Zonnebeke Panorama

[grantmal]

It took years of loitering on postcard auction sites, and many hours photoshopping, to put together this German panorama of Zonnebeke village.

The detail in the original postcards is testament to the quality of the large format cameras of the day. 

From memory the photo was taken in late 1915. Two years later the scene had changed somewhat......

[KernelPanic]

A great piece of work! I've played around with this type of montaging with photos and maps and it's a lot of effort. But the results can be quite revealing. Thanks for posting.

[mjh]

Here's another oblique aerial photograph looking at zonnebeke in the opposite direction, looking towards ypres, taken earlier in the war

[grantmal]

Thanks, KP, it was definitely a labour of love. 

A few more pics from around the same time as MJH's aerial:

[WhiteStarLine]

On 07/06/2023 at 19:24, grantmal said:

many hours photoshopping, to put together this German panorama of Zonnebeke village

Love the level of details in these - amazing work and thanks for sharing it.

[grantmal]

A couple more Zonnebeke postcards.....

The first appears to be a working party (note the bloke at the back with an axe) with the Zonnebeke--Ypres road heading off in the top right:

The Gemeindehaus (Council chambers?/community centre) opposite the church:

What's the bloke on the right balancing on his cuppa? What are those two in the back carrying?

Edited 16 June by grantmal

[AOK4]

1 hour ago, grantmal said:

The Gemeindehaus (Council chambers?/community centre) opposite the church:

 

What's the bloke on the right balancing on his cuppa? What are those two in the back carrying?

The Gemeindehaus was the city hall, which has moved to the other side of the street after war.

It's a small plate with a piece of bread which is on top of the cup, I guess.

 

[bierast]

Zonnebeke was taken (without a fight, following the British overnight withdrawal) by infantry of (Saxon) 53. Reserve-Division / (mixed Saxon / Württemberg) XXVII. Reservekorps on 4th May 1915, after which it remained squarely in that corps' rear area up until its withdrawal at the end of March 1916. Consequently these commercial postcards of Zonnebeke (and adjacent parts) are commonly encountered with postal markings from units of XXVII.RK, and the troops seen in the pictures also overwhelmingly belong to this corps.

(NB: due to the dramatic reduction in corps frontage following 2nd Ypres, from 7th June 1915 onwards its sector was held by a single division - initially 54.RD, after which the two alternated periodically. The 'spare' division was used in all sorts of temporary roles on the Flanders front, either whole or piecemeal)


Having written an inordinate amount about XXVII.RK (see www.royalsaxonarmy.co.uk for details!), my co-author and I have also encountered older versions of many of these images as privately printed photo cards. Specifically, the examples we have are from a large group belonging to Oberleutnant der Reserve Betzler, a Württemberg infantry officer who served at various times with RIR 247 and RIR 248 (both of 54. Reserve-Division, which at this time was still roughly 2/3 Württemberg and 1/3 Saxon). We do not know whether Betzler took these photos, but he was certainly in a position to do so. He specifically dates some of them (e.g. his version of the Gemeindehaus picture) to July 1915, presumably prior to the relief of 54.RD by 53.RD over the successive nights of 18th-21st July.

Here's an example of one of Betzler's images which I personally own, and which also appears as a commercial postcard:

Edited 8 July by bierast

[bierast]

Specifically regarding Zonnebeke church, I had forgotten that among the many Korpstagesbefehle (corps orders of the day) for XXVII.RK which I inspected at the Saxon archives in Dresden there is one which is specifically relevant to this structure. Because it provided an aiming mark for British artillery, the church steeple was ordered to be demolished by a corps order propagated on 20th June 1915. This measure also affected a large (factory?) chimney in the town.

However despite this, Betzler explicitly dates various images of Zonnebeke in which the church tower is still clearly visible to July...

Here's another one of his pictures which I have not seen as a commercial postcard... this is the devastated interior of the church. Writing in the regimental history of Saxon RIR 241 (53.RD), Arthur Kühne of 1./241 mentions it in his colourful account of the capture of the town on 4th May 1915. To quote my own translation in our second book For King and Kaiser (p.105):

"In the evening we retired to the completely wrecked church of Zonnebeke and slept like gods, even though we could have been called forward at any moment and the walls were shaking at every shot from the 21cm Mörser which stood right alongside us. What a day that was!”

[bierast]

On 16/06/2023 at 10:34, grantmal said:

The Gemeindehaus (Council chambers?/community centre) opposite the church:

There are some significant uniform details in this one. The man furthest left is clearly wearing a Saxon tunic (note the uniquely Saxon style of the cuffs and of the false pocket flaps on the rear skirt), and I think this is true of most or all of the group. Some wear Pickelhauben, but one has the unique low Tschako of the Saxon Jäger (though without the black horse-hair plume, which was often omitted at the front). If these are indeed units of 54.RD, they presumably belong to RIR 245 (the sole Saxon infantry regiment of this division) and RJB 26 (its organic Saxon Jäger battalion). However we certainly can't rule out e.g. detached elements of 53.RD still present in the corps sector after their division was withdrawn to army reserve.

[grantmal]

Bierast, thanks for your fantastic, knowledgeable contributions. 

Can I tap your knowledge of units/uniforms with some more photos from the period?

From an earlier posted photo:

Then there's the chimney at the brickworks, with the famous 'White House' in the distance:

From the standing steeple photo:

And another of an officer beside a fallen tree, lakeside:

I'm fascinated by this village and its slow destruction. My great-grandfather (3rd Coldstream Guards) suffered his war-ending wound a few hundred yards south of Zonnebeke in Nov 1914, and the village features heavily in the story of the 13th Australian Field Ambulance (grandmother's uncle was an original member & section comrade of Simpson 'The Man With the Donkey'), the subject of a book I'm writing, in the fighting of late 1917.

Poor old great-grandfather eventually died from the complications of his wounds & Spanish flu 4 days before the Armistice: great-granny's second husband, who I remember well, was wounded at Zonnebeke while serving with the 13th Australian Field Company Engineers in Oct 1917. Family connections with Zonnebeke abound....

Good on you,

Grant

[brianmorris547]

The only map of Zonnebeke I could find in 1915 War Diaries was this one in the April 1915 WD of 85 Infantry Brigade.

WO 95/2278.

Brian

[bierast]

10 hours ago, grantmal said:

Bierast, thanks for your fantastic, knowledgeable contributions. 

Can I tap your knowledge of units/uniforms with some more photos from the period?

Thankyou - my pleasure! It's gratifying to see specific sectors / units I study getting some attention, and XXVII.RK on this front is possibly the one I've looked at most (with the possible exception of XIX.AK on the Ploegsteert / Armentières front).

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These lads are definitely Saxons. Up until the introduction of the 'universal' M1915 Feldbluse (which erased a multitude of uniform distinctions), Saxon uniform tunics always had these square-cut false pocket flaps on the back with a single button at the bottom of each one (plus the belt hooks at the top).  The bottom edge of the tunic was also piped (unlike all other contingents), but that distinction only tends to be detectable on very high quality photos.
https://www.kaisersbunker.com/gtp/gtp11.htm

All the other contingents had a scalloped pattern on the back with an additional pair of buttons:
https://www.kaisersbunker.com/gtp/gtp01e.htm

The men depicted here are most likely from RIR 245 or RJB 26, though with this low level of detail (and the cuffs not clearly visible either) we can't exclude more exotic possibilities like RPK 54 (the divisional Pionier company), gunners of I. / RFAR 54 (dismounted field artillery personnel still often wore infantry boots at this point) etc.

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Then there's the chimney at the brickworks, with the famous 'White House' in the distance:

Interesting - sadly I don't have a scan of the corps order relating to the destruction of the steeple and chimney, just a note scribbled down at the Dresden archives! I'll have to take another look if I get a chance to visit again.

Factory chimneys like this were definitely used by the Germans as artillery observation posts (with a very long ladder!) at other points on the front, but the order seems to suggest that this one was considered expendable enough to sacrifice to the cause of depriving the enemy artillery of aiming marks.

The men mostly seem to be wearing fatigue / off-duty clothing - the one in the middle of the group by the chimney seems to have a dark jumper with buttons down the front, a civilian style which appears frequently in photos taken in billeting areas. The presumed officer or senior NCO on the right has a tunic with 'Brandenburg' cuffs (vertical panel with three buttons), which - until uniforms started to be simplified - was the standard for German infantry except for the Saxons. This group is probably from RIR 246, 247 or 248, although there is also the exotic possibility of (non-Saxon) foot - i.e. heavy - artillery.

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From the standing steeple photo:

This one is too indistinct to draw any useful conclusions. The huge beard (right) seems highly unlikely for infantry of XXVII.RK at this period though! These units had all fought in the Second Battle of Ypres, had been issued with gas protection and had imposed gas discipline. I therefore suspect that this fellow has a job which doesn't involve being in the trenches, or even in a battery position.

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And another of an officer beside a fallen tree, lakeside:

A familiar location - the reenactment events in the centenary years took place around the lake, so I may well have passed that spot myself wearing Feldgrau...

This is probably an officer of RIR 246, 247 or 248.

Quote

I'm fascinated by this village and its slow destruction. My great-grandfather (3rd Coldstream Guards) suffered his war-ending wound a few hundred yards south of Zonnebeke in Nov 1914, and the village features heavily in the story of the 13th Australian Field Ambulance (grandmother's uncle was an original member & section comrade of Simpson 'The Man With the Donkey'), the subject of a book I'm writing, in the fighting of late 1917.

Poor old great-grandfather eventually died from the complications of his wounds & Spanish flu 4 days before the Armistice: great-granny's second husband, who I remember well, was wounded at Zonnebeke while serving with the 13th Australian Field Company Engineers in Oct 1917. Family connections with Zonnebeke abound....

I'm glad to have contributed a little to your knowledge of the place! None of my own WW1 family history touches on it, but it became significant to me in the course of the long, painful process of co-authoring my first book...

Your great-grandfather's opponents in 1914 were also from XXVII.RK (the lines shown on this map and the precise unit dispositions are a bit questionable, but it's broadly correct). The corps was the combined Saxon / Württemberg contribution to the wave of new, previously unplanned reserve formations which came together that September (full of previously untrained ersatz-reservists and volunteers, middle-aged Landwehr NCOs and reactivated retired officers) and were horribly slaughtered at First Ypres. We go into this in painful and hair-raising detail in both of our volumes on the Saxons in Flanders (the second being an expansion on selected subjects from the first one). They then spent the winter in front of Zonnebeke and Polygon Wood...

 

Edited 29 August by bierast

[bierast]

Incidentally, in wartime the Württemberg Army started issuing tunics with the slightly simpler 'Swedish' cuff (two buttons side by side, a style long officially worn by field artillery, non-Saxon Pioniere etc.) to its infantry. I think (though I am a Saxon specialist, not a Württemberg one - so please don't take my word for it!) that the intention was to switch over to the 'Swedish' cuff as standard for Württemberg infantry, thus visually differentiating their contingent and saving a little bit of money...

Photos of Württemberg infantry regiments often show these tunics mixed in indiscriminately with the older ones with 'Brandenburg' cuffs. To illustrate this, here's a picture of the then Leutnant der Reserve Betzler of RIR 247 (as mentioned above) and his subordinate Gefreiter Denzele, taken (almost certainly in the area under discussion) in July 1915.

Edited 29 August by bierast

[grantmal]

Again, Bierast, thanks very much for the info, particularly the map of German dispositions. A 4th Guards Brigade map of 14 Nov positions shows the 3rd Coldstreams (in red) were opposed by what I'm presuming is the 5th Battalion of the 77th Landwehr Regiment?

Most casualties among the 3rd Coldstream Guards in front of Reutel were from artillery (incl trench mortar) or sniper fire; G-Grandpa was hit in the face on 13 Nov, his wound described on his short service record and in a hospital admission book as GSW, which presumably would cover both rifle and shrapnel bullet. He wrote to g-granny from Liverpool Hospital 10 days later but failed to record the circumstances of his wounding, only the date and the great difficulty and danger in getting the wounded away under shell fire.

[AOK4]

Hello,

5/77 is 5th Company of Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment 77.

Jan

[grantmal]

Thanks, Jan!

[bierast]

16 hours ago, grantmal said:

Again, Bierast, thanks very much for the info, particularly the map of German dispositions. A 4th Guards Brigade map of 14 Nov positions shows the 3rd Coldstreams (in red) were opposed by what I'm presuming is the 5th Battalion of the 77th Landwehr Regiment?

It's the 5th company, as Jan correctly observes. In late September the 38. Landwehr-Brigade (LIR 77 and LIR 78, at the time employed on rear-area duties in Belgium), was ordered to form an 'Expeditionsdetachement' for front-line service, consisting of six companies taken from each of its regiments. From LIR 77 the contribution consisted of the 1., 4., 5., 8., 11. and 12. Kompagnie. The resulting composite regiment, usually referred to in German sources on First Ypres as "Detachement Waxmann" or "Regiment Waxmann" after its commander, was assigned to XXVII. Reservekorps on 24th October and subsequently fed piecemeal into the fighting.

After the battle LIR 77 and 78 were reconstituted as complete regiments under their brigade staff, and took over a sector on the right flank of XXVII.RK (Passchendaele / Wallemolen) from mid-December. They fought again in Second Ypres, after which the shortened front line made them locally superfluous. The brigade was then transferred to Saxon XIX.AK and its regiments used to free up active regiments of that corps for assignment to the army reserve... as a result of which LIR 77 appeared for a while in the line immediately north of Ploegsteert Wood. Consequently they turn up in our books surprisingly frequently for non-Saxon units (they were mainly from Hannover and Brunswick)!

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Most casualties among the 3rd Coldstream Guards in front of Reutel were from artillery (incl trench mortar) or sniper fire; G-Grandpa was hit in the face on 13 Nov, his wound described on his short service record and in a hospital admission book as GSW, which presumably would cover both rifle and shrapnel bullet. He wrote to g-granny from Liverpool Hospital 10 days later but failed to record the circumstances of his wounding, only the date and the great difficulty and danger in getting the wounded away under shell fire.

The primary unit opposite was RIR 245, which was severely depleted by this time. Their commander Major (later Oberstleutnant) Alfred von Heygendorff is a featured diarist in our second book For King and Kaiser, so we have a pretty good idea of their situation at this point. He had incidentally only been in the post since 24th October, hastily transferred from IR 178 (32.ID / XII.AK, on the Aisne) to replace the original commander Oberst z.D. Artur Baumgarten-Crusius - the future Saxon 'official historian' to the extent that they had one - after the latter had been wounded by 'friendly' artillery fire...

Major von Heygendorff vividly describes the preparatory shelling of Polygon Wood in his diary entry for 11th November, as observed from his HQ in Becelaere: "It is frightful. The ground trembles, it roars so much that one cannot hear oneself speak. I’m glad I'm not an Englishman. One could really pity the rascals. And still they hold out."

RIR 245 did advance as necessary to support the attack of the Prussian Garde, but von Heygendorff rejected an order on 12th November to "take the southern edge of Polygonwald by 11 am" as "not achievable" and received the agreement of his divisional commander. His entry for 13th November is as follows:

"A rainy day. I am sick at heart for my poor fellows in the trenches. Rheumatism and intestinal ailments are appearing. The advance progresses steadily, but only very slowly. I report to my superiors that I do not wish to advance, as we are within 100 metres of the edge of the wood, have a good field of fire and cannot assault because of the wire obstacles. The bombardment of the wood yesterday has torn down the trees, so that movement through the wood is impossible."

The next day he records that the regiment's rough trenches in front of Polygon Wood are "full of water", and rheumatism and diarrhoea rampant. "100 sick from a rifle strength of
barely 700! Nonetheless morale is good." Given strength estimates for the sister 53.RD at the time I'm pretty certain that he means 700 for the whole regiment, which would have started the battle with over 3000...

More on von Heygendorff here - he was a very popular commander, later idolised after his tragic death on the Somme alongside the older of his two sons:
https://www.royalsaxonarmy.co.uk/index.php/articles/27-the-soul-of-the-regiment-rir-245-at-becelaere-october-1914

Edited 30 August by bierast

[GreyC]

Very interesting, Bierast.

A photo of Polygon Wood from my collection.

GreyC