Belgium-Brussels-Lüttich

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

A major max bayer of the Inf. Regt. 27 was the first military commander of Lüttich, then brussels.

Does anyone have any information on him, or has anyone ever seen this book?

Werner, Bernhard: Das Königlich Preußische Inf.-Rgt. Prinz Louis Ferdinand von Preußen (2.Magdeb.) Nr. 27

Thanks

Chris (in desperation...)

[Jack Sheldon]

Chris

I have a copy of it. What exactly do you want to know?

Jack

[Jack Sheldon]

Chris

While you are thinking about the question, here is a photo of Bayer, who was CO 2nd Bn IR 27 in 1914. When he was killed (presumably commanding RIR 259), he was serving in Lorraine with 78th Res Division, shortly after surviving a two month tour at Verdun. I know little about Lorraine and less about RIR 259, I am afraid.

Jack

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi Jack,

I have had to manage without the book to get the following info together. I have the Iron Cross 2nd class award certificates for both and they will be used in my book on the subject. However, I thought I would take a stab at seeing iy anyone had a copy of the book.

Here is what I have found on the 2 men so far... both seem to have been real thrusters, but I have had to pickup scraps of info from all over to get the text together.

The 27th Infantry Regiment (I.R. 27) produced a number of excellent officers,

two of whose Iron Cross documents are pictured here. Major Max Bayer and

Hauptmann Hermann Burchardt were both members of I.R. 27 at the outbreak of the

war. The Regiment was part of the Korps Emmich, a special army corps consisting of six

brigades and three cavalry divisions. The Korps was the vanguard of

the Schlieffen Plan, in which a rapid march through Belgium was vital. The

Korps Emmich was to cross the border and take Lüttich and its fortresses,

opening the door for the German armies following close behind.

Unexpectedly stiff Belgian resistance slowed the Korps as they

approached Lüttich. Franktireurs and Belgian infantry threw themselves into

the fray while artillery rounds from the forts exploded in the German ranks.

The Korps did not have the time or energy to take the forts so they bypassed them heading directly for the town of Lüttich.

Originally the fall of Lüttich was planned for the 6th August, but this was

not to be. On the northern and southern flanks the Germans had bitten on granite - the columns coming to a halt and pulling back after

failing to pass through the circle of fortresses.

The middle column, however, fared better. Ludendorff, still an unknown name

at the time, had been following the columns as an observer. When General von

Wussow died, Ludendorff took command of the 14th Brigade. Rallying the

men (mostly soldiers of I.R. 27) he led an attack that pushed its way forward

through streets whilst rifle and machine gun fire rattled from behind hedges

and out of windows.

Ludendorff and his approximately fifteen hundred men (including Bayer and

Burchardt) disappeared into the town - being swallowed up into the night.

Munitions had almost run out and communication to the rear was cut off. It

was to be a nail-biting night for the 14th Brigade. The next morning would

decide not only the fate of the 14th Brigade, but also of the whole

Schlieffen Plan.

Von Emmich acted decisively. He sent the I.R. 165 over the

bridge crossing the Maas to reinforce the troops already in the town, and

Ludendorff (at the head of the 27th) rode in a car towards the citadel. Here

the surprised Belgians surrendered to the future Field Marshal and a handful

of officers of the 27th. There are no records of whom those officers were,

but it is possible that one of them was Major Bayer.

Max Bayer was the Baden-Powell of Germany. He started the Pfadfinder

(boy-scout) movement and translated and adapted Baden-Powell's scouting book

for the German youth. Like his father (General Major Stephen Bayer) he opted

for a military career and joined the army in 1891. His career got off to a

rapid start including prime appointments to the War academy in 1898, the

general staff in 1903 and German South West Africa in 1904. While in Africa he participated in crushing the Herero and Hottentot rebellions.

He was forced to return to Germany in 1905 due to illness and took over the

German South West Africa office of the General Staff. During this time he

gave lectures about GSWA in over fifty German cities and towns as well as

writing a number of books about the colony. In 1908 he was posted to the

Unterelsässischen 138th Infantry Regiment in Lorraine as a company commander

and went on sick leave soon after due to heart problems resulting from his

time in German South West Africa. Along with Stabsarzt Alexander Lion, who

he met at a Colonial Office meeting, Bayer started to translate

Baden-Powell's Scouting Handbook and took a year's leave between 1911-12 to

start up the German Pfadfinder movement.

As commander of II/I.R. 27 he participated in the assault on Lüttich and was

awarded the Iron Cross for this action. On the 8th August Bayer was

appointed as Commandant of Lüttich, and at that point he left the unit. On

the 30th of August until the 5th of January he was the Commandant of Brussels where he succeeded in getting his Pfadfindern

jobs as messengers in the Belgian capital - an effective way of helping them

to contribute to the war effort. Although on active service, Bayer

essentially acted as head of the boy-scout movement well into 1916. At

around this time the Pfadfinder movement had 90,000 members, and had its own

official Pfadfinder Kriegsabzeichen (war badges) for members who had served

in the war.

In February 1915 he was ordered back to Berlin to help develop a boy-scout

programme for the Turks, but was immediately reassigned to Hollstein, where

in the Lockstedter camp he was to train Finnish military volunteers. Russian

troops had poured into Finland in 1914, and to the Finns it seemed their

autonomy was in danger. Seeing a suitable ally, the Germans arranged to

train two hundred Finnish activists, giving them between four and six weeks

training at Lockstedt. The first training programme began in February 1915

under Bayer's command. All officers and non-commissioned officers were of

German nationality. The Finns immediately requested an extension of

the course with an increase in the scope of their training.

In August 1915 a decision was made to increase the strength of the unit to

two thousand men, and the unit was named the Lockstedt Training Corps. In

May 1916 the corps was renamed the 27th Royal Prussian Jäger Battalion.

Bayer commanded the battalion until January 1917 fighting with 'his Finns'

in Kurland - including fighting on the Misse, on the Aa and in Libau. After

the war when Finland formed her own army the German steel helmet was chosen

to equip the troops due to the traditions brought along by the 27th Jäger

Battalion - the premier unit of the Finnish army.

Bayer identified strongly with his Finns and their fight for independance. Of the 2000 men

in his battalion, over 50 would go on to be Generals and form the core of the post war

Finnish Army. Bayer seems to have had a series af arguments with his superiors at this

stage and was transfered to the Western front. Initially ordered to take command of the I.R. 453 in January 1917

his orders were changed and he was sent to serve on the

General Staff until the 15th June. He then took command of R.I.R.259 (78. I.D.)

which was at the Chemin de Dames, south of the Ailette.

In August the regiment was sent to the Verdun front as reserve during the

French offensive. It counter attacked north of Caurieres (south west of

Ornes) in mid-September and held this position until mid-October.

After the fighting at Verdun, the 78. I.D. suffered many

desertions - particularly from Bayer's regiment. On the 22nd October the

unit was withdrawn from the line to St. Juergen in Lorraine, a quieter

sector where Bayer was supposed to reform the regiment and rebuild morale.

This was however not to happen. On the 25th October 1917 Maximilian Bayer -

Major in the German army and 1st Reichsfeldmeister of the German Pfadfinder

movement - was killed by a sniper's bullet in the head in the area of Nomeny

whilst exploring the area in front of his positions. His body was found and

buried six months later.

Hauptmann Hermann Burchardt stayed with I.R. 27 until the end of 1915. After

Lüttich the regiment was part of von Kluck's 1st Army, moving through Belgium and

northern France - Le Cateau and Peronne being just two of the many battles

and skirmishes the regiment was involved in. 1915 saw the regiment facing

French offensives in Artois and suffering relatively heavy losses.

In November 1915 Hauptmann Burchardt transferred from the I.R. 27 to the R.I.R. 27 (54. I.D.) - taking command of

the III. Battalion. The staff and I. Bataillon of R.I.R.27 had been raised by using men and officers of

I.R. 27, while the II. and III. Bataillon were raised from elements of I.R. 165. III. Bataillon was intially

commanded by Major Raabe (formerly of I.R. 165), who was killed in action on 31 July 1915.

The division had just returned from Russia and had taken

up positions on the banks of the Oise. In May 1916 the division moved to the

west bank of the Verdun front and found itself on the slopes of Höhe (Hill)

304. Burchardt had taken command of the Sturmbataillon of the 54. I.D.

and participated in the seesaw attack and defence on the heights -

one of the bloodiest battlefields of the war.

At the beginning of September the division was relieved and moved to Fleury

on the east bank of the Meuse. R.I.R. 27 was at Douaumont on the 24th October

when the Nivelles offensive crashed through the German front lines. The

regiment fought bravely but had to give way losing the fort. In November the

division was pulled out of the fighting and left Verdun for the relatively

calm sector of Flirey in Lorraine.

In April 1917 the division moved to the Aisne front and took up position at

Berry au Bac in preparation to meet the Nivelle offensive. On the 4th May,

after having already suffered serious losses, the regiment was on the

Juvincourt Ridge and met a French attack in the early morning. After a

short, but furious, shrapnel and gas barrage the French attacked - breaking

though the defensive line of the battalion in the Hillerwald and advancing

rapidly towards the battalion's headquarters. Burchardt, rifle in hand, did

not wait for his reserve company, but instead rallied his staff and

counter-attacked with hand grenades, driving the attackers back. When the

regiment was relieved on the 10th, they had lost 916 men, dead, wounded and

captured. Burchardt had lost three of his four company commanders.

August 1917 saw Burchardt and his regiment in Ypres, occupying part of the

Wilhelmstellung to the west of Haanebeck. Here, just to the south east of

Zonnebeke (in the aptly named 'Eisernen-Kreuz-Wäldchen' ) the III. Battalion

had its headquarters. At 5:30 am on the morning of the 16th August 1917 the

British barrage on the regiment's positions intensified, then rolled forward

- followed by columns of infantry. Breaking through the battalion's

positions - and those of the neighbouring I.R. 84 - the

British pushed on, ignoring the little pockets of resistance left behind. It

must have been like deja vu for Burchardt as the enemy approached his

battalion headquarters.

As he had done three months before, he gathered his staff and the battalion

reserve and rushed forward - rifle in hand - this time to die with a bullet

in the forehead.

On the 18th of August the regiment was relieved. It left the sector having

lost 31 officers and 1045 other ranks. Of 15 company commanders 9 were dead

or wounded. Two of the battalion commanders (including Burchardt) had been

killed in action.

[McKerm]

Hello,

the German war office looked for an officer to train and form the Finish volunteers with such skills:

He has to be able to organize, he has to be used to deal with young people, he has to know foreign conditions and has to be able to adapt to them, he has to understand in the same quality at least diplomacy, politics and drill and has to be acompetent teacher of his subalterns significantly above average.

After some days of research the war office found such an officer: Major Maximilian Bayer.

On Febr. 25th 1915 he received the first 19 (the next day followes 36 more) Finish volonteers at the railway staion of Lockstedt Lager. His new position was named: Kommandeur des Pfadfinder-Lehrkurses Lockstedter Lager (CO of the pathfinder trainig course camp Lockstedt).

He took over the the command over the RIR 259 on June 22nd 1917.

On Oct. 25th 1917 Major Bayer didn't return from a exploration walk he made alone. He seemed to have lost the orientation an walked behind the own wires to the lines of the enemy; a single shot was heard. Patrols with first-aid/medical dogs didn't succeed to find him. Two month later his dead body was found between the lines with a shot in his throat.

During the Luttich attack Hptm Burchard was the leader of the 6th Coy of the IR 27. Later he took over the III. Bat of the RIR 27.

In this position he was killed by a shot in his head on Aug. 16th 1917 close to the street Wupzaal-Westhoek.

Best regards

Frank

[Chris Boonzaier]

Good on you Frank !! So they were in the same Battalion !

Does anyone know of the top of their head the role the II. Batl. played at Lüttich?

[Chris Boonzaier]

On Oct. 25th 1917 Major Bayer didn't return from a exploration walk he made alone. He seemed to have lost the orientation an walked behind the own wires to the lines of the enemy; a single shot was heard. Patrols with first-aid/medical dogs didn't succeed to find him. Two month later his dead body was found between the lines with a shot in his throat.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So the chief pathfinder got lost.... Seems to be similar to baden powells record in the Boer war :-)