A Near Miss (May 1918)
Diary of a Stosstrupp Leader (Part 51)
This post continues the translation of the diary of a German soldier who fought in the First World War. Readers can find links to other installments in this series in the following guide.
13 May 1918
At noon, we received, via our own 108th Infantry Division, an order from the Jägerdivision that provided details of the upcoming relief.
We will have to provide five officers and fifteen men to orient incoming units.
I reported to the headquarters of the 5th Infantry Brigade in Méricourt.
The guides and I returned to the rest quarters, where I assigned them to particular outfits. I attended a merry officers’ evening hosted by Schmalenbach, the commanding officer of 2/97 (2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 97th Infantry).
14 May 1918
At seven thirty, I returned to the headquarters of my battalion (I/97) and slept until eleven. The sun shone wonderfully all day.
15 May 1918
At ten (in the morning) we issued gas masks for the horses. A gas warfare intensifies, and we have lost many horses to gas, we have been doing more and more of this.
Life in our ravine was thoroughly pleasant.
In the afternoon, we tested our gas chamber. In the evening, an order for the advance party (Vorkommando) arrived.
As leader of the advanced party, I was went out to visit the new position.
At seven forty five, I rode a bicycle through Méricourt and Morcourt to Bayonvillers (a distance of some 72 kilometers). In the last named place I reported, as leader of the advance party of the relieving battle battalion, to the headquarters of the 5th Ersatz Infantry Brigade.
(Not to be confused with the 5th Infantry Brigade of the 108th Infantry Division, the 5th Ersatz Infantry Brigade provided an organizational home for the three Jäger regiments of the Jägerdivision.)
I went to Marcelcave, to visit the regimental headquarters (of Jäger Regiment 13). From there, I went, with a messenger, to the headquarters of the battle battalion (KTK=Kampftruppenkommandeur), Reserve Jäger Bataillon 21; the ready battalion, Reserve Jäger Bataillon 8; and the resting battalion, Reserve Jäger Bataillon 20.
(Each of the three Jäger regiments of the Jägerdivision had been formed by placing three stand-alone Jäger battalions under the headquarters of a disbanded cavalry regiment.)
I gave my bicycle to the messenger so that he might deliver a detailed report to the adjudant of I/97, Lieutenant Spengler.
The headquarters of the battle battalion that we were to relieve was located in an old British trench, the so-called ‘Tommy Trench’, in a small hole covered with a shelter half. There I found a captain of Jäger and his adjutant. I explained to him the many details of the relief.
As the enemy knew a lot about this position, which had only been in German hands for a short time, I feared that the flapping of the shelter half might let a little light shine through, thereby causing heavy artillery to target us.
A small number of well-placed shells landed in our neighborhood. After the second one of these came close to hitting us, I told the captain that we should move to a new location.
At first, he told me that that ‘Tommy’ would soon calm down and that he had managed to occupy this place for five days. However, when I told him again that we ought to leave, he picked up his map case and other things, and moved with me to a shell crater.
Soon after our change of position, a screaming heavy shell crashed into the battle battalion headquarters we had just vacated. If we had tarried for a few more seconds, it would have torn us apart.
The only items that survived the explosion were a canteen and a belt. The captain said to me ‘my guardian angel must have sent you to get me to move at just the right time’.
The adjudant of the Jäger battalion and I spent the rest of the day in the shell hole. We had nothing to eat, and nothing to drink but a bottle of schnapps. We also had a few cigarettes. We shared both like brothers.
Time crawls when one is obliged to sit in a hole and wait for the fall of night, and the freedom from the daylight that steals the ability to move.
Unbidden, the sun beat down upon us. Our shelter half was gone. At 11:30 at night, I/97 (my battalion) arrived to relieve the Jäger.
to be continued …
Sources
The text comes from Alwin Lyding Meine Kriegstagbuch (My War Diary), an unpublished manuscript that I found at the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) (Folder N 382/1).
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