Germany : Fritz Limbach - letters from the front - 1915

[JWK]

....continued from post # 25

23 april 1915, and Fritz finds himself back in Douvrin.

They were supposed to be there on a 4 day rest, but they just got the order that they are to return to their company in Auchy tonight.

“End of the good life, at least for the time being.” he writes “We’re not going to the trenches straight away, first to Auchy in reserve.”

And he’s not quite a happy bunny : “I can only be annoyed. Yesterday we packed all our stuff, got here, unpacked all our stuff and made ourselves at home, and today we can pack all our stuff again. You wonder what it is all good for.”

“Write me how the garden looks at home, extensively. Does everything grow as well as previous years? I’d love to know”

“Send me some more writingpaper please, I’ve written a lot over the last few days.”

5 days later, on the 28^th he writes :

“Finally, finally I have the time to write you a letter. Hope you didn’t get any foolish thoughts over me not writing for so long..

We‘ve had some nasty days behind us.

We arrived in Auchy in the evening, and we got the order “Go to that and that part of the front, and build yourself some shelters. And they have to be ready tonight.

What a farce, as if you can build shelters for 11 people in one night ! Our mood, which wasn’t too good to start with, did not get any better.”

In the end it took 3 nights and 2 days for the shelters to be completed, “but now they are really “bon”, and above all roomy. Unfortunately we don’t have a stove yet.”

Sleeping and eating were ofcourse optional during that time.

And they had the first casualty in their group : a guy got shot in his leg while he was out of the trenches doing some work. “It really was a fluke, the English could not possibly have seen us as it was too misty”. Fritz got him to safety, and bandaged the wound.

Luckily for the guy it was only a fleshwound, nothing too serious, but nevertheless a nice “Heimatschuss” . Many envied the wounded soldier for that.

Oignies 1 May 1915

“Dear family, it will surprise you I’m sending this letter from Oignies. I too didn’t expect to be here again so soon.

But that’s because of, I hope you are all sitting down : yesterdaymorning, I was still sleeping, the Feldwebel rushed in and told me to get ready at once.

And he told me I , and 3 others from the company, were to go down to Oignies for an “Officer candidate” trainingcourse! I couldn’t believe it, I nearly fell over!“

It is going to be a 3-week course, and although he does not really want to be an officer, and has yet to find out why exactly hé was chosen ("It can't be my schooling: I never talked to anyone about that. And I sure am not a "model-soldier") he’s really looking forward to a regulated life, even if it's only for 3 weeks.

The weather has been beautiful for the last few days, and when he arrived back in Oignies he hardly recognised it : trees are green, and the cherry- and pearblossom cheer everything and everyone up.

“Can you send me some nice puttees [“Wickelgamaschen”] please, and some money. I have to pay a little more attention to my appearance now.”

Their quarter in Oignies is in the building of a coal-mine, hot and cold running water, a bathtub even.

He likes it : “Here one becomes a civilised human being again”.

And the lice have almost gone. “During the day you don’t notice them much, but they get very lively at night. Nobody is spared from them, not even the officers”

“As I wrote before the weather is lovely, almost too warm. At the moment I’m lying peacefully, on my belly and up to my ears in bluebells, here in the Bois d’Epinoy.

I have never seen such a beautiful thing : the whole forestfloor is covered in them.

Everything is blue, with a white flower here and there. And above this ocean of blue there are then the fresh green shrubs, and a little higher in many places nothing but cherryblossom, and ofcourse other green trees.

Furthermore the wood is teeming with nightingales, and tonight they sing exceptionally beautiful.”

He likes it at the course “It is so nice to finally be able to speak to people of your own level “ [Fritz is a high-school graduate – the Gymnasium at Barmen]

“And the coarse accent I picked up in the trenches is slowly fading”

There are about 80-100 men in the course, 16’ers ofcourse, and 56’ers, 57’ers, and Marburger Jäger.

He finds it a peculiar group of people, it ranges from 17yr old volunteer-soldiers to dignified 34yr old headmasters.

Lots of classes ofcourse. Their teacher is an easygoing Herr Leutnant who usually takes them out into the woods for their lessons.

And more often than not Herr Leutnant then takes with him his little dog, much to the delight of the students.

“By the way, that dog is not very well trained” he writes.

[Langdon]

This thread is personally fascinating as my great uncle was killed at Port Arthur (La Bassée) on the day before Limbach arrived in the Pas-de-Calais. Thank you for this - it's an illuminating addition to his CO's personal diaries (2nd East Lancs).

Mike

[Martin Feledziak]

There are very few personal accounts from front line German soldiers available to read in English.

So we have much to thank Jan for.

[JWK]

^^ Mike: have these diaries been published, or are they available on-line? I’d love to read what “die Engländer’ were up to at more or less the same time as Fritz

^ Martin: Hmmm, never thought about that, but I suppose you’re right yeah.

[As a preliminary PS:

I’m typing this with artillery thundering in the distance.

Oh wait, no…. It’s the Fireworks Festival at Scheveningen….

https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=vuurwerkfestival%20scheveningen

I wonder though whether this is ánything like what Fritz would have heard when he e.g. wrote something like “Guns were thundering in the distance the whole night long”.]

…. Continued from post #26

Oignies, May 10 1915

“Dear family,

I’ve only found time today, Monday, to write you again.

Yesterday it was such glorious weather that, after church in the morning, I decided to take a walk through the Bois d’Epinoy almost up to Carvin.

Then in the afternoon I treated myself to an afternoon-nap untill 4.

And then ofcourse I still had to do my homework (Theme: “How should an officer behave as a superior, and how should he treat his subordinates?”).

You all know too well that I always leave such things to the véry last minute.

And in the evening I really couldn’t resist going to our French shoemaker, with the other guys, for some fried eggs and beer.

You should grab every opportunity to perfect your French, shouldn’t you?”

[And if there were smileys back then he would certainly have inserted one here!]”

“Did you receive the picture taken in Auchy? You’re not writing about that!”

“I like it here. Ofcourse there’s a lot on during the day, and then there’s the homework to do, but it is all very relaxed.

We’ve started from the beginning again: marching and saluting. But now it’s how to teach new recruits that same thing.

Today we were at the shootingrange, shooting free-hand at targets.

The winner had 26 points, and I came second with 25. And that with a rifle I didn’t know !

You should know that in the trenches you have a different rifle every 5 minutes, and that is not always to your advantage. My old one shot too high, now I seem to have one that shoots too far to the right. The trick is to get used to the rifle, and knowing exactly what you want to hit.”

“On Sunday [9 th May 1915] the English tried to attack our Stellung again, but ofcourse, as should be the case, they got the lid on their nose again. Hopefully they didn’t thrash our beautiful, newly built, barbed wire defences. Don’t want to make new ones.”

Bersée, 13 May 1915

“It seems like their intention is to take us on a tour of Northern France : we’ve been relocated again!.

New troops were coming into Oignies, the 25 th Regiment [Infanterie-regiment von Lútzow (1. Rheinisches) Nr. 25 ]

It looks like they’re planning something in the neighbourhood, the whole 8th army is moving here from Verdun to reinforce the 7th.

Whether that is to show off to the Italians, of whether it is because 3 French armies are on their way here from Arras I do not know.

One says this, the other that. But what is the truth?

In any case all is well here.

The rumour goes the feldpost doesn’t get through anymore. I sincerely hope thát is not true!”

“The march to Bersée yesterday was beautiful, with all the appletrees in blossom. I have to admit though it was a bit too warm for my liking.

Everything here looks green and lush. The grain is about 1 mtr high already. All that is harvested here is ofcourse for Germany. They’ve calculated that the crops here in occupied France are sufficient to feed the whole population of Germany for 40 days.

Because the crops here ripen a little earlier than in Germany they can be used to plug a really dangerous hole. Hopefully the war ends before the grain ripens.”

“Bersée is a beautiful little town, a little bigger than Oignies.

There aren’t many good shops, but that’s because there haven’t been soldiers here yet who could spend some money.

Also the civilian population isn’t as friendly.

We’re billeted in a school. The children must have loved it when we arrived: the classes were still running and were stopped right there and then.

We carried all the furniture out, carried straw in and then our little hut was ready.”

“This morning we had church in the grounds of the local castle.

The Catholic division-pastor preached.

Didn’t take long, the Catholics are always a bit faster than the Evangelicals”

[Langdon]

JWK,

They are the personal papers of Major General Sir Cecil Lothian Nicholson KCB CMG deposited at the Imperial War Museum in 1983 by his nephew Colonel JL Nicholson. There's an extract in Malcolm Brown & Shirley Seaton's book "Christmas Truce" (London Secker and Warburg 1984) but it's not been published in full. I spent a fascinating afternoon at the IWM transcribing the relevant entries relating to my great uncle in the East Lancs (photocopying is a laborious and expensive process). At the age of 20 he was thrown into a particularly attritional and barely shifting area of the frontline - when Neuve Chapelle was in German hands.

The entries are not philosophical as befitting an officer such as Lothian Nicholson but they have their moments: "19 November 1914 - over 50 men had to have their boots cut off and were carried to the Field Ambulance. To make matters worse our doctor - a drunken little beast - said the men were frostbitten and could think nothing better to do than put their feet in hot water with the result that several men lost toes and one or two a foot. This was our first experience of 'trench foot'... 5th-7th December 1914 - Succeeded in getting rid of our drunken doctor, carousing with stretcher bearers on the rum ration. He was succeeded by a first-rate man named Iles who was unfortunately wounded on the 19th and died the following day."

I stopped my research at 3rd February 1915 but there was a lot more there - with the Battle of Neuve Chapelle approaching...

MIke

[Martin Feledziak]

I am happy to read that Fritz is hopeful for an end to war. This is now the second time that he has indicated his own desire for an end to

hostilities and this is still early 1915. Also another interesting thing is that crops are harvested and taken back to Germany.

[JWK]

Mike, that's interesting. Thanks for posting. A bit grizzly, but then that was their reality then.

....continued from post # 29

Bersée, 16 may 1915

“Today I’m sending you some postcards, so that you can see what Bersée looks like.

On the card of the Rue de la Motte you can see the schoolbuilding where we’re billeted, the second house on the left with the little turret. [A chimney actually] ”

[And on the internet I found this picture of Rue de la Motte, Bersée with on the second house from the left a “little turret”

(This is NOT the actual postcard Fritz sent, but I deduce the postcard he sent was very similar, if not the same, to this one):

Comparing that to the view 98 years later (courtesy of Google Streetview) ….

…would make this the building where Fritz was staying for 1 week or so back in May 1915.

]

“As you can see the church is the most beautiful building of the whole village, which is the case in every village here. T

he countryside is also beautiful: vast grainfields, dotted with farms that look well-kept, many orchards and little clumps of trees here and there.

A bit like the countryside around Mettmann [a town between Düsseldorf and Barmen/Wuppertal]

The farmers can ofcourse not keep the grain they harvest here. In exchange the population here receives American flour.

The bread they bake with that is, by the way, “ganz miserabel”, and also not very nutritious. I’ve tried it once. I like our bread better. “

Bersée, 19 May 1915

“Haven’t received any letters or packages from you since my last letter.

As usual our Kompagnie is a bit slack when it comes to post. Other Kompagnies get their post delivered every day. “

“The course is nearly at the end. Maybe before Whitsunday, but in any case after the holidays we go back to our Kompagnie.

And as is always the case : nobody knows exactly when.”

Fritz is not too overenthusiastic about the course, he didn’t learn many new things, but he’s happy he has experienced it.

He has no illusions whatsoevere that he’ll be one of the students to be shipped off to Döberitz (in Germany) for further education.

“I’m not the worst student, but I certainly am not the best either”

“Best case scenario I get my Knöpfe in a few weeks [“My pip”: promotion to Gefreiter / Lance-Corporal –Is that the correct rank in English? - ], but that is for the Kompagnie to decide.”

“I’m slightly worried about the march back to the front. It’s about 30-40 Kms and the weather has changed significantly.

It seems like it’s going to be raining for the foreseeable future.”

“Wouldn’t mind staying here, it’s a nice little town. We have set up our own Stammtisch in a tiny shop in the village (We’re not allowed to go into the big shops or cafes.)

10 centimes per cup of coffee, and if you buy 2 you get the third one for free.

You will be amazed by how well I can converse with these people, and how well I understand them eventhough they have a terrible accent.

Huit (eight) they pronounce at oat e.g., Allemagne as Alleman, paysan (farmer) as pisang.

I find them sometimes hard to understand.”

“Did you finally receive the picture I sent you from Auchy? You’re not writing about that?”

To be continued…..

PS: to the casual reader it may look like Fritz wrote a lot.

Well, you’re not wrong: that he did, big time. It took me 440 scans to scan all his letters.

And we’ve pipped half-way post. The above was letter # 45 (of the 88 he wrote) .

What I post is just snippets that I think are of interest to you.

I could be wrong ofcourse, that is also a possibility.

Maybe you’re just interested in what was sent in that mountain of feldpost-packets he received?

I’ll put up a list of the contents later, but as a preview: it ranges from a Browning with ammo, to a bottle of cognac, to lobster-in-mayonaise, to fresh cherries, to….

Fritz writes, and his family sends !

[Martin Feledziak]

For me everything is interesting so I look forward to your updates.

How strange to get a gun and ammo sent through the post.

I was just wondering if Fritz still has any living family ?

Martin

[JWK]

If there are any relatives of Fritz still alive then it must be descendants of his three sisters.

And one of those apparently kept the letters together all that time, so they must have meant something to him/her.

But somewhere along the line the connection between the letters and the family got severed.

Was he/she “the last in the line”, and there were no direct relatives alive anymore? Was their meaning lost to the newer generations?

Guess we’ll never know.

What I do know is that, once I'm "done" with Fritz's letters (That is: after I've finished this post, and perhaps perhaps the book), they will be donated, as one single lot never to be seperated, to a museum, an archive, anything. I own them, but they don't belong to me.

….continued from post #32

Course ended right on time, and on Friday 21st May 1915 they march back to the front.

On Thursdaynight 20th May there was the Farewell party “It was great fun. We all sat around in the grass in a meadow outside the village, and the officers served us beer, sigarettes etc. And there was a piano ofcourse”

We find Fritz back in Douvrin on 22nd May 1915.

And a whole bunch of letters and feldpost-packets was waiting for him.

Including a letter from Paul Bonert, his cousin, telling him that Erich (Paul’s brother) had been killed in action. (9 May 1915, near Ostend/Belgium.)

“I hope Erich did not feel any pain in his last minutes. That is something that we, here at the front, always wish for ourselves should it then come to our own bitter end.”

“When we were away our Kompagnie had some heavy days at the front. They were sent to reinforce the 56’ers at La Bassée, and suffered many casualties. “ [ = Second Battle of Artois. Kompagnie 1 and 6 were sent to the 56’ers, and Fritz was in Kompagnie 6, so this course may well have saved his life. For now at least. ]

A bit of talk about the lice : “Nothing, but then absolutely nothing, helps against those little animals. All you can do is check your clothes every night and every morning, and nip any you can find.”

And the garden back home ofcourse “It gives me great pleasure to hear everything is growing so well, and that father likes to work in the garden [ His father has been a bit sickly lately]. Hope you did not forget to trim the almondtree. If you don’t it won’t flower so well next year.

When the big irisses start to flower, can you then send me please a flower from those right at the back, on the right. I’d love to see what it looks like, it’s supposed to be a really special iris. If the little sign is still there : it’s called “Lohengrin” “

Can't find in his letters any acknowledgement that Fritz actually ever saw this beloved iris, but 99 years later wé can :

 

“The fighting at Arras does not spread to our sector, so you can be reassured.

I don’t think the English will attack here any time soon. First of all they had a bad time against the 56’ers to our right not so long ago, and they say themselves in the Times that our sector here to the left of the Canal is stronger than they thought, and impenetrable. Perhaps you read that too, it was also in the Kölner Zeitung.”

Italy joining the allied wareffort does not worry him too much : “I am of the opinion that this Lumpengesindel [= riff-raff] is in urgent need of a beating, so that they don’t know what has happened to them, or what is up or what is down.

When the Italian declaration of war became known here we all shouted at the top of our lungs “Hurrah!”, and the English got so frightened that they all started to shoot. It can only be to our good when they throw away their ammunition like that.

We’re all convinced that this new enemy will not change the outcome of the war, although maybe peace is a bit further away now.

“It’s relatively quiet here. The English artillery now and then sends some grenades towards the 57’ers, but they leave us in peace most of the time. Now and then a mine, or a shrapnell, but they cause no damage. All they do is keep us awake at night.

I annoyed them [the English] greatly this morning : I shot one of their periscopes. And as a thank you they sent me a lot of gunfire and a few shrapnells ! “

“I was very happy with Else’s letter [Else is his sister] , even though it was only half a letter.

Please tell her that next time she doesn’t have to apologise two pages long for not writing.

And when you think “Alright! Here we go finally!” she starts apologising again!”

Edited 20 August , 2022 by JWK

[Martin Feledziak]

Here, I think Fritz, comes to terms with the fact that the war will not end. It is so sad because from what you tell us he is just a "Normal Guy".

Is it wrong for a man to like flowers ? or to be concerned in the pruning of an Almond tree ?.

I think he is a kind person, but I form this impression only from what you tell us from the letters.

Also He has to be a good shot to take out a periscope,

The bad news is that we all know that his ultimate appointment is September

[JWK]

I don’t think there is anything wrong for a man to like flowers! Most professional gardeners are men.

If Fritz had lived, and if convention would have allowed him to (After all he’s a well-educated factoryowner’s son in 1910’s German society) he would have become a flowergrower, a gardener, a forester something like that.

And if society had “demanded” him to get some office-job he’d be growing orchids in the greenhouse in the backgarden.

Fritz does certainly not strike me as a true warrior, more as a young lad who’s doing “his duty for his country and his family”. He’s not really interested in the army (e.g. the officer’s course was a welcome distraction, but nothing more than that. He has no intentions of becoming an officer), and it’s only for a year (He’s a “one-year volunteer”)

He is (ofcourse) convinced of Germany’s superiority, he does not question the decisions of the army (although he can be a bit rebellious at times), and sees the English not so much as the sworn enemy but much more as annoying (by keeping him awake at night e.g.) .

Anyway, time to compose the next installment.

[JWK]

….continued from post #34

It’s May 30, 1915 and Fritz writes a letter from the trenches at the Prellbock stellung

“The “Officer-candidate training course” continues in Douvrin. Every Wednesday- and Saturday-morning . I’m not going though, because nobody told me about it. So I assume I wasn’t good enough, or they favoured those guys that have been “Im Felde” [= in the field] longer than I . Well, either way I don’t really care. I’m not gonna make a fuss about it. As I wrote before, a promotion means nothing to me. All I want is to return to Germany safe and fast, and then I’ll find my own way .

I hope you think the same way. In any case I’ve had a 3-week summer-holiday that did me the world of good. So case closed.

As I wrote before I’m doing fine. The English here are very well-behaved lately. That is ofcourse because we have so much artillery now, and they always get the respectful answer should they decide to be naughty [= 3 German shells for every English shell]. They also are low on munition.

Also “next door” at the 56’ers [They are based at La Bassée, on the other side of the canal] it is slowly becoming quieter. When it is so quiet life here is extremely boring really.

But then there are always those little things that make you smile, like : 2 days ago two Bärmer [= guys from Barmen], whom I know from back in Kevelaer and Don etc., tied some ropes to some English Spanish Riders, in the morning right before sunset when visibility is at its lowest, and then when it got light again they pulled those Riders towards our own trenches! Would have loved to see the long faces of the English! At our Kompagnie this is ofcourse not possible because the English are 300 metres away.”

[so this happened further south, towards or around Hohenzollern Redoubt, where No-Mans-land was only about 50 metres wide]

And his puttees (His wickelgamaschen) got stolen ! He saw a guy walking around with them, and he approached him but this guy wouldn’t give them back. So he talked to the Feldwebel, who will arrange that this guy will be in the cachot for three days.

Fritz doesn’t really care about the wickelgamaschen, “but much more about getting one of those guys, and exposing him. Theft is becoming a more and more regular occurrence now.”

[Ulrich]

Very interesting. He was member of the 6th. Kompagnie (depending on the Verlustliste and the photo) and there exist an book from 1927 with the history about that Regiment. BTW. I am archivist in Germany and if you need some help for "translation" please ask. It is my job to read the "Sütterlin" words.

[JWK]

Ulrich,

yes, indeed, he was 6th Kompagnie aka Prellbock Kompagnie.

I have the "Erinnerungsblätter deutscher Regimenter Preussiches Kontingent Band 208", the "war-diary" of the Hacketäuers. Fritz is no 2169 on théir Verlustliste

If you can read German it makes for impóssibly interesting reading. A few hours gone at the least once you start reading it

Scaled most of the Deutsche Kurrent/Sutterlin hurdles, but there are a few words I'm not quite certain about (But they appear in the October letters so no hurry) , so might call in your expertise for those. Thanks for the offer!

Jan Willem

[JWK]

....continued from post #37

“Prellbock, 3rd June 1915

Dear family,

Only now I find the time to write to you. Not through my fault, the English are to blame for that.

The day before yesterday they shelled us again with some mines, and this time they had the luck to finally aim well. One mine landed on the shelter of our machinegun, our sandbags flew everywhere and the whole trench was filled with rubbish. Nobody got injured luckily.

So we had to work the last two nights and the whole day yesterday to clean it all up.

And when you’re busy like that the whole night and the whole day, you can imagine that when you have a few minutes off – you can’t really talk of hours – you use them to get some shut-eye, and nothing else..

I try ofcourse, as much as possible, to write to you every Wednesday and Sunday, but sometimes that is just not possible.”

“it is relatively peaceful here. We have nothing to do with the fighting at Arras. And if someone tells you that we took part in the Lorettoschlacht [=“second battle of Artois”], do not believe them. I know from Frau Steigleder that one guy wrote home that we were in that battle, but that is not true. So again: it’s peaceful here. Don’t let other people tell you things. If something happens here then I’ll write to you about it.

It won’t come to an attack here. Our stellung is being extended, at most places we now have 6-8 lines of trenches. The English can come when they like, we are ready for them. But they are not thinking of attacking it seems, every night we can see them improving their barbed wire defences.

Our 8th Kompagnie blew up a nice part of their trenches this morning, the fall-out landed quite near us even though we are 800-1000 metres away. They used 24 Zentner of dynamite [= 1200 kgs].

All this blowing up is ofcourse not good, but if we don’t blow thèm up they’ll blow ús up”

And although he didn’t shed one tear when he wasn’t selected for the follow-up course for aspiring officers, Fritz does not let go.

He uses his/his family’s contacts, and now some big wig from back home has written to Herr Leutnant, to see if after all Fritz can be admitted to the follow-up course.

“Douvrin, 5th June 1915

We came out of the trenches yesterday and are now in Douvrin, 4 days of rest. Yesterday was quite interesting: The English attacked the 56’ers to our right. We could see it all.

First there was their artillery, and then they came out of their trenches in a relaxed way. Our machineguns did their job however and they quickly retreated.

The 56’ers are said to have taken 200 prisoners, and 2 machineguns. Whether that is true I don’t know. Did you read anything about it in the papers?”

And Fritz got his wickelgamaschen back ! He talked to his Kompagnie-commander about this, and he asked his commander not to pursue the case, so the young offender got off lightly with a few days of “Anschluss” (= doing tedious chores for the Kompagnie, like fetching water etc., during his rest-days) “So now the whole Kompagnie knows what he did, and that is what's most important to me “

Not being selected for the follow-up course, even though he cares not one bit about that course, still bugs Fritz to no extent.

“I can only get annoyed when I see that guys, who have done no better than I, áre selected just because they are students and I am not!”

The letters from back home had no effect, “It’s all being decided on Regimental level, Sir, I can't do anything about it”, so Fritz is gonna try himself to see whether he can persuade Herr Leutnant (Leutnant Stennes, the Kompagnie-commander) to let him attend the next follow-up course.

“We get along famously, so let’s wait and see.

If there are heavy things to be schlepped around e.g., and he sees that I too have to schlepp around stuff, then he always calls me to him, and assigns me to a lighter job.

By the way he is even younger than me! A few weeks ago, when we had just arrived in Oignies, he celebrated his 19th birthday with the whole Kompagnie. I think it’s rare that someone of such a young age is already a Kompagnie-commander. But then he is very competent, and wounded several times already, I believe it’s 4 times. “

[JWK]

.....continued from post # 40

Fritz is at rest in Douvrin for 4 days, and he’s enjoying himself and describes a day in the life of a German soldier at rest :

“Last night I slept like never before : got to bed at 10:30, woke up this morning at 09:30. Just in time, as it was excercise at 10:00. I slept on the floor, with my coat over me. I don’t sleep on the matresses anymore, they’re full of lice.

Yesterday we were all deloused. All our stuff, blankets etc were desinfected in a bakingoven. In the meantime I took a nice bath, and put on clean clothes. But also from this I don’t expect miracles, at the most a few days and then the little wrecks are back.

But back to the theme: so this morning 1 hour of excercise, followed by “Frühschoppen” [= morning-pint]. I always love that, make you feel supple again [ Whether he means the exercise or the pint is not quite clear]

Then lunch, rice with pickled vegetables, followed by an afternoon-nap untill 15:30.

Coffee.

And then off to the readingroom where I lost myself in the “Lüstige blätter” [comics], Simplicissimus [ a German satirical magazine] etc. It is so nice to read such things alongside the Liller Kriegszeitung or the General Anzeiger.

Then at 6 dinner for which 5 eggs were sacrificed, and after that a Promenade-concert (Today only works by Wagner), which is always very nice.

Then we had cocoa from the fieldkitchen, with bread and butter, and cheese, smoked meat, sausage etc.

Everything ofcourse with the obligitary accompaniment of cigarettes. “

A few days later he’s back in the trenches:

“I could use some jam and cigarettes. Especially cigarettes, I smoke a lot these days. But it is not so bad, as we are always outside. I smoke not for the smoking itself, but more to keep myself awake when I’m on guardduty at night. And the smoke is good against the enormous amount of flies here, and against the horrific smell, that is especially strong now in this warm weather. “

[And he describes that smell quite graphically]

“We had a terrible night last night : it stormed and rained hard, and it was pitchblack. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The English didn’t shoot one shot all night, which is so not like them. They also didn’t shoot any flares.

We all thought ofcourse they were up to something, and maybe wanted to come over and visit us during the night. So you can imagine how stressfull it was when we heard (we couldn’t see a thing) something rustling near the barbed wire. We shot a flare, and it turned out it was just a damned rat that quickly made an escape.

And it went on like that for the whole night, it was truly terrifying. We were só glad when it started to get light again.

Especially at the Prellbock we have to watch out as there is an old English trench in our stellung, that is still connected in some way to the English trenches opposite us. So they could easily creep up on us through there, not with many ofcourse.

When it is still light I always aim my gun at that trench, and then shoot a bullet through every few minutes during the night. “

But whatever happens : flowers, and the garden back home, are never far from Fritz's mind :

“It pleases me enormously to hear the garden is doing so well, and all the plants are in flower. The first iris to flower should be the first one on the right in the flowerbed. The yellow flowers are mountain lilys. Did the papaver, the light-red one with white and black spots, flower already? “

[JWK]

.... continued from post #42

Describing the Second Action of Givenchy, 15-16 June 1915

Douvrin, 20 June 1915

“At the moment we’re enjoying our 4-day rest again. And this time we really deserve it.

We had an awful lot of work to do following the attack by the English. You can read about it in the Tagesbericht of the 16 th. The English apparently had the idea to also attack our sector, but they refrained from that after they had a devastating defeat towards our right [Opposite side of the canal, at Givenchy-la Bassée] , so we only got the artillery barrage which precedes an attack.

But then not even our Kompagnie, as were in the reserve-trenches at the time.

When we got into the first line trenches on the 17^th I can tell you they looked really good : a chaos of sandbags, wood, planks, poles etc. You just couldn’t imagine,

But now everything is tidied up again, even surer and steadier than before.

In the 4 days we were up there the English have tried twice to attack to the right of us.

First time they made it halfway between their trenches and ours, but then our machinegunfire was so effective none returned.

The second time they’d hardly gotten out of their trenches, and they were already bombarded by our artillery. They quickly beat a retreat.

They say that the soldiers refused to come of their trenches a third time, thus the English artillery bombarded thém, but even that didn’t persuade them.”

[The English bombarding their own soldiers??]

Fritz can’t call the 4 days of rest they had a “4 day rest”: “They always had shooting-exercises, exercition etc planned, so that you hardly had any rest. The only good thing was : we went swimming yesterday, and I can tell you that was fantastic ! “

And remember the follow-up aspiring officer’s course? Well, Fritz has not forgotten! Being not selected for the right reasons is no problem for him, but being not selected for the wrong reasons makes his blood boil.

“Got a short note from Hans [Mr BigWig from Barmen.Don’t know his name-sorry] , telling me Leutnant Stennes had written him a letter. And what do you think about that letter from Leutnant Souchay? [Lt Souchay is in charge of education]. I would be thoroughly ashamed of myself if I sent out such a rag. Even more when it is to people you don’t know.”

A staple of Fritz’s letters is ofcourse the garden back home, and the flowers. He’s especially interested in the Lohengrin iris “Did the Lohengrin iris, that is the one at the extreme right, not flower at all, or did the flowers wilt too quickly? And the reason that the Spiraea is not in full bloom is because….” And he continues giving some gardening-tips to his family.

And a little mystery for Fritz:

“Lately I received a packet from Lena Pilgrim. I cannot explain why this particular young lady has done that. Or is the story about the dance-lessons doing the rounds?

The cake she sent was exquisite, and I loved it. But I’d still like to know what the story is about that story.”

[trajan]

And a little mystery for Fritz:

“Lately I received a packet from Lena Pilgrim. I cannot explain why this particular young lady has done that. Or is the story about the dance-lessons doing the rounds?

The cake she sent was exquisite, and I loved it. But I’d still like to know what the story is about that story.”

Let's hope that one gets cleared up!

Julian

[Martin Feledziak]

Just for a little side reading

I am just adding this link from the Long Trail as it appears to fit the time and location of this thread and could be the end of Fritz in September. There are many diagrams of the places Fritz mentions !

P.s I am not looking forward to the end but you have told us it will be September and I have seen it in the Verlustlisten - along with very many 16'ers

http://www.1914-1918.net/bat13.htm

[egbert]

I only discovered this thread today being pointed at by Martin Feledziak. What a remarkable effort to give a lost soul the chance to be represented.

what makes me so sad is the fact that somebody of the late Limbach family just give the family treasure away. This is unacceptable but happens too often. Fortunately it got into Jan's caring hands!

Well done Jan and please carry on.

The ice factory once located in Bismarckstrasse does not exist anymore. Today the street is renamed to Hünefeldstrasse. The complex has been overbuilt by an ugly job center, see picture. It is located at the banks of River Wupper with its even THEN existing world-unique "Schwebebahn". The manor of the Limbach's was located next to the company and , looking at googleearth, may still exist today.

[egbert]

Site of the old ice factory.

Mrs Limbach und cousin Paul Bonert continued running the factory after the war. 1966 saw the ultimate closure of the ice factory.

Price list THEN:

[Martin Feledziak]

Great finds Egbert

I love the flyer - it really adds something to the thread.

[JWK]

Egbert,

Indeed that’s the place. In 1930 the address was Bismarckstrasse 1-19, and the Arbeitsagentur ‘s address is now Hünefeldstrasse 3-17 , so, if they have kept the old numbering, pretty much the whole site of the old Iceworks.

Must have been a big Eiswerk, but can’t seem to find any old photographs of it.

With a bit of luck I’m going to Wuppertal in October to have a look around, and also visit the city-archives. They must have something.

And then at the same time I can ask the archive if they would be interested in taking over the complete collection of letters, pictures and negatives.

Because I may own them now, but they don’t really belong to me. They should be in an archive somewhere, or a museum, or something. As one lot, never to be split up.

…continued from post # 42

16 July 1915

Fritz is in the reserve-trenches, and he finds his family worries too much

“Don’t let other people tell you things, and stop worrying so much, it’s really unnecessary. It doesn’t give me any pleasure really. I’d rather receive letters in which you tell me you’re all doing well. It’s got to be the truth ofcourse though.

So don’t worry when it takes a little longer sometimes for a letter from me to arrive. It could be many reasons: forgetting to post the letter, no time to write, giving it to somebody else to post – who then forgets to post it- etc.

Until now all has gone well, why would that change in the future?”

And Fritz describes “life in the trenches”:

“We’re always 4 days in the front-trench (“the Prellbock”), then 4 days in reserve in the Uhrgraben , and then 4 days rest.

The Prellbock is our first line, opposite the English, distance about 150 to 250 meters.

In the frontline trenches it’s more or less like this : during the day 2 hours guard-duty at the Schiessscharte [ the firingposition] , say from 7-9 or 3-5, depends on when it’s your turn (Our “day” is from 7 in the morning to 9 at night) .

From each group of 8 men there is always 1 one on guard-duty. On guard-duty you have to observe the English, which can be difficult sometimes. During the day with a persicope, at night with your head above the parapet.

At night alternately 2 hours guard-duty and 2 hours work. And "work" is: digging, reinforcing the trenches, building dug-outs etc.

We even have to sweep the trenches in the morning.

Then after 4 days at the Prellbock we are relieved by 5th Kompagnie, and go to the Uhrgraben (so called because the Battalion’s clock is there) for four days, where we work again on the trenches, digging, getting buildingmaterial from Auchy etc.

When we are then back in Douvrin, at rest, it’s marching-exercises, drills, roll-call, swimming. Sometimes an awful lot, but mostly very little.”

“Nothing much to report from here. The English are behaving well again.

They seem to have become a little afraid because of the reinforcements from Russia. They may have a point.

In any case they are now in the habit of starting a Feuerüberfall every night, meaning that without any warning they suddenly start shooting like madmen, only rifle-fire ofcourse. It usually lasts 5 minutes or so.

All we do then is duck away into our dug-outs, and smile to ourselves that they are using up their ammunition for nothing, other than maybe trying to frighten us ? “

“It is funny actually to see the English shooting during such a Feuerüberfall. They pop up over their parapet, shoot and then as quick as possible duck away again.

It’s clear they never hit anything as all their shots are way too high.

Shooting has to be done calmly.”

[old joe]

This is a fascinating thread.

Well done.

regards,

joseph

[Martin Feledziak]

Just a quick question.

Why does this map show a position for the 16'ers, towards the top of the map.

Fritz gives his location by the canal below the 56'ers

Is it possible that they split the regiments into respective Kompanies and 6 Kompanie was posted South of the Canal ?