Cheek by Jowl (April 1918)
Diary of a Stosstrupp Leader (Part 45)
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
9 April 1918
Spengler and I took a tour of the new position, which struck me as unusual. In some places, our trenches and those of the enemy lay directly in front of each other.
Perpendicular ditches, blocked only by barbed wire obstacles and chevaux-de-frise (‘Frisian horses’ = obstacles made of pointed stakes), run out of our firing trenches. One of our sentries guards one end of each ditch, a French sentry guards the other. One can sometimes see the poilu standing.
Thanks to this unseemly proximity, night-time patrols often run into each other. Last night, French soldiers lay in wait at one of our trenches, and, all of a sudden, grabbed the German sergeant-of-the-guard by the collar and tried to pull him out. Fortunately, the Frenchmen did not succeed, and the short, fat sergeant managed to escape, a little frightened, but otherwise no worse for wear.
10 April 1918
In the afternoon, I visited the commandant of the sector (KTK = Kampftruppen Kommandeur) occupied by the battalion on our left. We worked out a system for the posting of sentries at night.
Today, one of our men suffered a serious wound. Another suffered a slight wound.
Lieutenant Camphausen led a patrol.
11 April 1918
Lieutenant Kribe, from the brigade staff and I walked the new main line of resistance (H.W.L. = Haupt Widerstandslinie)
12 April 1918
Heavy artillery fire fell today.
The intensity of the French artillery fire increased between eight and ten in the morning.
13 April 1918
Heavy French artillery fire fell at five in the morning.
A fourth artillery liaison officer (A.V.O. = Artillerie Verbindungsoffizier) reported for duty.
(Note: I am not sure if the new artillery liaison officer reinforced three existing gunners of that sort or if he was the fourth to hold the position of unique artillery liaison officer of the 97th Infantry Regiment.)
14 April 1918 (Sunday)
Camphausen joined the regimental staff as the telephone officer.
(The commanding officer of Infantry Regiment 97 insisted that) prisoners be captured, regardless of cost. He then told me that other officers should get involved in trench raiding, as I had already done enough.
The enemy artillery did a great deal of firing in both the morning and the evening.
15 April 1918
We switched to daylight savings time (Sommerzeit).
Last night, two French patrols appeared in front of our trench. In response, we decided that the only patrols we sent forward would be ambush patrols.
16 April 1918
The Fourth and Third Companies (of the 97th Infantry Regiment) each sent out a pair of patrols. None of them, however, achieved any success.
Towards evening, heavy artillery fire fell on the sector of Infantry Regiment 137. (Along with Infantry Regiment 97 and Reserve Infantry Regiment 265, Infantry Regiment belonged to the 108th Infantry Division.)
At 9:45 in the evening, the French bombarded our sector with gas shells.
As a result of our excellent training in the use of gas masks, only four men in our battalion fell ill from exposure to the gas. Thus were reward my tireless efforts as gas officer of I/97.
II/97, which was caught by the volley of gas shells while taking up new positions, suffered heavy losses.
The firing of so many gas mines made an impressive sound-and-light show, much glowing and lots of loud hissing.
Lieutenant Schwalge, who commanded our trench mortars, retaliated by firing on the second and third lines of French trenches. Several of his shells tossed fell into our position. Happily, none of them detonated.
I paid a visit to Schwalge, near the cemetery in Juvincourt. The latter made a grim impression, with lots of bones that had been disturbed by artillery shells lying about.
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).
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)
Related Reading
“In some places, our trenches and those of the enemy lay directly in front of each other.” One wonders if working parties from either side shared tools by handing them back and forth as was rumored to have happened in other parts of the trench systems?
Unseemly proximity!