into the lines, killed by crushed skulls and other wounds. Many dead British soldiers lay around.

As day broke 2 British soldiers entered our trench from the rear, they were so drunk they had not found their way home.

All in all about a dozen were found to the rear.... if there was no officer or Vizefeldwebel in the area they were killed out of hand by the traumatasized infantrymen...."

The 16 B.I.D. lost many men to the raids by Canadians in their sector in the months of febuary and march 1917, so much so that it had to be pulle out of the line for a period of rest. These raids were part of the build up for the Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge in April. On the 9th April the B.I.R. 14 was opposite Souchez when the Arras attack started, they were pushed back beyonf Vimy ridge and were relieved on the 11th after having suffered heavy losses.

**Chris Boonzaier** · 11-24-2004, 07:13 PM

Infanterie-Regiment 112

Musketier Busch

On the 16 July the III./I.R.112 had relieved the Ldw.I.R. 125 on the right flank of the 29 I.D. in the Avocourt Wood.

The night of the 17 July a violent French barrage pounded the German positions in the wood. At 05:00 the intensity increased churning up the front line.

At 06:00 the French 6 Inf. brigade went over the top advancing towards the Termitenhügel, Entenschnabel and along the Haucourt-Esnes road.

The collapsed trenches were lightly defeneded, the newly arrived defenders unfamiliar with the terrain and did not manage to offer any organised resistance. In vain they fired flares trying to attract defensive fire from their own artillery but the smoke of battle had risen to such a height that their signals went unnoticed.

The French assault troops broke into the lines and threw the III battalion back, capturing ground that had been gained at great cost just a few short weeks before.

Leunant D. Res. Heuter was with a neighbouring unit and described the attack.

"With a bag of hand grenades I ran up the bunker steps. We had been instructed to man the trenches as soon as the barrage moved to or rear and now I stood there with handgrenades whizzing past and machine guns rattling, a totally new experiance for an artillery officer.

My heart was beating in my throat as I hugged the front of the trench, slinging grenades into the dark. The glint of bayonets in the moonlight dissapeared as mysteriously as they had appeard and my breathing slowly regulated itself.

So it continued for three long nights. The night before my relief came and we were called up the stairs to fight off four attacks. At dawn I went up to relieve myself, the fighting for that night was over, "Sleep dear God, let me sleep!". Tonight I would be away from the front line... as this reassuring thought crossed my mind...suddenly, a scream, a few sickening thuds, a moan... then hand grenades flew into the trench and caused terrible destruction. Darkness, explosions, the screams of the wounded. Down the bunker steps rolled more grenades... a sobbing sound, the rattle of a machine gun. I realised by the sound that it was not a German machine gun, a cold shiver ran down my spine as I realised how dangerous our position was, trapped like rats in a hole."Quick! See if they have discovered the other exit!" A stormtroop leader tried to lead his men up the second set of steps, but more grenades came bouncing down...screams...panicking in the bunker...."

Lt. d.Res. Heuter was forced to surrender with the rest of the bunkers occupants.

At 07:25 the commander of a Battalion a further down the line took the initiative to call for interdiction fire in front of the III battalion positions based on the sound of combat he heard. The artillery of the 29 I.D. fired almost 14 000 shells but by then the French were already through the German first lines, their own artillery moving back to the German second and third lines.

It was only between the German third and fourth lines that the Inafantry rallied and managed to bring the French attack to a halt.

The commander of the Neighbouring I.R. 142 had tried to organise a counter attack, but the area between his positions and the combat was unpassable due to clouds of gas that made big unit movement impossible.

Signed on the 8 November 1917 by Major XX

**Chris Boonzaier** · 11-24-2004, 07:14 PM

239 RIR

Reserve-Infanterie Regt 239

Officier Stellvertreter Heuschmidt

Signed on the 19. November 1914 By Freiherr von Huegel

The print is the standard document for units of the XXVI Reservekorps.

After the German defeat at the first battle of the Marne, the German high command realised it would have to save its right flank by extending as rapidly as possible to the English Channel. Many Reserve units were rushed to the front and were put under the command of the AOK4 to plug the line between Lille and Antwerp.

The still green troops were tasked to occupy the coast between Dunkirk and Calais. The Allies were aware of the weak German flank and were rushing troops up to Belgian in order to exploit this weakness. It was the start of the "Race for the sea" (Wettlauf zum Meer).

The German 6<SUP>th Army managed to stabalise the front to the North-North east of Lille, and the III Reservekorps managed to do the same in the ostende region.

Marching towards Ypres was the AOK4 with the XXVII., XXVI., XXIII. And XXII. Reservekorps was taking very heavy casaulties. The units formed with young half trained volunteers was marching forward with no Artillery support and encountering bitter resistance from well trained regular army British units. By the 20. Oktober 1914 when the first battle of Ypres began they had already suffered heavy losses.

Ypres was an important hub of Road, Rail and canal transportation and was to become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the war. A pincer movement was to be carried out by the XXVI R.K. from the North with the 51. reservedivision (Generalleutnant von Dankenschweil) and the 52. reservedivision (Generalleutnant Waldorf). The Divisions were to advance through Paschendaele, Poelkappelle and Langemarck and were to achieve the dubious distinction of being the main victims in the "slaughter of the innocents".

It was to be known as the slaughter of the innocents to the Germans as it was the mass destruction of the flower of German youth. In complete Regiments, half trained young volunteers advanced waving their flags, only to be cut down…. The British army regulars had been trained to fire 15 aimed shots a minute with their Lee Enfields and the Germans suffered accordingly.

Private H.J. Milton, (probably of the Highland Light infantry)

"22nd Oct 1914

The enemy charged about 7 or 8 p.m. … they charged within 50 yards of our firing line and we simply mowed them down, our fire was terrific during this time, the enemy were simply running into death, they gave great yells after they started, but very few got back as far as we could make out. The screams were terrible."

Captain Harry Dillon 2nd Oxford and Bucks light infantry

"It came with a suddenness that was the most startling thing I have ever known. A great grey mass of humanity was charging, running for all God would let them, straight on to us not 50 yards off. Everybody’s nerves were pretty well on edge as I had warned them what to expect, and as I fired my rifle the rest all went off almost simultaneously. One saw the great mass of Germans quiver. In reality some fell, some fell over them, and others came on. I havenever shot so much in such a short time, could not have been more than a few seconds and they were down.

Then the whole lot came on again and it was the most critical moment of my life. Twenty yards more and they would have been over us in thousands, but our fire must have been fearful, and at the very last moment they did the most foolish thing they possibly could have done. Some of the leading people turned to the left for some reason, and they all followed like a great flock of sheep. I don’t think one could have missed at that distance and just for one short minute or two we poured the ammunition into them in boxfuls. My rifles were red hot at the finish.

The firing died down and out of the darkness a great moan came. People with their arms and legs off trying to crawl away; others who could not move gasping out their last moments with the cold night wind biting into their brken bodies and the lurid red glare of a burning farm house showing up clumps of grey devils killed by the men on my left, further down. A weird awful scene; some of them would raise themselves on one arm or crawl a little distance, silhouetted as black as ink against the red glow of the fire.

The British defence annihalated whole companies, in many other units all the officers were killed, leaving NCOs in charge as in the case of Offizier-stellvertreter (Proxy Officer)Heuschmidt.

On the 23rd of October the British pushed the Germans back, but in the first days of November it was the Germans turn again. Army High Command reported on the 11th of November that the regiments had stormed to their deaths singing the "Deutschlandlied".

The young Germans soldiers were to amaze the British regulars with their willingness to die, and when they did die, with them died all hope of a rapid victory on the western front. Langemark would remain in British hands until Febuary 1916 and the Germans were never to enter Ypres.

</SUP>

**Chris Boonzaier** · 11-24-2004, 07:17 PM

Okay, those are some rather dramatic ones, some are drier with a broader overview of the battles, some like the following, cover not only one battle but a broader theme.

This still needs a lot of work but will be for docs of the Marinekorps Flandern..

Matrosen Artillerie Regiment 2

Marineartillerie- Maat Johann Wolf

Matrosen Regiment 5

Obermatrose Harkson

MarinekorpsFlandern Staff

Marinestabsarzt Dr. Ernst Fürth

When the German army marched into Belgium in 1914 they were accompanied by a Naval division. They entered Belgium in the 4th of September just in time to participate in the siege of Antwerp. In October the division continued towards the coast arriving at a point between Ostend and Brugge on the 23rd October and relieveing the 4th Ersatz Division on the front of Nieuport-St Georges on the 2nd of November.

On the 24th November 1914 the Marinekorps Flandern under admiral von Schröder was formed with the addition of the 2nd Marine Division.

The Marinekorps occupied the sea front area and the coastal sector in occupied Flanders, the staffs of the two divisions having permanent control of the sector. The sea front (running along the coast from Raversyde to the frontier of Zeeland (as far as Maldegem) was assigned to the 1. M.D. The land front, from the sea to Schoorbakke (4 km southeast of Nieuport) to the 2. M.D.

The six Marine Infantry regiments alternated between the sea and the land front, switching from one division to the next. In April 1917 a 3rd Marinedivision was formed and served on the Somme and in Flanders. Formed with sailors and men from coastal areas the Divisions did not have a high combat value and were used almost exclusivly as line holding divisions.

The first major action that the Marine-Division participated in was the siege and taking of Antwerp, with them was Marineartillerie- Maat Johann Wolf of the M.A.R. 2.

After the fall of Liege the Belgian King Albert had withdrawn into the heavily fortified area of Antwerp with 150 000 men. Antwerp, surrounded by a ring of fortresses would have been a grave danger to the German troops who weremarching to the south of Antwerp, taking Brussels and continuing south-westwards towards the coast as layed out in the Schlieffen plan. To avoid having 150 000 enemy soldiers in his rear, the German Commander ordered General von Beseler to turn to the North and take Antwerp.

Advancing from the South East with four divisions and 2 landwehr brigades the siege and taking of Antwerp with her mighty fortresses took just under 2 weeks. Using extremely heavy artillery (including 42 cm naval guns and specially brought in 30.5cm Austrian mortar batteries) the fortresses stood no chance. The German advanced with the 4. E.D. on the left flank, the Marine Division, 5. R.D. and the 6. R.D. on the right flank and they pierced the fortress lines after 8 days. A harder prospect for the infantry was advancing in the flooded area across the Nethe river, which ran between the pierced ring of fortresses and Antwerp. The Belgians defended this area doggedly, awaiting English reinforcements (a paltry 2200 men were sent). On the evening of the 4th of October however the 35. R.I.R. crossed the river. King Albert had by this time saved a large portion of the Belgian army by withdrawing them to the south west where the German forces were to weak to interfere with the retreat. After the Nethe was crossed the heavy siege artillery gave the city a taste of what was to come and in view of the now hopelessly weakened defences, the city surrendered.

Matrosen Artillerie Regiment 2 supplied artillery fire in the Thisselt-Heffen-Mecheln area directly South of Antwerp where the marine division attacked the Fortresses Waelham, Wavre-Ste Catherine and the Duffel redoute.

Once it became apparent that the trenches on the western front would lead to a stalemate, it was also realised that the only way to outflank the enemy would be with a landing on the Belgian coast. Churchill supported this idea, but after the Gallipoli fiasco the British were justifiably nervous about any further seaborne landings. The Germans were aware of this and the Marine Divisions spent the war awaiting a major seaborne landing that never came (although various landings were planned). Fighting in Flanders, mainly against the remants of the Belgian army the Sailors fought a largly static war, the first real movement coming in July 1917.

In June of 1917 the British were attacking in Flanders, the Wytschaete pocket having fallen after the explosions of underground mines. along the Yser the British had relieved the belgians and were on the Eastern bank preparing for an attack. The British preperations in flanders were methodical and thorough... and observed by the Germans of General Sixt von Arnims 4. Armee. The Germans launched a number of powerful local attacks to disrupt the British defensive preperations, including one by the Marinekorps at Lombartzyde on the 10th July 1917. A leutnant of the M.I.R. 3 describes the action. Both the M.A.R. 2 and M.I.R. 5 participated in this attack.

"The British were in the dunes about a kilometer north of the Yser. At Lombartzyde it was about one and a half kilometers from the Yser. The distance from our trenches to that of the enemy ranged from 50 to 150 meters, more at the swamp area to the west of Lombardzyde. The positions of both sides were well built out..

The goal and objective behind the "beachparty" was to take away the land to the north of the Yser as this provided the enemy with a perfect staging area for an attack and to straighten out a bulge in the 1st and 2nd trench lines. The operation was carried out as planned and was a great success. At 05:00am a destructive fire came down on the Yser bridges controlled by ariel and balloon observers. At 08:00 all the batteries had ranged in according to plan. The fire of the heaviest calibers (24 to 42mm) on the enemies lines of communication started at 10:00 am and concentrated itself on Nieuport-Bains. At 11:00 all the batteries and the Minenwerfer started a bombardment that would last all day with the exception of three 20 minute pauses. The last pause was at 19:00 after which the bombardment reached its peak, at 20:00 the barrage began to advance and at 21:00 it settled to curtain off the area of the attack from an enemy counter attack.

The enemies artillery fire was minimal.

At 20:00 the infantry went forward in waves but the artillery preperation had been so thorough that the only resistance came from a few fortified bunkers in the dunes. The enemy had been so demoralised by the bombarment that they surrendered largely without a fight, we sent them back in droves after disarming them. The adavnce went so rapidly that the creeping barrage moved to slowly for us, at 20:35 a pilot sent a telegram back that all objectives had been reached.

Amongst the captives in the Lombartzyde sector were men who had been brought forward as reinforcments as late as 18:00 with automobiles. During the pauses in the Bombardment our pilots not only recanoitered the land, but also accompanied our troops attacking with their machine guns on occasion. The official report mentions 1250 prisonners, but we now know it was 1600. It is unlikely that any of the allied soldiers in the dune area made it back to his lines. Our losses were minimal in the action, it had been easy work. If only it was always that way !"

Serving on the staff of the Marinekorps was Marinestabsarzt Dr. Ernst Fürth who was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class in December 1914 and the Iron Cross 1st class in August 1917, just after the attack described above. An Iron Cross 2nd class to a doctor is not a comman award, an Iron Cross 1st class even less so. Fürth must have been at the front as he was awarded the Naval wound badge in May 1936 while serving as a Medizinalrat in Düsseldorf.

In September 1918 a combined Belgian, British and French assault took place in Flanders, the 4. Armee fought hard as they retreated and the allies managed to achieve no breakthrough.

The battle calander of the Marinekorps shows the following fighting for 1918:

10th April- 27th September, Trenchwarfare in Flanders

28th September- 17th October, Defensive battle in Flanders (on the 17th they abanbdoned Oostende)

18th October - 24th October, Fighting retreat between the Yser and the Lys (on the 18th Brugge was abandoned)

25th October - 1st November, Battle on the Lys

2nd - 4th November, Fighting retreat on both sides of the Schelde

5th - 11th November, Fighting retreat in front of the Antwerp-Maas positions

11th - 30th November, leaveing the occupied area and the long march home.

**Gordon McGregor** · 11-25-2004, 07:49 AM

I am looking for any info on the 'Hildegard Orden' that was awarded in German South West Africa in 1914-15. This was a replacement for the Iron Cross at the time.

**Gordon McGregor** · 11-25-2004, 08:13 AM

Chris,

I have just finished writing a book entitled 'A history of the Iron Cross in German South West Africa 1914-18. What I still need is copies of award certificate for Iron Crosses awarded in GSWA. Canyou help?

Regards,

Gordon McGregor

**McCulloh** · 11-25-2004, 08:41 AM

A couple were sold on ebay @3 years ago for astronomical sums. I took scans on my old computer (I know, unethical, but fro research purposes). I'll send you copies if you PM me.
JeMc

**Gordon McGregor** · 11-25-2004, 09:00 AM

Great. My email address is gmcgregor@unam.na.

**Tom Y** · 11-25-2004, 01:00 PM

As I've told you before this is a great idea. I don't have the expertise, references, or patience

to contribute, but put me on the list for an (autographed

) copy when it goes to print.

**Teuton** · 11-25-2004, 10:23 PM

No expertise by far but would buy this book in a heart beat! And as mentioned above, an autograph one would be even better!

Best Regards and Good Luck,

Cole

**Eric K.** · 11-26-2004, 05:04 AM

Cant wait to get a copy.....HURRY UP!!!!

Eric.

**Brian R** · 11-28-2004, 08:53 PM

A very exciting and worthwhile project

. I look forward to the finished product!!

Announcement

Imperial Iron Crosses...please read all the way..

Imperial Iron Crosses...please read all the way..

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