1st Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regt.

[BottsGreys]

I have a memorial card to a German soldier of the 1st Bavarian RIR who was killed by an artillery shell at or near Arras on 8 April 1917. I was wondering if this unit was the object of the attack of the next day, 9 April, and the likelihood that he was a victim of the preparatory bombardment, which I believe lasted several days. I am not at home and don't have the card handy at present, but his surname was Ertl, and he was in the 10th Coy.

Any help gratefully received.

Chris

[ander11]

Hi chris I found this on the 1st bavarian reserve Infantry Regiment.

http://www.worldwar1.com/france/portugal.htm

and it around the time you asked for

IanAnder

[Ken S.]

According to Osterschlacht bei Arras (Teil 1), on the morning of April 9, 10. & 11. Komp. were occupying the first and second lines of their sector, Wittelsbach-Nord. It also states that very few survived the attack, and those that did it appears mostly ended being POWs. There is a Johann Ertl who died April 9 near Thelus according to the German war graves database.

I only have part of Wittelsbach sector scanned, but it appears to be much of what could be construed as the "north" part of it.

[Ken S.]

Here's the entire scan:

[BottsGreys]

Ian:

Thank you for looking for me, but the information you found actually deals with April 1918, not 1917. I do appreciate your efforts on my behalf, and it is an interesting piece on the Portugese.

Chris

[BottsGreys]

Ken:

Thanks for the info and the scans--greatly appreciated! Actually, in checking the card tonight when I got home from work, I see that there is no mention of his being killed by artillery fire--I was confusing his card with another. My guy's name is

Matthaus Ertl and it definitely gives his date of death as 8 April, 1917, during the campaign at Arras, so I figure he still may have been killed during the pre-attack bombardment.

Chris

[Ken S.]

I found this entry for him:

http://www.weltkriegsopfer.de/Krieg-Opfer-...n_0_163810.html

[Jack Sheldon]

Here are a couple of sketch maps to pin down the location for you. Sector Wittelsbach was sub-divided into four sub-sectors. 10th Coy had been occupying W1 since the early hours of 6 April 1917, according to the regimental after-action report.

[ander11]

Chris sorry about that.

THE GERMAN GUN AT NIAGARA

CAPTURED BY THE 7^TH BATTALION, CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, 13 APRIL 1917 Prepared by Lieutenant Colonel William A. Smy, OMM, CD, UE

December 2009

The German gun, on the Common at Niagara-on-the-Lake until recently, was captured by infantrymen of the 7th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the Battle of Vimy Ridge which raged 9 – 15 April 1917. At the end of the War it was brought to Canada as one of hundreds of war trophies to be distributed to communities and organizations across Canada.

The attack on Vimy Ridge began at 0530 on Easter Monday, 9 April 1917. Six days later the Canadian Corps had captured all of its objectives, advancing some two to three miles over difficult terrain. Facing the Canadians were the 1st Bavarian Reserve Division, holding Thelus and Bailleul, the 79th Reserve Division responsible for the Vimy sector, and the 16th Bavarian Division opposite Souchez.

The 7th Battalion was part of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, the final objective of which was the small farming Village of Farbus, a little more than a mile south of the Village of Vimy. On 12 April the Battalion was deployed in Brigade Reserve and that night it relieved the 1st Battalion in Farbus. The relief was completed by 0100 hrs on the 13th, and for the remainder of the night the Battalion positions were heavily shelled. The woods about Farbus are referred to as “Farbus Wood” or “Station Wood” in various narratives.

At 1530 hrs on the 13th orders were issued to the 2nd Brigade to send out patrols and at 1630 hrs a patrol of the 7th Battalion Scouts under Lieutenant Frederick A. Fraser, the Battalion Intelligence Officer, reached the railway line east of Farbus and reported it all clear of the enemy. He reported that a Naval Gun and four howitzers had been abandoned by the enemy, all of which were in good condition.

The guns may have been abandoned as early as 9 April when large numbers were lost due the inability of the gun crews to move the weapons after their horses succumbed to gas. There is a Sixth Army report to Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht dated 10 April stating just that. In addition, a report by Bavarian Artillery Commander 13 to the 1st Bavarian Reserve Division dated 4 Jun 17 and produced in evidence at a Court of Enquiry called to determine the circumstances of the capture of Commander Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment (RIR 2) on 9 Apr 17 states that it was a known fact that when the order came at 1250 pm on 9 Apr 17 to launch a counter-attack (which never happened) to recapture Farbus, 'the enemy in the meantime had occupied Farbus and had overrun the battery positions in Farbus'. Later that same day the order went out that artillery was to be pulled back behind the line already mentioned and efforts were being made to arrange for new defensive fire zones to be established so that the Second Position could be defended as far as possible. Oberst Neuhofen also stated that, 'the majority of the guns in the abandoned positions to the west of the railway line Willerval-Bailleul were recovered during the night.' However this means that some were not and there is plenty of photographic evidence of Allied soldiers posing near abandoned German guns after the battle. Unfortunately what with guns being abandoned, others moving to reinforce and a generally confused battle situation, it is impossible to determine the identity of the German artillery unit to which the guns belonged. One of the guns Fraser had captured, serial number 201, is the gun which was on the Common at Niagara.

The gun has been identified as a 105mm lFH 16. The design traces its history to 1898 when the German Army received a new howitzer, the 105mm Leichter Feld Howitzer 98 (light field howitzer). It was produced by Rheinmetall. It did not have a barrel recoil, a shortfall in the design which was rectified in 1909 when a barrel recoil system and a new and thoroughly redesigned gun carriage was introduced. The new version was designated IFH 98.09. Another upgrade with a longer barrel and a new type of breech, which needed one less movement to open, was introduced in 1916 and designated lFH 16. The gun used the same type of ammunition with the addition of the capability of firing the C-Geshoss round (gas shell). The upgrading was done by Krupp. IanAnder

[Jack Sheldon]

This is the second map which shows not only the position of 10th Coy during the early morning of 9th April 1917, but also the thrusts indicating how the Allied attack developed. W1 is an interesting location, because it was right on the boundary between 1st Canadian and 51st (Highland) Division. I am not certain who actually attacked it. It might have been 5th Bn 2 Can Inf Bde, but it is hard to say because the Germans referred to all comers as Englaender - even though a man of 4th Bn Seaforth Highlanders was captured during a probing attack on W3 at 1.30 am 9 Apr 17. For once, he was described as a Scot, but this piece of accuracy was rather spolit by his regiment being described as '4./Seafolk'.

If your man was killed on 8 Apr 17 then there appear to be two main possibilities. One is as a result of very heavy artillery fire that day which was described as 'destructive drum fire', but he may have been killed helping to beat off a probing attack which, according to the battle log of Bav RIR 1, came in against W1 at 5.00 am 8 Apr 17.

Jack

[apwright]

He appears in the Kriegsstammrollen of 9th Coy LIR 1 and 10th Coy RIR 1 on Ancestry.

Landsturmmann Matthäus Ertl, born 30 April 1889 in Eschlberg [sic], Altötting district, a builder resident in Mehring, Altötting, son of Mathias and Anna, nee ?Priscoler, (both deceased) from Eschlberg.

Am 8.4.17 bei Ecurie d.A.G. [?durch Artillerie-Geschoß] gefallen. V.L.[Verlustliste] Nr.345. Konnte nicht beerdigt werden.

Killed ?by artillery shell at Ecurie on 8.4.17. Casualty List No.345. Could not be buried.

Adrian

EDIT:

22.10.10-09.11.10 Infanterie-Leib-Regiment, 4th Company. Dienstunfähig entlassen [discharged unfit]

25.02.15 Conscripted to Ersatz-Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 1 Augsburg, 2. Rekruten-Depot

25.03.15 Transferred to ELIR 1, 2nd Coy

02.07.15 Transferred to LIR 1, 9th Coy

11.07.15-26.07.15 Feld-Lazarett I Ingersheim

07.09.15-15.09.15 Reserve-Lazarett Colmar

15.09.15-27.09.15 Er.-Depot der k.b. Ldw.-Inf.

13.02.16-05.03.16 Übungskompagnie Urbach

17.02.16-28.02.16 Feld-Lazarett II Kienzheim

02.11.16 Transferred to RIR 1, 10th Coy, arriving 05.11.16

Mitgemachte Gefechte:

02.07.15-02.11.16 Stellungskämpfe im Ober-Elsaß

05.11.16-01.12.16 Kämpfe an der Aisne

20.12.16-18.01.17 Stellungskämpfe an der Somme

22.01.17-01.04.17 Stellungskämpfe im französischen Flandern und Artois

02.04.17-08.04.17 Frühjahrsschlacht bei Arras

[BottsGreys]

Great info everybody--thanks. Ian--interesting history behind the gun. Ken, thanks for the additional info with the memorial record. Adrian, it's great to have his service record--I see it gives his cause of death as artillery fire, which,

being based on an official casualty list, is pretty definitive. In checking, I see that Ecurie is a village 3 miles north of Arras. Also of interest that he was discharged from the pre-war army for being (presumably medically) unfit.

Jack: I appreciate your taking the time to scan the maps--adds a lot to be able to see the position--looks like the attackers were able to work their way around the right flank of the company and come in behind.

I will post a scan of the card tonight. It is a nice one visually as it has a full-length real, not printed, photo which is pasted in and takes up one whole half of the card.

Chris

[BottsGreys]

Here is Ertl's memorial card and a cropped portion of the photo only.

Chris