Busted Balloon and Burst Bore
Diary of a Stosstrupp Leader (Part 44)
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 posts in this series in the following guide
18 March 1918 (Continued)
My assault company was given a ten-day period of rest, which we spent in Montaigu.
Today we saw twenty-four enemy aircraft fly over us. Some of these attacked our high-flying captive balloon. The observer parachuted to the ground.
A French aircraft was shot down. We found a French second lieutenant among the wreckage.
19 March 1918
I spent the afternoon in the castle at Montaigu, where First Lieutenant Müller, the legal officer of the regiment, conducted a formal investigation of the men who, having failed to return after the recent trench raid had been classified as ‘missing in action’.
20 March 1918
I rode back to the front lines in the evening. I felt needed there, and I couldn’t stay away from the line of battle for long. Nonetheless, I had enjoyed sleeping through the night in a proper bed.
The battalion staff seemed happy to see me again.
I bunked with artillery liaison officer Hammer, in the Pioneer Ravine, where the command post of the sector commandant had just been established.
21 March 1918
At eight in the morning Dr. Kanzow and I went to the command post of (Captain) Lutter.
I spoke with Lieutenant Colonel Breyding (commanding the 97th Infantry Regiment) and then, at nine, I returned to the command post of the sector commandant.
At eleven, our artillery fired along the entire front.
At two (in the afternoon) our heavy trench mortars added their two-hundred kilo shells to the concert. Both the firing and the explosion of this colossus makes a mighty impression.
Sadly, one of our artillery pieces suffered from a premature detonation, which resulted in the death of some of the gunners.
Note
Operation Michael, the first of the great offensives launched by the German forces on the Western Front in the spring of 1918, began on 21 March 1918. However, the division in which Lieutenant Lyding served (the 108th Infantry Division) did not take a direct part in this operation.
Rather than connecting the great exchange of artillery fire on 21 March to the offensive, the regimental history of 97th Infantry Regiment described it as a ‘test of strength’ (Kampfprobe).
22 March 1918
Lots of artillery concentrations, both friendly and enemy, fell in both the morning and the afternoon.
24 March 1918 (Sunday)
We enjoyed gloriously warm weather. We observed lively artillery fire all over the place.
25.3.18
The regimental headquarters sent us an order to conduct a relief.
As leader of the advanced party, I departed the Pioneer Ravine, in the company of Feldwebel Bergner, at two in the afternoon.
At six, we picked up a fifty-man working party for setting up quarters at Camp Bitterfeld, which we reached at eight in the evening.
26 March 1918
At noon, Lieutenant Colonel Breyding gave a talk about trench raids to the officers of the regiment.
I received an order to return to Camp Friedrichshafen.
At two in the afternoon Spengler and I reached the camp, then I returned to Montaigu.
At six pm I took a car to Camp Friedrichshafen and settled down there. I bunked with Spengler in a barracks.
I received an order to return to Camp Bitterfeld.
27 March 1918
The last order changed. Thus, my day consisted of obeying an order and its counter-order.
28 March 1918
Today, I was told that I should remain in Camp Friedrichshafen and that, on the next night, I would go with Captain Kittel to the (new frontline) position.
29 March 1918
We tested the gas chamber and set up a new officers’ mess.
31 March 1918 (Easter Sunday)
Tieke took photos in front of the officers’ mess.
1 April 1918
Nothing special happened. I enjoyed a horseback ride.
2 April 1918
The Doctor and Spengler and I went to La Malmaison to go to the theater. Unfortunately, all of the seats were occupied.
3 April 1918
I learn that we would be returning to Camp Bitterfeld.
4 April 1918
I attended a class for gas officers in La Malmaison. We tested our gas masks. The Doctor and Spengler and I attend the field theater. We took part in a battalion exercise. We enjoyed a beer evening.
5 April 1918
The Lieutenant Colonel (commanding the 97th Infantry Regiment), Müller, Schlegel, and I went for terrain ride.
6 April 1918
Colonel Herzbruch and Brigadier General von Campe (commanding general of the 108th Infantry Division) conducted a combat inspection of a battalion.
7 April 1918
I escorted His Excellence (Major General Count von) Schmetow.
In the afternoon, Bergner and I went through Amifontaine and Froincourt to visit the new position. The new dugout of the sector commandant (KTK = Kampftruppen-Kommandeur) lay in a deep hollow, one bereft of fresh air. This was a deep, narrow tunnel in which many men were located - a battalion staff, headquarters personnel, telephone operators, messengers, and artillery men. They used a hand operated ventilator to pump fresh air.
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).
Material ascribed to the regimental history of the 97th Infantry Regiment comes from Wülfen Das 1. Oberrheinisches Infanterie Regiment Nr. 97 (Oldenburg: Gerhard Stalling, 1923) page 68 (Deutsche National Bibliothek)
The Eastern Front collapsed on 3 March 1918, so our man here is probably at least cognizant of that.
When the Eastern Front collapsed, and the Czech-Slovak Legion, who'd already mutinied out of the Austro-Hungarian Army, began their move into Russia, offering to fight for the Tzar, who'd been removed the year prior, and was cooling his heels at Ekaterinburg while the British Royal family, (mostly Mary of Teck), refused to help them.
The October 1917 Revolution effectively took Russian out of the Allies game. They devolved into civil war and were too occupied with internal matters to offer any help.
The Brits, French and US initially wanted to re-establish the Eastern Front but decided to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March instead, leaving the Czech-Slovak Legion to find a way to get back to the Western Front. Through Russia.....
The idea was the Czech-Slovak Legion would be extracted out of Vladivostok and returned to the Western Front.
And that began a whole 'nother set of hijinx.