How underage German boys reached the front WITHOUT lying about their age...

[bierast]

This should prove quite an eye-opener! Sadly the sources are quite scanty, but fascinating. In this article I look at two highly unofficial routes to the front for young boys, neither of which (I suspect) were necessarily exclusive to Germany:

 

1. Volunteering to serve in the rear area as a boy scout messenger, then sneaking into the forward zone
2. Running away from home and sneaking onto a troop train

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/german1914/permalink/765116544333391/

 

All Facebook likes / shares very much appreciated, I'm on an all-out publicity offensive for our new Pen & Sword title 'For King and Kaiser'!

[AOK4]

Hello Andy,

 

I describe the story of Rudolf Mogk from RIR 242 in my book "De Duitse militaire begraafplaatsen van de Eerste Wereldoorlog in Moorslede".

 

Jan

[bierast]

5 hours ago, AOK4 said:

I describe the story of Rudolf Mogk from RIR 242 in my book "De Duitse militaire begraafplaatsen van de Eerste Wereldoorlog in Moorslede".

 

Thankyou Jan, this is an excellent addition! As you can tell I hadn't combed through all the regimental histories as systematically as I would for work on a book.

To summarise quickly for the rest of you: Joseph Rudolf Mogk (known as 'Sepp' or 'Seppl') was a sixteen-year-old orphan who was working as a 'lift boy' (at a hotel?) in Bad Nauheim before the war. He smuggled himself aboard the train of II.  Batl. / RIR 242 on their war to the front, was caught on 13th October 1914 when they reached Würzburg and was emphatically forbidden from accompanying the unit. Strikingly, another two underage Pfadfinder were caught when the train reached Frankfurt-am-Main, and sent home by the Bahnhofskommandantur. However 'Sepp' had concealed himself under one of the battalion's baggage wagons and reappeared on arrival, when it was too late to send him back. The boy quickly made himself popular, entertaining the men with his witty remarks and showing a great talent for scrounging food and drink for them - which he continued to bring to them even in the front line. After a while he acquired a dog cart for his work, which was subsequently destroyed by an artillery hit which 'Sepp' himself barely escaped. In November he blagged a horse from a Flemish farmer, which soon disappeared too (sold according to him, stolen by artillerymen according to others).

In December 1914 'Sepp' was sent back to the regiment's designated training unit, the Ersatz-Bataillon of IR 102 in Bautzen. There he was trained as an infantryman, and joined 8. Komp. / RIR 242 in the field in March 1915. He was a popular and fearless but perpetually scruffy soldier, skilled at scrounging for his unit and at forward patrolling in No Man's Land. On 15th May he was awarded the Iron Cross (it doesn't say whether 1st or 2nd class in the source, I'll try to find out). In recognition of his achievement, it was decided that the regiment would pay for him to be apprenticed in a good trade after the war.

After the assault on Verlorenhoek on 24th May 1915, 'Sepp' went crawling out into No Man's Land on reconnaissance despite being expressly told not to do so. Despite his apparent belief in his own invincibility, he was shot dead. Initially buried in the regimental cemetery at the Passchendaele-Moorslede railway station, he now rests at Langemarck (grave B/14777).

[Guest]

i believe you could voluntarily enlist in the german army as well as conscription being in place so i would assume some managed to successfully pass as being 18 or older

Edited 6 August , 2020 by Guest

[bierast]

1 hour ago, matt21 said:

i believe you could voluntarily enlist in the german army as well as conscription being in place so i would assume some managed to successfully pass as being 18 or older

 

Minimum legal age for volunteers was 17. As briefly mentioned in the article my article linked to above, it was apparently quite easy to get away with lying about your age in summer 1914. Some of the boys under discussion may well have tried this avenue first, but looked so young that they couldn't pull off the deception and were rejected; they then resorted to stowing away on troop trains. Others like Fritz Lehmann were known to be underage, and volunteered for a non-military role as auxiliary messengers in the rear areas... before sneaking forward into the combat zone.

[egbert]

I read a couple of contemporary German books in the past 4 weeks. The answer from what I took is 16

[RegHannay]

A common problem on both sides of the front line. In my grandfathers diary there is an entry Tues 24 Aug 1915. 7th Battalion E.S.R

"Felt quite well again, only one trivial casualty today, a graze of a finger by bullet. The lad said he was 19 but I laughed and he confessed to being 17 and looked 16. Nice boy and so proud of his wound, which thank god was a mere scratch."

Lets hope he stayed lucky. (Possibly not, just found -7020 Pte Clark. Victor. Age 16. KIA 31st Feb 1916 7th Battalion E.S.R.)

Edited 7 August , 2020 by RegHannay
added info

[bierast]

I've just found another curious case in the Korpstagesbefehl (corps order of the day) of XXVII.RK for 11th December 1914.

 

"Two 14 to 16-year-old German boys have early this morning betaken themselves from Dadizeele, probably to troops at the front. These [boys] come from Aachen and belong to the Aachen Jugendwehr. One of them is wearing a kind of Litewka [undress uniform jacket] with red facings on the collar and plain buttons with a round slouch hat, the other wears the attire of the Jugendwehr with insignia on the arm and cap. If encountered by the troops, the two boys are immediately to be brought to the Generalkommando [corps HQ] in Dadizeele."

 

It seems to imply that members of the Aachen Jugendwehr (see the photo captions in my linked article on Facebook for an explanation of what that was) were present in an authorised capacity in the corps HQ village of Dadizele - conceivably there were other members of the party beyond these two who went on a jaunt to the trenches. Given the proximity of Aachen to the Belgian border, the organised presence of their local Jugendwehr in occupied Belgium (though not so far westward!) is perhaps not so surprising.
 

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

Hi, my grandfather (2/5th LF) was involved in a patrol near Aveluyon 27 August 1915 in which a young German soldier was killed. In his diary my grandfather reports his age as 18. I am not sure whether that is because that was what his appearance suggested, or from his ID tag, or possibly information from the German who was taken prisoner in the same engagement. Anyway, I have since found details of his grave on Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, which gives his date of birth as 18 July 1898, so he would have been only about 6 weeks past his 17th birthday when he died. Assuming that he would have had some months' training back in Germany after joining up, prior to being sent to the Front, this suggests that (unless he had lied about his age or used one of the other routes suggested in this thread) the minimum age for German volunteers enlisting, even so early in the War, may have been 16 (which I think is what is suggested by LG Egbert in his post). Does anyone know whether this was so?

[mebu]

How old is this chap? Looks about 16 to me. Anyone know the length of the rifle?

 

Peter

[AOK4]

mebu,

 

No one under 17 and a half was ever called up in Germany (class 1920, so born in 1900 was called up mid 1918 and the first ones arrived at the front line by September/October 1918). And this was the same for France, I believe.

 

Whoever served when they were younger, did so voluntarily.

 

Jan

[mebu]

In the Documents Repository are some pics, one of which is a named German boy who fought at the Somme, age 16.

[DavidIsby]

I spoke to a German veteran who told me he was "called up" in 1917 aged 17 and his account was credible.  I have heard of the same happening second-hand from people who knew the soldier well (one a grandfather and the other a doktorvater).    From personal experience in the 1960s and early 70s in the USA, I was aware that differentiating conscription and volunteering is not an easily identifiable binary distinction, let alone in 1917 Germany, short of manpower and dependent on rationing.  Nominal volunteers may have perceived this as being called up.

 

I

[AOK4]

5 hours ago, DavidIsby said:

I spoke to a German veteran who told me he was "called up" in 1917 aged 17 and his account was credible.  I have heard of the same happening second-hand from people who knew the soldier well (one a grandfather and the other a doktorvater).    From personal experience in the 1960s and early 70s in the USA, I was aware that differentiating conscription and volunteering is not an easily identifiable binary distinction, let alone in 1917 Germany, short of manpower and dependent on rationing.  Nominal volunteers may have perceived this as being called up.

 

I

 

Well, the class of 1919 (born in 1899) was called up in the first half of 1917, so the man may not have been fully 18 at that point if he was born late in the year. He could have been at the front by the autumn of 1917.

As I said before, no one under ca 17 and a half was ever called up and arriving at the front at the earliest at 17 and 9 months or so. (as far as I can remember it would have been similar in the French army, but perhaps there's an expert here on the forum who can check this)

 

Jan

[egbert]

All 16 year old I have recently read about in various contemporary WW1 books, lied upon their true age , or falsified documents in order to voluntarily join the Army. Nobody was called up at age 16. Usually at age 17 the boys were called for mandatory "Musterung" to evaluate their health for service. Some were called after "Musterung" to the arms for training when they were about to become 18. An early frontline duty also was more probably when youth from the military schools were called to arms at 17/18. They accomplished their basic training already during military school times and were fit for immediate duty. So a 16 year old always was a "self-employed" or should I say "self-smuggled" individual who was not truthful when asked for his age. I read about  some runaways who managed to sneak into the service. I guess that was universal and also a given a fact in the other Armies like the British

Edited 15 August , 2020 by egbert

[bierast]

I have now published a revised version of my article on our website, incorporating additional material supplied to or found by me after I posted the original:

http://www.royalsaxonarmy.co.uk/royalsaxonarmy/index.php/articles/31-a-boy-scout-in-the-front-line-fritz-lehmann-of-rir-245

All of my weekly posts for Colonel Robinson's Facebook group will eventually appear on here as well as I find the time. Currently I'm working on a series about my German great-grandfather's war with the Saxon artillery - the second part of that will be on the Facebook group this Thursday.