A verbatim translation of a portion of a diary found in the German Federal Archives, this post follows:
Please note that the names of places mentioned in this post reflects present-day usage. The names given in the diary, which often sport spellings that differ from those of the maps provided with this series, appear within parentheses.
9 October 1916
3:00 to 5:00 am
Every man stood to. No one was in a shelter, for dawn and dusk are the times of greatest danger. Russian artillery lays heavy fire behind our position.
7:00 to 9:00 am
I served as the sergeant of the guard. Each squad provided a man to stand watch in the trenches. (At nights, each squad also provided a two-man listening post.)
Afternoon
We cleaned our rifles. However, in order to remain ready to fire, we refrained from removing the bolts.
Our trenches, dug in chalk, had firing stands for riflemen. Some saps extended forward.
Our shelters were narrow, dark holes, with no windows and a shelter-half where a door should have been. Our beds had wire mesh (where slats should have been).
Barbed wire obstacles protected the position.
Towards evening, two heavy and several medium Minenwerfer, hidden in positions we call ‘swallows’ nests’, surprised the enemy with sudden, concentrated fire. (We called the medium mortars ‘Marutschka’.)
The entire garrison of the trench, save for a few sentries, is ordered to take shelter in the deepest dugouts.
The blast was powerful, the pressure wave gigantic. Because the air pressure could not disperse laterally, it made a remarkable impression on me, even though I was thirty meters below ground, and the shells fell on the enemy positions, some distance away.
Every time a shell exploded, I felt a frightful blow to my lungs.
The Russian artillery responded quickly. Some shells fell in our trenches. Remarkably, only one man in my squad was hit. (A shell splinter ripped off his left ear.)
Later, quiet reigned.
8:00 to 11:30 pm
I served as sergeant of the guard
10 October 1916
03:00 to 05:00 am
All hands stand to
05:00 to 07:00 am
I served as sergeant of the guard
Lieutenant Spengler, Lieutenant von Bremen, and Officer Candidate Sergeant Hartmann visited our sector, in order to prepare for the relief of my company (6/97) by their company (8/97).
At 1:30 pm, our long awaited ration carriers arrived.
In the afternoon, some of our Minenwerfer fired again. The only answer (from the Russians) was small arms fire.
At 06:30 pm, the 8/97 relieves 6/97.
to be continued …
Source
The text comes from Alwin Lydding Meine Kriegstagbuch (My War Diary), unpublished manuscript, Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) N 382/1
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