Recognition (February 1918)
Diary of a Stosstrupp Leader (Part 38)
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
24 February 1918 (Sunday)
I turned in my report about the raid to the regimental headquarters.
I took special care to provide detailed sketches of the location of enemy obstacles and the layout of trenches.
25 February 1918
Splendid weather. I was still exhausted from the recent fight.
A regimental order included a long appreciation of the bravery and other virtues of the participants in the raid, all of whom were mentioned by name.
26 February 1918
It seemed as if the French artillery was registering on the K2 Line.
I visited Röser. I packed my gear.
27 February 1918
This was the day of our relief. Thanks be to God. Our nerves had suffered greatly from the agitation of the last few nights.
In the night, a detachment took over our position in the Fusilier Ravine (Füsilier Schlucht) and we went to Montaigu for a period of rest. I bunked with Spengler in a little house at the end of town. We enjoyed electric light and slept in proper field cots.
In the evening, First Lieutenant von Ruffen, the regimental adjudant, visited us and went with us to the field cinema.
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The text comes from Alwin Lydding Meine Kriegstagbuch (My War Diary), an unpublished manuscript that I found at the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) (Folder N 382/1).
I pulled the image at the top of this page from a moving picture made by the US Army Signal Corps and preserved at the US National Archives. It depicts the countryside just south of the scene of Lieutenant Lydding’s most recent raid sometime between 6 February and 22 March of 1918.
Notes
A line marked ‘K2’ does not appear on any of the German field maps I consulted. Montaigu could be found some seven kilometers northeast of the Fusilier Ravine.
Astounding footage from the archives! It seems in a lot of ways the more things change the more they stay the same. METT, Mission, Enemy, Troops, Terrain, ran through my rusting brain housing group. A thousands questions and few answers. “Okay Skipper what do you do now…???”
That's such beautiful country for such savage fighting.