Germany : Fritz Limbach - letters from the front - 1915

[JWK]

I was interested in WW1 “from the sidelines”, but now that I have acquired the complete correspondence of a German soldier, from almost his first day in training (7 Jan 1915) to almost his last day on this earth (He died 25 sept 1915), together with a couple of the pictures he took, that has changed.

So I'd like to share with you the story of "my German soldier":

Fritz Limbach was born early September in 1895/1896 (Haven’t yet found out when or where exactly), the son of the owner of Linde’sches Eiswerk von Limbach & Bonert in Barmen (now Wuppertal).

In an “Eiswerk” they made ice to be used in coldstores, at home, in breweries etc. in blocks of 25kgs.

And you could take out a subscription : for 8,50 Mk per month e.g. they would deliver a ¼ block of ice (= 6 kgs) to your door every day.

Fritz was educated at the Gymnasium in Barmen, Sedanstrasse, where he’s commemorated on the war-memorial

His letters (he sent 88 letters home during that brief period) make for massively interesting reading.

They start on 7^th January 1915 in Kevelaer, where he is in training, initially for the Infanterie Regiment Vogel von Falckenstein (7. Westfälisches) nr 56.

Kevelaer was then, and still is, a pilgrimagetown near the Dutch border. From the start of the war it was a hospital-town for wounded soldiers, but end of November 1914 the military took over. The recrutes were billeted in the many many hotels there, and Fritz ended up in Hotel zum Roten Hahn (Have yet to find a picture of it...) , together with 50 other recrutes, where he shared a room with one other guy also from Barmen. “We’re taken really good care of, it feels like a holiday” he writes, knowing very well that his writings are censored. So everything is fine, the food is good, the training not too difficult, and the weather horrendous.

After the initial training, and after having been fully kitted out (“With all these soldiers it must cost a fortune, a complete kit costs about Mk 300,- ! “ ) and issued with his “brandspanking shiny blingy new” Mauser 98 rifle, they are shipped off to Northern France on Febr 3^rd 1915.

On the evening of the 4^th they arrive in Don (Pas de Calais, Northern France – yeah, I had to look it up too…. - ) for the remainder of their training, after a trainjourney which took them through Liege, Tirlemont (Tienen), Louvain/Leuven, Schaerbeek/Brussels, Mons, Valenciennes, and Douai.

More to follow.

[David Filsell]

Excellent find. I will watch the thread with interest. Thank you.

[BottsGreys]

JWK:

Great--quite a grouping you have and very interesting. Thanks for sharing, I will be looking forward to reading more!

Chris

[fritz]

Very interesting. You will learn a lot about the Great War.

Good luck

Fritz

[JWK]

...continued from post #1

They’re billeted in, what looks to him to be, a sugar-factory, fully taken over by the soldiers, and with a canteen etc. No beds, just straw on the floor, but he prefers that over insect-infested beds. Food is not plentiful but it’s enough, and there’s always a constant supply of coffee and cocoa.

He can even buy oranges there!

The small village of Don is not quite to the liking of Fritz, he finds it run-down and although there’s electricity there’s no sewerage system to speak of, and the roads, which are paved, are covered in mud so thick “that you can pave over it once again”. Whether or not the roads are so muddy because of the war he does not know.

There are no men of an eligible age left in the village, it’s just women, children and old folk, “who speak a very understandable French” (Fritz also speaks French, thanks to his education at the Gymnasium no doubt)

The few villas, with their beautiful gardens, lived in by, he deduces, the few factory-owners, look most definitely out of place in that desolate village, and with their beauty make the village look even drearier.

The country-side around the village is not much fun either: flat as a pancake, and on the fields last year’s crops rot away.

In the surrounding countryside there are also old trenches, Germand and French, which are used for training. Training here he finds interesting as it is given by officers who have seen front-duty already, and thus know their stuff.

He talks about the 56’ers ( the Infanterie-Regiment Vogel von Falckenstein (7. Westfälisches) Nr. 56 ) who are at La Bassée , opposite the English who give them a hard time. Apparently the rumour goes that the English have put a price of 20 shillings on every German captured alive! (Will have to investigate whether that holds truth or not)

On the 12^th of February he writes : “there must be something going on around here, the guns thunder without pause, it started yesterday-morning and went on all through the night. You get used to it quickly though, and only realise the noise has gone once it gets quiet again. Heard machinegun fire too”

The skies are filled with aeroplanes (“There are more aeroplanes here than motorcars! Not just German, French and English too.”) and he watched two aeroplanes shooting at eachother with machineguns. Nobody got hurt apparently, and the planes continued on their way “satisfied and happy”.

A packet of 20 cigarettes costs 30 Pfennig ( “and they are very good”). Sometimes he can get beer in the canteen, but due to high demand it’s usually sold out quickly.

Their food-ration is more or less as follows: one loaf of bread per person, to last for two days, in the morning coffee, lunch-time it’s pea-soup or rice with pork or the likes, and in the evening coffee, cocoa, sausages etc.

And they get innoculated against Typhoid! (You learn something new every day, I did not know you could get innoculated against Typhoid in 1915! )

On a Saturday they had a march to the front “just to look”. They came through many devastated villages, and took great care in taking roads in full view of the enemy aeroplanes, as the German command wanted to trick the enemy into thinking that they are shifting troops.

The inhabitants of the village of Don are not trusted by the Germans. The English bombed the railway-station at Don/Sanghin just as fresh troops arrived, and the general consensus is that the English could only have known through information supplied by the villagers “by telephone”.

Interestingly though, he also writes “The villagers do not like the “Anglais”. I have spoken to quite a few of them in the shops here, and also when we are marching through a village the people shout at us “Anglais” and make a cut-throat movement with their hand, and they laugh and smile when they see we understand what they mean”.

[fritz]

If you want to research his grave you should try the side of "Volksbund - Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge"

http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche.html

But most probably you know it already.

Fritz

[David Filsell]

JWK

Thanks.

Is there a part one please and the year would always be of interest!

Regards

David

[JWK]

David,

"Part 2" is a bit confusing, I admit. Have changed it to "continued from Post #1" as it's not really a story in parts.

The year is ofcourse 1915, as in the threadtitle.

JW

[Karsten]

That's Fritz Limbach on the Verlustliste: http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/3126729

Regards

Karsten

[anthony osborne]

Great stuff - thanks for taking the time to share these letters with us.

Ant

[JWK]

....continued from post # 5

On 28th February 1915 Fritz writes home that he has received the Browning, plus ammo, through the Fieldpost.

And could they send him some cognac please “as the evenings get very cold here”.

He went to church today, and the service was Evangelical and Catholic together,. And a chaplain preached.

Usually the regimental band plays a tune or two before the service.

Last week they were treated to a violin-solo followed by the Gralserzählung from Act 3 of Lohengrin (= the opera by Wagner. A link to the youtube vid at the end of this post)

“And all that accompanied by the thunder of the guns at La Bassée” he writes

He also writes that a few days ago the English attacked the 56’ers at La Bassée (Which would be around the 25^thFeb ’15. - And when Fritz talks about the 56’ers or the 57’ers of the 61’ers e.g. , it’s the Infanterie Regiment 56, 57, 61 etc ) , but the 56’ers triumphed and “did such a good job that no Englishman got out alive. The 56’ers didn’t come out of the battle unharmed either, but I don’t have to tell you that” ( And yes, quite a chilling remark to make in a letter to your family back home.…*Shiver*… Different times.)

A day in the life of a recrute :

Get up at 05.30

07.30 March to training, in full marching kit

Back at 12.30

14.30-15.15 cleaning rifles

March with combat-exercises

Next morning get up at 6

On an average day they march about 25-30 Km, but Fritz’s feet “are still okay”.

The weather has been brilliant, quite warm and no wind to speak off. So the skies are filled with aeroplanes. If they’re the enemy’s they’re shot at by the field-artillerie, and thus are forced to fly at such an altitude that they can’t see anything anymore on the ground. Lots of bi-planes, and the French have single-wing aircraft.

The soldiers get paid Mk 15,90 per month (Must have been a nightmare for the accountants! Why not a rounded figure like Mk 16,- ?) , and that suits him well so his parents don’t have to send extra money. He’s still got some Mk 40,- .

Plus he doesn’t really spends that much, as the soldiers are forbidden to buy anything in the village (Due to the Germans not trusting the villagers, see prevous post) so he only uses his money to buy butter and jam in the canteen, and “a beer or two” in the evenings.

The ban on buying anything in the village is lifted shortly after being put in place, it turned out it was only put in place because the villagers began to charge way too much for their wares.

And his parents don’t have to send him clean underwear: the women in the village are happy to wash and iron them for a few pfennig. Fritz always goes to a woman on “the Hindenburgerstrasse” (so apparently also the street-names have changed) , who even darns his socks.

When he gets there there’s always a fresh cup of coffee waiting for him for which the lady does not accept any payment. “C’est la Guerre, after the war I’ll come to Germany and we’ll drink a cup of coffee at your house” she says.

“Since last Wednesday [= 10^th March 1915] a lot has changed here. We’ve recaptured Neuve-Chapelle” (And that’s it, he writes nothing more about it. But then he’s in training 10 miles from the front, so all he relays in his writing to his parents is what he knows and sees and hears)

On Saturday 13^th March 1915 an enemy aeroplane was spotted in the sky above : “Our artillery shot at it, and then it went straight down, with cut engine, so everyone thought he’d been hit. He threw out a few bombs above the railwaystation and then sped away. But no damage was done.

The scenario repeated itself in the afternoon, but now the outcome wasn’t that good : From our company some guys were unloading the mail, 2 men killed outright, and 8 wounded. The ultimate aim, destroying the railwaylines, was again not met.

Now several securitymeasures are put in place to prevent it from happening again, so that’s why our company was on watch (“Fliegerwache”) in the cemetery here from 6 in the morning till 6 at night, where I picked enclosed flower.

To our chagrin we didn’t see any aeroplanes. But shortly after we were relieved another company shot one down, I’ve just seen it crash”

And 99 years later the flower is still with the letter :

The Gralserzählung from Lohengrin, performed by Placido Domingo:

"In a far-off land where you have never wandered..."

Powerful lyrics, it's like a religious peptalk.

[Drew-1918]

Very interesting reading, thank you so much for sharing. The last post with the scan of the flower is very evocative.

Regards,

Chris

[JWK]

,,,continued from post #11

For all the followers who are a bit unsure as to where all this is taking place: a little map (snapped from Google maps), centred on La Bassée:

Don is marked with an A.

Neuve Chapelle is at the top of the map, north of La Bassée.

Bethune on the left, and Loos at the bottom. Lille is towards the north-east about 10kms away.

 

And I’ve drawn in my interpretation of the front.

To give you (and me !) some idea of where Fritz was 99 years ago in relation to that frontline. From Don to the frontline is about 9-10 Kms.

And just like present-day followers, Fritz also wasn’t quite sure where exactly he was deposited, so he asked his sisters to draw him a little map of the area.

(Fritz has three sisters. From his writings I deduce he has two older sisters – one works as a nurse in a hospital, and the other one gets engaged later on in the year - and thus one baby-sister. Fritz’s age I would put at 19 or 20 )

And they dutifully draw him a little map, for which he is most thankful and he writes:
“Many thanks for the map. It’s very difficult here to imagine where you are exactly, but now I can look it up on the map:

To church we go in Sanghin-en-Weppes;

There’s a traininggrounds near Annoeullin, and another near Wavrin.

A shooting-range near Bauvin, en another one where the Canal de la Haute Deule bends off from the Canal de La Bassée.

So you see we always have to walk quite a bit.”

(Which would put that last shooting-range to the east of Billy-Berclau, where the canals converge. –

And is there no censorship of letters anymore? During his training in Kevelaer he was fully aware of censorship, but once he’s shipped off to the front that has gone it seems. He just writes what he wants to write, and if there were postcodes back then he would have included them too I imagine)

 

To give you two examples of his handwriting:

For the month of January 1915 he uses Deutsche Kurrent (an absolute nightmare to decipher! Once you get it it's "doable', but it's the getting to the "Once you get it" stage that is the headache-inducing part.)

This example is actually "easy": Ich erhielt Mutters weiteren brief mit den Predigt von Pastor Zimmermann, die Ihr Sonntag wieder mit zurücknehmen könnt

 

And then suddenly, from early February, he starts to write in a much more pleasing handwriting, which actually is a joy to read and translate:

I wonder what brought on that change in handwriting, as for the remainder of his time in the army/his life he keeps to this handwriting, (With one single exception where he reverts back to Deutsche Kurrent.)

Edited 22 September , 2018 by JWK

[Martin Feledziak]

There are a number of concepts you have introduced in the opening episodes. Issues I had not considered before.

Such as an invading army taking to the church or the locals even being prepared to wash the clothes of the occupiers.

Keep them coming

[JWK]

...continued from post #13

In the afternoon of the 17th March 1915 they suddenly get the order to prepare to go down to Illies (= north-east of La Bassée) to build barbed wire fences and dig trenches. So they’re trained off to Salomé (just East of La Bassée. There are still trains running apparently... ) and from there it’s a 1,5 hour march.

Fritz deduces it’s a reserve-trench, 500-600 metres behind the front. Work has to be done at night (“Because otherwise the English would see us and shoot at us”), in the pitchblack, torches were not allowed. Pretty hard work, especially in this warm weather.

Work done at 2 in the morning, back in bed at 5. And he slept “almost as good as at home, untill midday”

 

He writes to his family “If you get so close to the front, as we do, only then you realise how much has been destroyed by the war. In Illies hardly a building stands, the fields are left as they were last autumn, whole fields of tobaccoplants rotting away. There were several factories in this little village, all destroyed, the machines are rusting away in the streets.

If you could only see this with your own eyes you wouldn’t complain anymore about the offers yóu have to bring”

And he repeats that a few times in the following letters, basically telling his family to stop whining, “because the people here are a lot worse off than you.”

 

Actually in the same letter, a few paragraphs down, he writes “The slight setback at the coldstore [His father’s business isn’t doing too good because of the war, but the coldstore has been rented out to the city of Barmen] is nothing compared to the businesses destroyed by the war. I’ve seen here, just behind the frontline, how villages suffer under the war. Illies, Herlies etc : hardly anything is left of those villages. Nobody lives there anymore.

They really are a horrible sight.

In Illies a perfume-factory was destroyed, big flasks all over the place, half the village smelled of it.

But that smell is still much better than the smell of dead and half-buried English soldiers in the vicinity.

I didn’t really want to write you that, but you get a bit numb in these circumstances”

The past week was a tiring one for Fritz, loads of work every night. But at least they got much better in building barbed wire defences, and usually his platoon was the first to finish, and Herr Leutnant ofcourse was very pleased with his men.

 

Around the 20th March 1915 they get shipped off to Oignies (East of Loos), because new recruits were coming into Don so they had to move to make room for those.

And Fritz was not too pleased with the move “We got home at 3 in the morning, and had to get up at 6, pack and then march, in full marching gear, the 3 hours to here. I was glad we got there in the end.”

He is pleased though with the quarters: they’re billeted in a theatre, spacious and light. And much better places to wash yourself at any time of the day (“You can’t imagine how much we treasure that now”)

And there’s a park in the vicinity, and gardens, and it’s beautiful weather.

Fritz is happy.

 

What he’s not so happy with is the training, he finds it becoming a bit “sombre and boring. We’re not learning anything new anymore. But the training is almost at its end.”

Nobody knows yet whether they’ll be attached to the 56’ers (who are at La Bassée) or the 16’ers (who are at Illies) , they’re sort of hoping it will be the 56’ers, but in any case “we won’t have to travel far” and "let's not grow grey hairs over this".

Edited 22 September , 2018 by JWK

[trajan]

Jan,

Thanks for keeping the information flowing!

And I heartily and highly commend you on your successful struggle with Kurrent Schrift! Several of my limited collection of German WW1 postcards are in this and I have long neglected any attempt at translating them. However, the example you give - reproduced below - is a useful starter!

"This example is actually "easy": Ich erhielt Mutters weiteren brief mit den Predigt von Pastor Zimmermann, die Ihr Sonntag wieder mit zurücknehmen könnt"

I wonder, though, why the sudden switch to the Romanised script?

Julian

[themonsstar]

Thank you for transcribing these letters it really gives you an insight as to what was going on the other side of the wire.

I have a few collections not as big as yours of German soldiers letters however I haven't got a clue how to read them.

All the best with your research

Roy

[JWK]

Thanks for all the nice comments. Happy to know my little story about Fritz’s (too short) life as a soldier is so well received.

It is a joy to transcribe his letters, as his German is só beautiful. And so is his handwriting.

Fritz is not the guy for philosophical essays about warfare, he writes about his life as a soldier in the German army. “A beer or two” in the canteen at night, trotting off into town to buy some eggs (“Shall I boil them for you?”, the lady asked. “Well, I couldn’t say no to that”) , picking flowers and sending them home.

And that makes these letters so massively interesting to read.

Apologies if my English seems a little off-kilter now and then : it’s not my first language. Please bear with me.

Onwards we go:

… continued from post # 15

We’re at letter # 30, Oignies 31 March 1915 A Wednesday.

He tries to write home at least twice a week, if possible every Wednesday and Sunday.

They have been issued with their marchingorders. Before the end of the week (“So that is before Easter”) they will go to the front, to the Hacketäuer (the 16’ers) at Auchy.

Before that there’s a parade on Thursday 1^st April, with higher and highest gentlemen attending, like: Generalmajor von Ditfurth, commander of the 14^th Division; General von Klaer, commander of the 7^th Armeekorps; and Crownprince Rupprecht of Bayern, commander of the 6^th Army.

They exercise a lot, so that on the day everything will run smoothly.

They march off on 2^nd April 1915, to Douvrin (South-east of La Bassée ) , a 3,5 hour march, which was very tiring in this summer-like warm weather. Talk is that they’ll go to the trenches on Easter Monday.

Fritz likes it in Douvrin “Our quarters are perfect, we can make our own coffee and cocoa, en we can fry potatoes. And there’s a very fine canteen here with German beer, condensed milk, jam, and more of those delicacies. So during the holidays we’ll live like God in France.

The first night here I slept like I never slept before here in France, and that whith our artillery thundering away the whole night. But if you’re really tired ánd you have a nice place to lie down…. “

Douvrin too is completely destroyed, all houses are reduced to rubble. But surprisingly there are still a few civilians living there.

And indeed : on Easter Monday 1915 they leave for the front at Auchy, the Prellbock-stellung just next to the Canal (Auchy is south of La Bassée, just to the left of Haisnes)

On 11th March 1915 he writes “We’ve been here since Monday, so almost 8 days, and I have to say I quite like it actually. It is not as bad as I had imagined, but then we’ve had only quiet days sofar.

You can’t imagine what it is like overhere, our Stellung is one big maze of trenches. When you come here for the first time you think you’ll never find your way here. But after a day or so you it goes smoothly, also because there are roadsigns at the difficult intersections”

And he draws his family a little map of the trenches “this is only to give you an idea of what it looks like. In reality it’s much more complex”:

The first two nights Fritz slept in a nasty dugout, but now he resides in a great one : “you can stand upright inside, we have a table and chairs, matrasses to sleep on, and a stove for cooking”

The location of the Prellbock stellung (On British trenchmaps it’s called “Embankment Redoubt”)

[trajan]

There are some quite interesting and sometimes confusing bits here! Although before going any further I must stress that am not an expert in this field, just trying to follow connections with the limited resources I have!

So, Fritz is with the VIII. Reserve-Korps in April 1915. But the main sources I use indicate that the commander of the 14 Reserve Division in April 1915 was Generalleutnant Robert Loeb - http://genwiki.genealogy.net/14._Reserve-Division_(WK1); and that Generalmajor (Kurt) von Ditfurth was commander of the 15. Reserve-Division at that time: http://genwiki.genealogy.net/16._Reserve-Division_(WK1), also http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIII._Reserve-Korps_(Deutsches_Kaiserreich), and another

Don't worry about this Jan - somebody will clear it up!

Meanwhile, keep the posts coming!

Julian

PS: I like the way our Fritz gives a nice sketch map of the trench layout, contrary to all military regulations!

[JWK]

Julian,

no no, Fritz is not in the Reserves, you're getting your armies mixed up (I think, I find deciphering Deutsche Kurrent easier then getting to grips with the Kriegsgliederung of the German army, so you may well be right! )

Fritz is now with :

Infanterie-Regiment Freiherr von Sparr (3. Westfälisches) Nr.16

27. Infanterie-Brigade

14. Infanterie-Division

VII. Armeekorps

2. Armee

So that would place Major-General von Ditfurth with the 14th Infanterie Division, and General von Klaer with the 7th Armee.

(Actually made a mistake there in my post (and translation) : translated Fritz's writing as 7th Artillerie, should be 7th Armee - post above edited to show the correct army - )

What the Crown-prince is doing there I'm not quite sure. He's the crown-prince of Bavaria and the Sparrs are Westphalian.

[trajan]

Thanks for the correction Jan! I get pretty muddled with these things as well...

[David Filsell]

Your kilter is fine!

David

[JWK]

Thanks David!

....continued from post # 18

Auchy, 13th april 1915

His sister Else is engaged to be married to a guy named August, and Fritz is overjoyed with the news.

“My heartfelt congratulations to Else and August on their engagement. I am very happy for them, and you must be very happy too. No doubt you’ll have some good bottles to celebrate. Then you can propose a toast to my health, and another toast to Peace and that it may swiftly come. There’s really no shame in being happy about such an occasion when there’s a war on.”

And Fritz has now been placed with the Pionier-kommando (Engineer-company) of the 16’ers, in Auchy. He has no idea why hé was chosen, and it’s only temporarily, but “if I like it here I’ll do my best to make it permanent”.

They’re billeted in a bomb-free cellar of a destroyed house (“A few bricks and the half of two rooms still stand”) , and work consists of building barbed wire fences and “Polish riders” at the front. Work starts at 10 at night, and continues untill 3 or 4 in the morning. They have the rest of the day off.

Pretty heavy work, big rolls of barbed wire, metal poles to schlepp around. And he describes how he once cut his hand on the barbed wire, and then not much later he cut it again at the same place. “That was not nice”.

The Regimental commander was apparently impressed with their work, so he let it be known to the whole Regiment how impressed he was “with the proven courage and bravery of the engineers”.

Fritz does not really know where that came from: “It was nothing special. And the Engländer seemed to be at work too, not a shot was fired”. What's all the fuss about?

There are 11 men in the Engineer’s company, some “one-year-volunteers” like Fritz, and some Polish guys.

With those 11 guys there are only a few that get as much from home as Fritz, so Fritz shares all his goodies his parents sent him with his co-workers. “But that doesn’t matter. You get something in return too: when they have collected potatoes or fire-wood e.g they always repay you”

And again he writes about how sad he finds it to see everything destroyed by the war : “There are ofcourse no civilians anymore in Auchy. Must have been a sad sight when those poor people fled their village with all they could carry. Some of us have seen those long lines of refugees.

As far as I know those people are now housed in Lille and surroundings. Imagine this in Germany. Would you then still complain?”

"The front here is usually quiet, but there’s always shooting ofcourse. Not much from our side, more from the English. Our artillery usually starts in the morning, which is then answered by the English with “10 Schuss” [is that 10inch grenades?] . And again in the evening when they think our fieldkitchen is about to arrive. They usually shoot sulphur-grenades but those stink more than they do actual damage. And shrapnell. Of the 10 grenades the English fire at us at least 4 are duds. So their American ammunition is pretty bad”

“The worst thing in my mind is the undermining, you can’t hide for that. In front of our Stellung there’s a swamp, so mining is impossible there and also the English are 350 mtrs away. But down the line the distance is only 50 mtr, and there are a lot of mine-explosions there. There was one just last night, towards our left near the French. ….

I find this kind of warfare atrocious. It should be forbidden by every nation on this earth. But for this war it’s too late”.

[Beechhill]

Thank you so much! Very moving and enlightening tale of a young man.

[JWK]

I see I posted the picture of Fritz’s group too early, so took it from the previous post and put in here where it is in its right place.

.... continued from post #23

“The English seem to have some trouble with calculating distances. They have their eyes set on a brickstack near here, on top of which a German machinegun is causing them great trouble.

They’ve exploded two mines already, but each one just in front of the brickstack causing little damage. I believe our guys are better at calculating the correct spot then they are. “

“To the right of us, in the direction of Givenchy-La Bassée, are the 56’ers. And to the left of us, in the direction of Arras, are the Marburger Jäger [Kurhessisches Jäger-Bataillon Nr. 11], who haven’t achieved much in this war yet, due to their incompetent high command. I heard that rumour already in Kevelaer.

Opposite the 56’ers are the English; opposite us are English, Scottish and Indian troop; and opposite the Marburger Jäger are the French. So you see, quite a mixed company.

You can see quite clearly who’s walking through the English trences, as their defences are very low in places.

First you see an Indian turban walking past, then a Scottish cap, and then an Englishman.

Nobody seems to wear helmets in the trenches.

Here too only a few are wearing helmets, and then with the spike taken off. I too only wear a cap.“

And could they send him a new pocket-torch. He lost his one in the trenches “I dropped it in the clay-soup, and it disappeared never to be seen again.“

In Auchy they have moved from their cellar to a house nearby, and they now have real beds, a stove with cookingutensils, porcelain plates and cups, and even silver cutlery !

“Behind the house is a beautiful garden where I am now writing this letter. The cherry-trees are about to blossom, and I have never seen such abundance of primroses.

The flowers I’m sending you with this letter are from this garden“

Fritz became friendly with some Artillery-guys.

„Those boys always have everything! Yesterday they gave me a big chunk of cowliver, which we fried yesterday with some potatoes. With the 11 of us everyone only got a small piece ofcourse, but it sure did taste fantastic!“

And one of the Artillery-guys snapped a picture of the Engineers with their tools of the trade.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you : Fritz Limbach, back row, third from the left.

Fritz sends this picture to his family and writes "Please keep this picture safe. It will be such a nice souvenir for later".