Dusk Patrol (19 February 1918)
Diary of a Stosstrupp Leader (Part 33)
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.
19 February 1918
I led a patrol in the direction of the Corbeny Barrier (Corbeny Riegel), with the mission of discovering enemy sentry posts.
At five forty five (in the evening), some men and I hid on the left side of the Holzberg, waiting for dusk. We were located (in no man’s land) about one kilometer away - in the direction of the enemy - from our line of sentry posts and one-and-a-half kilometers away from our main line of resistance (HWL = Hauptwiderstandslinie).
We needed to be extremely careful. We noticed few enemy patrols in the area. Did this mean that the enemy wanted to lull us into a false sense of security before launching a surprise attack? Who could know such things?
Whatever was going on, we needed to make full use of our senses, especially our hearing. Our eyes quickly adjusted to dusk and partial darkness. Nonetheless, it was hearing, and, in particular, barely perceptible noises, that betrayed the presence of the enemy.
We depended heavily on our hand grenades, pistols, and knives.
The leader, whom the men of the patrol had volunteered to follow, bore heavy responsibility.
We had to make careful preparations. Above all, we had to inform the occupants of all forward trenches and listening posts that a friendly patrol would be passing nearby.
Narrow avenues of approach and the barbed wire closest to the enemy were fitted with boobytraps fitted with charges made by tying several stick grenades into a bundle. The men of our listening posts were instructed to defuse these charges if the enemy tried to approach.
Should the men on the listening posts neglect to inform their reliefs about friendly patrols, the latter would, upon their return, suffer greatly from the flesh-ripping effects of an exploding bundle of grenades.
The path we followed that day was entirely new to me and to my men. Barbed wire obstacles complicated our forward movement.
We ran into a paper balloon, with a lot of propaganda leaflets attached to it. It looked as if the enemy was trying to drop these along our path. We took this as a bad omen for the success of our patrol.
We arrived at our destination. As far as we could tell, there were no enemy sentries in front of us. And so we listened.
to be continued …
Sources
The text comes from Alwin Lydding Meine Kriegstagbuch (My War Diary), an unpublished manuscript that I found at the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) (Folder N 382/1).
The illustration shows a portion of a map I found in Folder PH 3-KART/2378, on the website of the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv).
Notes
At first glance, the order to defuse booby traps in the event of the approach of enemy forces makes little sense. After all, such devices would do much damage to such attackers. Thus, I can only conclude that the officer who gave the order placed a higher value on the safety of German soldiers returning from a patrol than opportunities to do damage to any French troops that might be chasing them.
The issue of Tactical and Technical Trends dated 22 April 1943 provides a detailed description of a ‘bundled charge’ (geballte Landung). (Internet Archive)