Imperial Germany’s “Iron Regiment” of the First World War; War Memorie

[German IR 169]

Hi Joe, thanks very much for your comments and appreciate the good words. Thanks also for the information on the books you list above. That indeed must have been a enormous project. I always enjoying coming across another 'Yank' interested in this subject matter. Thanks again and all the best for nice holiday. John Rieth

[Martin Feledziak]

Great Book -

I think the most striking account came from the 1st July 1916 catastrophe as described by Otto Lais. As a machine gunner he describes the misery they endured by the week long barrage and then the hideous slaughter

as they emptied their machine guns into the poor advancing Infantry.

We all need to know these accounts.

The book was well structured and gave me a good understanding of the make up of an infantry Regiment. I would like to have seen more from Albert but I suppose he was lucky to get Hospitalized .His chances of serving the whole of the war from 1914 with IR169 would have been most unlikely.

The Regiment did serve in most of the "hot-spots" so everything is covered.

Good Job

[squirrel]

Excellent book which I thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning from - a great resource. Well done John Reith.

[German IR 169]

Thanks for the good words of encouragement and I am pleased to see you enjoyed the book. All the best for a Happy New Years. John

[trenchtrotter]

Well I have got the the final stages of this book. I must congratulate John on what is a superb book. The narrative, the various extracts from the regimental history and for me the best bit, the soldiers accounts are really well woven together giving an insight to a German trench swines existence.....read Ottoman Lais' account of a year of misery at Serre to see what I mean. The written words of life in Nov / Dec 1916 is truly grim!

I simply like this book. Easy to read, informative and another welcome edition for the other side. With Jack Sheldons volumes, Ralph Whiteheads books and other German accounts on my bookshelves I feel a gap has been filled....thankyou all.

Now can someone do the same for France for us English only readers.

Well done John.

TT

[German IR 169]

TT, Thanks very much for your kind words and I am pleased to see you enjoyed the book. All the best! John

[themonsstar]

Do you have to order the book for the USA as I'm looking at:

Order Summary

Items: GBP 11.85 Shipping & handling:

GBP 16.79

Is it on sale in the UK.

Cheers Roy

[paulgranger]

Can you use Amazon France? it's on sale on that site, apparently in the English version for a fair bit less than you mention above.

[themonsstar]

Cheers Paul

Just had a look on abe books and got a copy for £19:60 and no P/P.

[paulgranger]

That's better value.

[trenchtrotter]

Roy you won't regret this purchase. I am now down to the last few pages and in the Argonne. It is a very readable book indeed.

TT

[IanA]

I am three-quarters way through and I am enjoying it, learning quite a bit and concur with all the positive comments above. Bearing that in mind, the book deserved a decent proof-reader and some of the translations are 'clunky' to say the least. I do appreciate the amount of work that has gone into producing such a book - if it had been a poor affair I wouldn't have bothered making these comments.

[Martin Feledziak]

I am surprised that Egbert has not locked onto this thread.

his dancing ant is not here.

I am sure he would approve.

He does champion all contributers offering material from the lower reaches of the Western Front.

We are all here studying history. Certainly it is the reason why I read the forum

The truth is that many of us need stuff translating… Perhaps because we are lazy..

I have to admit that I only use English so I hold my hands up as being such a lazy person.

But I am keen to take in all information.

So it follows that there is a considerable portion of outstanding material in this book.

[JMB1943]

John,

This thread caught my eye because my grandfather served as a rifleman and bomb-thrower in the 2nd Bn. Royal Sussex Regt. in F&F from Jan. '15 to demobilization in Feb. '1919; he was one of only 6 men in his company (~200+ men) to survive neither wounded nor killed. According to my father, he would very rarely talk about the war, so I am very much looking forward to reading your grandfather's account of an "other ranker" in the trenches.

I do have the War Diary of 2 RSR, so will be interested to learn if our grandfathers were ever within rifle range of each other !

2 RSR was given the nickname "The Iron Regiment" by German prisoners taken on Nov. 1st, 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres because of its' stout resistance.

Regards,

JMB

[German IR 169]

Hi JMB, thanks much for your note, please let me know if you ever determine that 2RSR ever crossed paths with IR 169. I hope you enjoy the book. John

[JMB1943]

Hello John,

Your book arrived yesterday, so I have not had time to read it properly. However, I did "spin the pages" looking for any familiar place names and some jumped off the pages at me straightaway.

From their War Diary, the 2nd RSR (England's "Iron Regt.") was heavily involved in the fighting at La Bassee, Guinchy and defending the brickstacks (that you describe on p. 98-102) and my grandfather had joined the battalion on 18/19th January, 1915. Your own grandfather (IR 169; Germany's "Iron Regt.") was apparently wounded in the period 19-21 January, so they may well have been within rifle-shot of each other at that time. It looks like you and I have not that many degrees of separation !

I am looking forward to reading your book with the attention it deserves; thank you so much for writing it.

Best Regards,

John

[stiletto_33853]

Just ordered, looking forward to reading this.

Andy

[German IR 169]

Thanks Andy and John, appreciate your comments. John, that is a remarkable story about how our Grandfathers possibly opposed each other just over 100 years ago at La Bassee. (I'm just glad that the Tommy that shot him there wasn't a better shot!) The Regiment fought in a lot of tough places, but La Bassee is up at the top of the list for the misery factor. Thanks again for your comments. Take care, John Rieth

[Martin Feledziak]

I am just dropping this link on for additional reading.

Fritz took up the trenches that Albert probably occupied…

They were the trenches that IR169 fought over early 1915. Much blood was spilt on both sides..

Fritz died.. in September 1915

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=216051&page=1

[Grandpacarr]

Hi John, I have just discovered a link to your book , and ordered it imediately. I am trying to find out as much as I can about the place my dear Grandad went over the top, with the first Bradford Pals. He was one of the lucky ones (and lucky for me as well) as he had several German Machine gun bullets in him. Of course he would not talk about it to me. Later in life ,I asked my Grandmother if he had talked to her about it. All she told me that he sometimes would talk about the friends he made and lost. She also told me that he was on several occasions offered the chance to return to the old battlefields with the Bradford Pals Old Comrades, but it must have been too painfull for him as he would not go. He apparently told her that he spent a long time trying to get out of France so why would he want to go back. I am sure it was not that he hated France,More like he wished to have an end to the War and get back home to his wife etc.

I have been trying to find as much as I can about the German Forces on the other side of no - mans land and Have read both of Ralph Whiteheads excellent books "The Other Side of The Wire" I must say I found it very uncomfortable reading about the demise of thousands of British Soldiers on the Serre Battlefield, but I just had to carry on reading it though as I wished to know about the men of IR 169. I am looking forward to reading you book. Cheers Andy.

[German IR 169]

Hi Andy, thanks very much for the interest in the book. The courage of those British soldiers who went over the top at the Somme is indeed hard to fathom. What I found so interesting in my research is the hell that continued there, especially in the Serre region, all the way through the rest of 1916. I hope you enjoy the book and welcome your comments. We are both fortunate to have memories of our Grandfather's service, and I wrote the book for the specific purpose of trying fill some holes for those interested. Thanks again for reaching out.

John Rieth

[German IR 169]

Greetings Forum Members: I wanted to provide a brief update on the status of my book, "Imperial Germany's Iron Regiment of the First World War; War Memories of Service with Infantry Regiment 169 1914-1918. " which was published by Badgley Publications in October 2014. I first would like to start with a sincere thanks to all the members who purchased the book and in particular those who provided valued comments. The book has generated some positive input, especially from those with interest in a German infantryman's perspective of the Great War. In the past few weeks, I created a website for the book; www.ironregiment169.com. Included on the website is a link to GoogleMaps, which has a map that displays all of the significant locations of IR 169's First World War journey. Readers should find this a useful tool to track the Regiment's movements over many of the major campaigns of the Western Front. Also included in the website are photographs of the regiment, book reviews and the story behind its creation.

I am also pleased to announce that an excerpt of a chapter of the book will be featured in the August/September edition of History Magazine (www.history-magazine.com). The article, titled "First Blood at Mulhouse" describes Regiment 169's role in this first major engagement of World War One.

Thanks again for your support, its always a pleasure to hear from forum members.

Regards, John Rieth

[Martin Feledziak]

The map pins are a cracking idea, when I first started to read your book I did it with Google Earth open, tying to plot the movements of 169, but I had much trouble with the spellings of the places.

So your map is just the job.

Good work

[Guest]

Hello all,

 

I'm new here but I have a story to share about a member of the regiment 169 who was shot before he had the chance to actually fire a shot himself. You can find the story under the title "Paul Ehrhardt" here: http://members.iinet.net.au/~lintzer1/defreitas/

 

Cheers,

 

Geoff

[German IR 169]

Hi Geoff, this was a fascinating story and thanks very much for sharing.  It really speaks to the confusion of the first days of the war, and those that got caught up on the wrong side of international business, and leading to charges of espionage.  I also found it interesting that Ehrhardt's body was transferred to the cemetery in Lahr, which was IR 169's regimental headquarters.   Best Regards, John Rieth