Failure of Fire (14 March 1918)
Diary of a Stosstrupp Leader (Part 42)
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
14 March 1918
At six thirty in the evening, the assault detachment (Sturmabteilung) began to move forward. We drew hand grenades at the headquarters of the sector commandant (KTK = Kampftruppen-Kommandeur) and went to the artillery camp (to spend the night). At four in the morning we moved forward again and cut lanes in our own barbed wire obstacles.
15 March 1918
At four twenty five my assault detachment stood ready upon the Holzberg.
Sergeant Anton and two men crawled forward to cut a lane through the tanglefoot wire. The enemy, who had evidently set up a new sentry post in this area, fired a small shell at them.
Luckily, the explosion of this projectile neither wounded any of the men pressed against the surface of the hill nor sent any of its fragments into the gas pipes full of sensitive explosives (we used to clear lanes in wire obstacles.)
Several anxious minutes passed.
Behind us, we saw flashes (of the first of our supporting artillery pieces to fire) and heard the first shells howl as they flew low over us. When they landed, a geyser of fire erupted in the Ravine of the Twelfth Regiment.
The flashes turned into an unbroken wall of light as shell after shell buried itself into the ground right in front of us.
I gave the command to attack.
I sent two Stosstrupps, each led by its sergeant, forward.
Then I rushed forward myself.
The explosions of the artillery shells formed a broad ribbon of fire in front of us, behind the Ravine of the Twelfth Regiment, and the slope of the Winterberg.
Everything seemed to be going brilliantly.
As we advanced, I saw Security Unit C turn left, in accordance with our plan), set up its machine gun on the road to Chevreux, and fire a test burst.
Rixecker and his men showed up, leading me to think that we would soon capture some Frenchmen. Alas, all changed in a moment.
The broad ribbon of fire in front of us disappeared. Thus only explosions we heard were those of the shells that fell on our flanks.
Instead of the shells that had paved our way forward, we heard the unbroken chatter of machine guns, the French machine guns that had been prevented from firing by the detonation of our shells. No longer bothered by our shells, they spat continuous streams of bullets at us. Luckily, the bullets passed over our heads.
The machine guns continued to fire. The French refined their aim.
If we had tried to advance any further against these hellish machines we would have achieved nothing but our own annihilation.
The distance was to great for a bum rush. Thus, I shifted the direction of the attack to the right, in order to link up with the assault detachment led by Rixecker.
I gave the agreed-upon signal. No one answered.
The day began to grow gray. Our artillery fire grew weaker.
Earlier, the French artillery appeared to be dozing. But now it came to life and put down a barrage.
So, we would have to withdraw.
My men were furious, as was I. But the enemy artillery fire was just too strong.
I gave the order to rally in the Pioneer Ravine.
Each of us makes his way (back to German lines), struggling to make full use of all available cover. A long time passed before all of my men returned. They all looked badly beaten up.
They looked even angrier, cursing the ‘boom heads’, as they called the artillerymen, who had left them in the lurch. We would later learn that the guns of the middle battery had jammed and thus were forced to stop firing. If the gunners that unit fell into the hands of my men, things would not have been pretty.
The artillerymen were not, as my men believed, the only ones responsible (for the failure to continue firing),
Note
The simultaneous jamming of all four field pieces of a battery suggests that the ammunition used had suffered from a defect of some sort. In particular, I suspect that the mishap took place at a moment when the battery switched from one lot of ammunition to another.
Sources
The photo at the top of this page comes from the film Stosstrupp 1917. Copies of the complete movie can found on the Internet Archive and Bitchute.
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).
I cut the map out of a larger map, dated 8 May 1918, that I found in Folder PH 3-KART/2378. (Bundesarchiv).
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