Poles in Kaisers Army On the Front of the First World War. Ryszard Kaczmarek
of the Infantry Regiment No. 157 and the 21st Field Artillery Regiment seriously searched for this imaginary car. The French dressed as Germans were said to drive the car accompanied by elegant ladies.155 In turn, Greater Poland saw a modified version of the gossip, according to which there were three cars filled with gold, which were to flee from Germany and attempt to cross the German-Russian border. Therefore, military patrols thoroughly frisked all the encountered cars.156
In the first days of August, artillerymen from the Nysa regiment participated in another action, no less grotesque. This time, it was the military authorities who raised the false alarm. On August 3, the commanders of the 12th Infantry Division informed that French aircrafts were seen in central Germany heading toward Silesia. It was a complete absurd in regard of contemporary technical abilities and the range of military aircrafts. However, two batteries were prepared in Nysa to resist this imaginary air strike. Interestingly, some cannoneers even “noticed” these aircrafts in their mind’s eyes and, on August 3–7, fired a few shots ←57 | 58→which, in turn, caused panic among civilians and their irrational belief that there will soon happen a French attack.157
Just after the outbreak of the war, there was a real military action on the border between Upper Silesia and the Kingdom of Poland. The aim was to occupy the Dąbrowa Basin and the city of Częstochowa. Since the repartition of Polish territories during the Congress of Vienna, the boundary line between Prussia and Russia created a considerable danger for the Central Powers, because it disjoined Austrian Galicia and Prussia. It was particularly unfavorable for Silesia, which was not protected by any water barrier. While creating the strategic plan, the German General Staff assumed that only one out of eight German armies will engage in the fight in the East – the Eighth Army under the command of Colonel General Maximilian von Prittwitz und Gaffron that consisted of army corps I, XVII, XX, one cavalry division, and Landwehr units – while the Habsburg monarchy will take the main initiative.158 However, early wartime decision postulated the preventive march into the western parts of the Kingdom of Poland in the very beginning of the war in order to even out the frontline and push an even theoretical danger away from Silesia, before Regierungsbezirk Opole sends its echelons toward the western front.
The ones to realize this maneuver were soldiers on active duty from the Upper Silesian garrisons. A tragicomic incident preceded the entire operation, although one might question the credibility of this account, considering that it refers to press coverage; even if it appeared before the introduction of pre-publication censorship. The information probably aimed at reinforcing civilian morale and strengthen their belief in the German Army’s primacy over the Russian Army. On July 31, the company of Katowice from the 22nd Infantry Regiment conducted routine field training near the so-called Three Emperors’ Corner. On the way back, its members looked with interest at the border bridge between Mysłowice and Modrzejów. When a Russian guard spotted the German unit, as the journalist recalls,
he hastily hid behind the bridge, and he did that with speed “unusual for Russians.” He stayed there until the German soldiers returned to marching. He then came out and fired two warning shots in the air. He reported to the rittmeister and captain that he saw Prussian soldiers next to the bridge. However, the company at that moment was already on its way to Katowice singing its songs.
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According to further press coverage, there were fifty deserters from the Kingdom of Poland to the German side already before the outbreak of the war.159
The opinion about Russian soldiers’ morale was not high in Germany at the beginning of the war. Particularly after the Russo-Japanese War, people knew about the growing problems of the Russian Empire. The above description sought to ensure the soldiers and civilians about that fact. Russia was presented as a barbaric and backward country, and Cossack soldiers personified this characteristic. There was no trace left from the brotherhood of arms of the second half of the nineteenth century. Since the very beginning of the First World War, the Cossack was a synonym of homeland’s enemy. Popular leaflets and playing cards, published in thousands of copies, contemptuously presented the Russian soldier as a primitive ragamuffin with a long untrimmed beard and a bottle of schnapps in his hand, his rifle on a string instead of a belt, wearing a huge winter cap and a too long military greatcoat.160
The Russian destruction of border bridges on August 1 did not prevent the quick seizure of undefended Dąbrowa Basin and Częstochowa by the Upper Silesia regiments. During this few-day-long operation, some subunits of the 22nd Infantry Regiment marched out of the barracks already in the morning on August 1 in order to position themselves by the frontier near the Three Emperors’ Corner; the third battalion from Mysłowice to Szopienice and the first battalion from Szopienice to Milowic. The second battalion followed them as back guard with the regimental orchestra. After a week, they were replaced by soldiers of Silesian Landwehr under the command of General Remus von Woyrsch. After crossing the border on August 3, the Germans seized Sosnowiec, Będzin, and Częstochowa without a fight, before the offensive in the Western Front even began.161
The flags, cheering, and flowers accompanied the soldiers of the rearguard battalion at every venue, who was followed by the regiment’s staff. When on August 2, at 12.45 pm, war was declared on Russia, supported by a squadron of the Uhlan regiment and half of the fifth battery of the Field Artillery Regiment No. 57, the marching soldiers moved toward the line Mysłowice–Będzin-Grodziec. Later, they did not perform military but guard duty; they guarded bridges, protected railway stations, blocked road, and guarded mines.162 The ←59 | 60→troops from Mysłowice seized Dąbrowa Basin without a fight, while tactically communicating with Austrian troops from the First Army, which already seized the borderland Olkusz and Wolbrom. Somewhat symbolically, the commanders of both German and Austrian armies met close to the Three Emperors’ Corner. On August 7, the Landwehr’s 23rd Infantry Regiment replaced the 22nd Infantry Regiment’s troops along with the accompanying cavalry and artillery, which belonged to the guard duty and then returned to garrisons in Katowice and Bytom. The mobilization finished there, and trainings continued in military training areas, so there was a possibility to merge subunits on active duty with the subunits of reserve soldiers.163
Further north, the Upper Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 63 performed similar duties. At the time of mobilization, half of the squadron of the 11th Mounted Rifles (Jäger-Regiment zu Pferde Nr. 11) joined and together they protected the border by Częstochowa. On August 2, shooters, all battalions of the infantry regiment, and two batteries of the Field Artillery Regiment No. 57 concentrated in Lubliniec.164 At that time, there appeared a piece of information that the Russian cavalry and infantry were spotted at an important railway junction of Herby and Częstochowa. The information originated from a pro-German priest from the Herby parish. It turned out to be partially true, but there occurred fights for the control over the railway station with the Cossacks. The soldiers of the Upper Silesian regiment managed to retreat by finding an engine, which they used to reach their own troops under Russian cannonade. At 3 am, the commander of the Infantry Regiment No. 63 ordered to conduct an attack toward Częstochowa with the main forces; that is, with the first and third battalion along with the staff in Lubliniec, the second battalion in Kuźnica, and the mounted riflemen near Lisów. After crossing the border meanwhile abandoned by the Russian, the march deep into the Kingdom of Poland turned out much more difficult than the march of the troops in the south that came from the direction of Mysłowice. There were constant skirmishes with some unidentified Russian troops in the forests. Moreover, there were first casualties; seven injured soldiers, including two heavily injured, were sent to the field hospital in Lubliniec. At night, a patrol also recognized a strong Russian cavalry unit, and according to several accounts, there were still major Russian units present