Question

[Hotaru]

Dear all,

being new to the forum I am looking forward to be a part of it!

I am a member of the German "Gesellschaft fuer Heereskunde e.V." (https://www.heereskunde.de/)  which may is best described as a Military History Society.

Every year they are editing a booklet about a special topic to be given to the members.

In 2018 it was "Facetten des Grossen Krieges 1914 - 1918" (Facets of the Great War).

One chapter is dedicated to "Lt. d. Reserve (Art.) Dr. August Metzler im WK 1 1914 -1916" - i.e. extractions from his diary.

Coming to the point now: His battery served in the Carpathian Mountains in the area of Widoma & Lescyna.

On 11th December 1914 he wrote: "...Als Ordonannszoffizier bei Brigade Albrecht (110. Inf. Brig. Rgtr. 219 + 220). Leider ist es immer noch nicht gelungen, die japanische Batterie zu fassen.  Dass Japaner hier sind, ergibt sich aus der Gefangennahme mehrerer..."

Translation: "As Ordonannszoffizier with Brigade Albrecht (110th Inf. Brig. Regiment 219 + 220). Unfortunately, it has still not been possible to capture the Japanese battery. That Japanese are here proofs the capture of several of them."

Does anyone of you may have heard of Japanese Imperial Army activities on the Eastern Front or in Carpathian Region in WW1 before?

I know they dispatched a Navy squadron to the Mediterranean Sea but never heard about Artillery or even Infantry activities before.

Thanks for your attention!

Frank

 

 

 

 

[stevenbecker]

Frank,

Sorry I am no expert here, but is not that Reserve Regts (219 RIR and 220 RIR) of the 94th Res Bde of the 47th Res Div

book of 250 Div's

Was in action

 Detraining in the vicinity of Cracow at the beginning of December, it went into action on the Dunajec (Neu-Sandec) west of Tarnow on the 8th, where it suffered serious check on December 20

So he was a member of the 47th Res FAR

The term Japanese may relate to a type of Artillery gun not that Japanese were using it?

The Russians had just fought the Japanese (1908) so may of had some of there weapons with them?

But there are many more on this site with better details then me.

S.B

Edited 7 June , 2023 by stevenbecker

[Hotaru]

Hi Steven,

thanks for your reply!

Can be possible, or that he had mistaken Russian Soldiers of Asian descent for Japanese.

Nevertheless, living in Japan I was quite surprised to read his sentences.

Best regards,

Frank

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

There are many such mentions by Allied soldiers at Gallipoli, where we were using Japanese weapons for indirect fire on the Ottoman works.

So did the Russians still have weapons left over, or the aquiried them from the Japanese, its hard to say from the coment by the German Officer.

S.B

[stevenbecker]

Sorry Yes, you maybe right.

I remember many photos of these men captured by the German Army during WWII

Asian looking does not mean Japanese.

Many Mongal types from their Empire served in the Russian Army, from the East and south 

Is he mistaking them for Japanese 

S.B

[AFO191519]

Hi,

In his book Russo-Japanese Relations, 1905-1917, Berton points out that in autumn 1914, discussions were taking place between London, Paris and Petrograd on the possibility of sending Japanese troops to Europe. But Russia was opposed, believing it did not need more soldiers, but rather weapons. For its part, the Japanese government had been hostile to the idea throughout the war, and in October 1915 it only signed up to the London Convention on the condition that it would not have to send an expeditionary force to Europe.

However, some Japanese volunteers appear to have served in Europe, but after 1914. In March 1915, the newspaper La France Militaire, which was close to the French War Ministry, reported the following:
"A Port Arthur newspaper announced that at the end of February 500 Japanese had signed up to serve as volunteers in the Russian army. If the Russian government accepts their enlistment, the Japanese volunteers from the regions of Tsing-Tao, Manchuria and Vladivostock could be ready to be enrolled in the army within a month." (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4045900j/f2.item)

So there don't seem to have been any Japanese soldiers on the Russian front in December 1914. But there were Japanese guns. In their article Dangerous Rapprochement Russia and Japan in the First World War, 1914-1916, Saveliev and Pestushko report that 350 cannons were sent to Russia between autumn 1914 and April 1915 (https://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/publictn/acta/18/igor-yuri.pdf). Perhaps it was these cannons that the Germans captured?

[Moonraker]

Wiltshire is a long way from the Eastern Front, but at Sutton Veny Camp in late 1915 the 10th Lincolnshire carried out trench attacks for the benefit of Japanese officers. There was "bomb throwing, erecting barbed wire entanglements with gas defence drill". The area was a quagmire and everyone thought the exercise would be cancelled, but the men lay on sodden ground for hours until the arrival of the Japanese, who were amazed at their hardiness.

Probably it was those officers who inspected the 34th Division on Salisbury Plain before it left for France very early in 1916. They were standing in for George V, who'd had an accident.

 

[Hotaru]

Gentlemen,

thanks a lot for the details!!

Best regards,

Frank