Marcin FELEDZIAK Infantry Regiment 171

[Martin Feledziak]

I have ordered the regimental history for IR 136.

I shall view the contents of the file and then request the assistance of various pals who can translate the contents.

I now have a target for October 1918.

[Martin Feledziak]

I have obtained a full scan of the Regimental history of Infanterie Regiment No136.

It has 620 pages of facts and figures.

The 115th division was formed in April 1915. The division was made up of the following units.

IR136, IR171 and RIR40

Infanterie Regiment 171 came from the original 30th division.

Infanterie Regiment 136 came from the orininal 39th division

Reserve Infanterie Regiment 40 came from the original 28th reserve division

the order changed in 1918 when RIR40 was replaced by IR173.

[Martin Feledziak]

I have had a quick browse through the regimental history for IR136 a sister regiment to IR 171 and RIR40.

The history appears to contain many detailed accounts of their travels starting on the Western Front then to Russia and Romania before returning to the Western Front in 1918.

I am sure it holds pertinent content relating to my GF and companie 10 IR171, but as I am not a reader of German I can only guess at what I am looking at.

There is a good section concerning the fighting around Corcy in early June where they were formed up in adjacent positions. This is where I think GF picked up some sort of wounding.

The information for October 1918 and the fighting with the Americans around Gesnes is not as clear as IR173 is positioned between IR171 and IR136. (RIR40 is now fully disbanded at this stage)

what appears to me is the massive losses suffered by IR136 during the course of the conflict with 4360 Officers and men killed. My reckoning is that this amounts to almost 2 regiments worth of men.

If you served in IR136 from start to finish you would have been extremely lucky.

from the back of the book, just prior to the long list of names.

[JWK]

4360 Officers, NCO’s and men gave their lives for Germany

in the clash of nations on the battlefields of the Western front,

in Russian and Romania, or died of their wounds,

or because of illness, during the War or in captivity.

They will not be forgotten!

And the Ehrentafel is also available on the internet:

http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/verlustlisten/vl_4_lothr_ir136_wk1_ersatzbat.htm

4200 men of IR 16 died in the war, IR 56 lost 4606 men.

So 4360 casulaties is more or less in line.

Still an awful lot though.

I posted a link to a ZDF documentary (in German) about IR 56.

In it they say:

“In 1914 the Regiment [iR56] marched out to war 3200 men strong.”

“On 4^th November 1918, the last day of battle for the Regiment, 2 Officers and 26 Soldiers remained.

133 Officers and 4473 other ranks would never return home”

Now whether those 28 were the last of the 3200 that marched out they don’t say. But a whole regiment decimated to just 28 men would seem a bit too much.

JW

[Martin Feledziak]

Great Link JW

and the first mention is for a Festungs-Lazarett, this one being 32 in Straßburg -

P.S I did watch the 56ers documentary and my Daughter was laughing when she thought I could understand the commentary.

Martin

[Martin Feledziak]

Since we mentioned him at the top of this page - I can put a face to the name of Major Kurt KAULBACH

He was killed on 28th September 1918.

Lower Right, image 4

He did a switch from IR171 to IR136.

[Martin Feledziak]

Just looking at the image above.

Two have just minimal medal entitlement - 1 and 4, they have Ek 1 & 2 and a black chest badge.

The other two have a chestful of bling.

1 and 4 both perished during the war.

[AOK4]

Just looking at the image above.

Two have just minimal medal entitlement - 1 and 4, they have Ek 1 & 2 and a black chest badge.

The other two have a chestful of bling.

1 and 4 both perished during the war.

That is just because two are wearing their medal bar, and two don't (They just have their everyday uniform on).

Jan

[Martin Feledziak]

Thanks AOK4 - Jan - Any idea what decoration is displayed below the EK1 for Oberst SPRINGMANN ?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is page 469 from the regimental history. (IR136)

I can see mention of Bantheville, Cierges etc and Robinette Farm, so all about the right area and mention of Major KAULBACH.

From my understanding this is still back from the front line given that this is late September 1918 and the Americans don't start to advance until around 4th October.

I am unable to work out anything which gives me an indication as to how the Major was killed. ( No German language skills !! )

[AOK4]

Thanks AOK4 - Jan - Any idea what decoration is displayed below the EK1 for Oberst SPRINGMANN ?

Probably a Friedrich August Kreuz 1. Klasse.

[JWK]

Here is page 469 from the regimental history. (IR136)

I can see mention of Bantheville, Cierges etc and Robinette Farm, so all about the right area and mention of Major KAULBACH.

From my understanding this is still back from the front line given that this is late September 1918 and the Americans don't start to advance until around 4th October.

I am unable to work out anything which gives me an indication as to how the Major was killed. ( No German language skills !! )

Page 468.jpg

469.jpg

This page ends in a cliffhanger :

First part is about where all the regiments go, then in the last two paragraphs Major Kaulbach is mentioned :

While the Regiment was getting ready, the Regimental commander Major Kaulbach, and the commander of I/136, Captain Leuer, together with officers from their staff, and the commander of II/136, Rittmeister (Cavalry captain) Freiherr von Schlotheim, hurried to the hill south-east of Romagne, to orientate themselves from there.

Then suddenly an enemy airplane appeared, flying at a height of only 100 mtrs. It circled over the area of the stationary regiment a few times, and flies on.

Shortly thereafter a grenade comes flying down, and strikes not far from the observing officers.

JW

[JWK]

and page 470:

Again it wooshes through the air, a hit, then horrified cries, the groaning of the wounded. What a rich bounty for the enemy artillery fire!

“Dreadful destruction”, wrote Leutnant Hamacher, deputy-adjudant of I/136 at the time (Böcker represented the Regiments Adjudant, who was on furlough), “Commander dead, Captain Leuer dead, Böcker and myself severly wounded, Böcker groaned “I am dying, my poor wife” –

No one to help! My right arm hangs down (shivering?), with my left hand I found my platooncommander’s whistle and I blew the whistle. After some time my batman Buhmann arrives, he was shot through the mouth, the wound was already bandaged. The dying Böcker and myself were carried into a church or a house. There I lost consciousness.

I will never forget that day. This surprise attack, the destruction, the sight of both dead, as if they were sleeping, one still with his hands in his pockets. Deathly pale.

JW

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/8562938

[Martin Feledziak]

Some Cliffhanger that was !!

Thanks very much JW for working that out.................

That certainly was a lucky strike to kill at least three top rankers

I am just trying to work out was it the airplane that took them out or was it enemy artillery fire as HAMACHER implies.

There are a good many listed from IR136 on the Verlustlisten you linked to. I am guessing that those are not just from September but October 1918 reports also.

I could not see Captain LEUER on the list either.

Martin

[JWK]

I think the aeroplane circled above the regiment to give the artillery a target to aim at.

Major Kaulbach and Captain Leuer are on this list : http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/verlustlisten/vl_4_lothr_ir136_wk1_offiz.htm

[Martin Feledziak]

Probably a Friedrich August Kreuz 1. Klasse.

Looks like a good match

[Martin Feledziak]

I think the aeroplane circled above the regiment to give the artillery a target to aim at.

Major Kaulbach and Captain Leuer are on this list : http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/verlustlisten/vl_4_lothr_ir136_wk1_offiz.htm

Getting the hang of this web page now.

This is the Hub Page so it lists all the constituents of the regiment IR136 - by Company - also gives the place of some of the burials.

It is interesting that the Minewerfer Companie ( Trench Mortar types ) appear to have been wiped out in early October 1918 in the same area.

http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/verlustlisten/vl_4_lothr_ir136_wk1.htm

This is the screen grab example

[JWK]

Here's Captain Leuer on the Verlustliste, transcribed as Lener: (a u and an n in Fraktur dó look a lot like eachother)

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/5817931

[Martin Feledziak]

Great find JW

That is definitely him. Interesting how his report appears in April 1919 and the others in the October 1919 edition some 6th months later.

Even though they all perished as a result of the same incident on 28th September 1918.

These papers are crucial documents for people like me hunting around for family history.

Remember for me it was the good work of the indexers who were adding the records to the database last year and therefore finding my GF in the verlustlisten linking him to IR171 which is why it has my looking at IR136...

Good work.

Martin

[AliceF]

Hi,

Great that you got the regimental history of the unit you are interested in. Must be really fascinating. I appreciate your scans! Well, I have been quite a lot on this denkmal-page. Not at least as I am still typing in the FuAR 18 (after a summer break) for this webpage. Uff, it takes ages. Anyway I have got the impression that the Verlustenliste is continuously updated by adding the units to the soldiers’ names. So in future it will be possible to search there for all soldiers of a certain unit. However, there are years without the units mentioned and not all soldiers who are listed in the regimental history, are listed in the Verlustenliste. So to digitalise the names of the regimental history still makes somehow sense, I hope.

Best regards

Christine

P.S. Just checked the IR 136 in the Verlustenliste: 1602 entries. (Under FAR 18 there were only 18 entries and I do not understand how they can mix FAR and FuAR 18 under the same shortage???)

[Martin Feledziak]

Greetings Christine.

As far as I know, I might be wrong, but I understand that the indexing of all of the records from the Verlustlisten is now finished so the database is full and complete. Obviously there are many mistakes in the indexing but this is only to be expected given that the text characters are so similar.

When they first started reporting the casualties at the beginning of the war they did so including the unit information of the soldier concerned. In the middle stages they stopped reporting unit information and gave out huge great blocks of names in alphabetical order with part of their birthdate.

Like for Anton Feledziak another Great Uncle killed in 1917. So there is record for him providing his name, part date of birth and his village of origin.

http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/7023320

I have additional information from the village Death certificate and I now know that he was killed in Russia but that is all.

Later in the war they returned to reporting the unit information and almost full dates of birth.

Therefore the type of thing you are doing has most significant value as it provides another searchable resource for avid historians like us. So yes it is such a laborious task which you undertake but will be provide real benefits for the future. So keep up the good work !!

I am just hoping that someone is transcribing the Honour Roll from the regimental history for the unit Anton Feledziak was attached to. Then another family mystery could be solved. Anton is number (2) on my list below.

Martin

[AOK4]

The Verlustlisten 1916-1918 existed with units mentioned as well (I've seen extracts). I do not know whether any have survived somewhere though...

These lists were highly secret.

I guess after the war at least one or two sets went to the ZAK (Zentralnachweiseamt für Kriegerverluste und Kriegergräber) or to the Reichsarchiv. None of these sets seems to have survived the bombings in 1944-1945 though.

Jan

[AliceF]

Hi,

so did I got this right that you do not know the unit, where Anton was placed? On the death certificate for Gustav (form the town) the unit was mentioned. But probably this was handled differently in different places and different times during the war.

Interesting that there actually was a secret list with the units on it. I did not know this. Well I wrote now to genealogy.net and asked whether the project with the units is finished or still ongoing (and why FAR 18 is used for both the Feldartillerieregiment and the Fussartillerieregiment – but that is different story).

Christine

[Martin Feledziak]

Hi Christine.

All I know for Anton Feledziak is he died in 1917.

The death certificate notification for his village was very brief.

IE died Russia 1917.

The death certificate notification for his cousin Johann FELEDZIAK, same village

IE died France 1917

I will be most happy to see if you get a reply for the secret list !!

Martin

The below link is for verlustlisten files held in Poznan

http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/publication?id=129687&tab=3

The above site works best with internet explorer or the new Microsoft Edge. Once you install the viewer you can open any of the editions.

[Martin Feledziak]

I have added another name to the thread.

May appear odd in this context but he was in the mix too. Herman was the first officer not of Polish decent to command Company K. He was from German roots.

and of course part of the American Army which opposed the German 115th Division.

Distinguished Service Cross

Awarded for actions during the World War I

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Herman W. Steinkraus, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 127th Infantry Regiment, 32d Division, A.E.F., near the Bois-de-Bantheville, France, 15 October 1918. Continuing in command of his company, after he had been instructed to go to the rear for treatment for an infected leg, Lieutenant Steinkraus skillfully extricated his company with few casualties, when it became suddenly exposed to intense machine-gun fire from both flanks. Reinforcing his command with stragglers he organized a strong right flank guard by utilizing captured German machine-guns and succeeded in maintaining his position.

General Orders: War Department, General Orders 66 (May 21, 1919)

Action Date: 15-Oct-18

Service: Army

Rank: First Lieutenant

Regiment: 127th Infantry Regiment

Division: 32d Division, American Expeditionary Forces

http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=14890

http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/02_DSC/citatons/01_wwi_dsc/dsc_05wwi_Army_S.html

[ph0ebus]

Well done, Martin! Quite a discovery.

-Daniel