Poles in Kaisers Army On the Front of the First World War. Ryszard Kaczmarek
singing at stations, they had to march over stone paved roads, which turned out to be grueling for the reserve soldiers, only one week in the regiment. It was not only the heat and burden but now also boots and footwraps that exaggerated the torture. Abraded feet were a real issue for the medical services because, over time, they caused deep wounds that required ambulatory treatment that removed a fair number of infantrymen out of active duty. Its consequence was the considerate slowing of the march of regimental columns that became increasingly stretched. The coachmen still had difficulties driving new horse teams due to shorter initial ←67 | 68→trainings. After arriving at the concentration place, they incessantly practiced marching and shipping.186
The way to the frontlines looked slightly differently for the artillerymen of the 12th Infantry Division. They also departed from Grodkowo and Nysa on August 7–8 and, after three days, reached Saarbrücken. Also in this case the mood was exquisite, and even the lack of beer or wine was not an issue. The soldiers enjoyed the delightful landscapes through train windows. The transports indeed traveled according to mobilization schedules, but at a very slow speed of twenty to thirty kilometers per hour, which allowed the soldiers to cherish the surroundings. The soldiers of the 21st Field Artillery Regiment did not struggle so much with constant march due to the higher number of carts that could carry some of their own equipment. Quite surprisingly, descriptions of this march do not reveal hostility from Luxembourgians, which was an issue for the infantrymen. After the war, many cordially recalled the people of Luxembourg who willingly sold food for German marks. In the lodgings, the incredibly hospitable Luxembourgians were to admire the burly German bodies. Some recall an anecdote about a reserve officer who bathed under a bridge as local girls suddenly showered him with flowers from the bridge. The situation was ironically summed with words: “Oh, if only his beloved wife could see this.” Thus, we should not be surprised that, at the moment of their arrival at the destination, the artillerymen were in exquisite moods.187
At the moment of concentration and after crossing the French border, the Pomeranian regiments joined the First Army, key in the 1914 campaign. Initially, the Silesian VI Army Corps operationally belonged to the Fourth Army commanded by Duke (Herzog) Albrecht of Württemberg. The V Army Corps – which included the VI Reserve Army Corps – of the Fifth Army stood to the left of the Silesians. The V Army Corps was commanded by the successor to the throne (Kronprinz), Wilhelm Hohenzollern. At the beginning of the war, the Silesians fought against the Fourth French Army under the command of General Fernand de Langle de Cary, that were also to conduct an offensive toward the Ardennes. This French Army consisted of II Corps, Colonial Corps, and XII Corps.188 The troops of the V Army Corps of Greater Poland faced the Third French Army under the command of General Emmanuel Ruffey (since September 1914, under ←68 | 69→the command of General Maurice Sarvail). This Army consisted of IV, V, and VI Infantry Corps along with the 7th Cavarly Division.
Most soldiers remembered particularly well their first combat with the French and the Belgians. Baptism of fire is something extraordinary in the life of a recruit. For the first time, they had to face the fact that they must kill and may be killed, while their closest friends fall on the battlefield. They had to learn that not always would they kill someone anonymous, but sometimes they would stab the bayonet in the back of an enemy that stood right next to them. Later, frontline experience allowed the soldiers to partly accustom to the state of constant threat of life and participation in a mass murder, but the first time was a true baptism of fire for every young man. Furthermore, it was an opportunity for officers to assess the preparation of their troops and readiness for absolute submission to orders, even if the commander was about to send them to inevitable death on the battlefield.
Often, extreme exhaustion and emotions from battle made soldiers stop thinking rationally, which eased them into submission. The automatism of trained motions blunted their decision to go under enemy’s fire. A man from Greater Poland recalls his first fight as a dramatic experience:
We hear a command: “Form an extended line! Down – up – march, march, down, and up etc…. Don’t be afraid boys, the French shoot too high so they won’t hit anyone.” – yells Captain Moebius [a battalion’s commander]. The French are well hidden…. The fire increases with every moment…. We push on in jumps. Fire increases from the left. We have to pass this oat field, the French must be there. We reached the oat field, where the French stand up here and there, fire a shot, and hide again. We have to capture this field by force. Hard as rock, the oat hinders our march. The French sit in the middle of the field. We push on slowly and carefully. Our line thickens, supported by other units, but we do not lose contact. We ready cold steel and rifles. Suddenly, two French heads come up two steps in front of us and fire simultaneously. We are fast enough to evade them and avoid death. At the same moment, our companions came out from the left and managed to knock them down…. There are so many dead bodies as sheafs on the field. We hear a trumpet. It is a signal to attack. From the left, we begin to hear a constant “Hooray!” There are fewer shots ahead. “Assault!” We run. Several fall. Each step a fallen man. We finally reach the line, but the French are not there. Where are they? We scramble from the line toward the hilltop, but we cannot look to the other side. Every man who does that – immediately drops dead. Bodies of soldiers, rifles, satchels, and helmets, they all roll down the mountain. The entire viaduct is covered with injured ←69 | 70→who cry for help. The dying wheeze, shiver, and roll their eyes. Those no longer in need are stretched in unimaginable poses.189
On August 22, 1914, the Upper Silesian regiments underwent their baptism of fire in the battle against the French near the Belgian village of Rossignol, in Wallonia, precisely in the triangle between Luxembourg and the French border, near Tintigny, in the province of Luxembourg. This small village at the foot of a low hill was hid in the forests. Its name became the symbolic first place of mass Polish deaths in the Kaiser’s Army from the Upper Silesian regiments who fell during the First World War. It was in Rossignol where the soldiers learned what consequences await the civilians, when the former witnessed the execution of inhabitants on the order of a German commander. The fights for this village exemplify the tactics of the German troops at the very beginning of the war.
The entire battle area lied within the zone subject to the VI Army Corps, whose commander had two infantry divisions at his disposal (the 11th and the 12th), while the French had three divisions supported with artillery corps and two colonial divisions. The Upper Silesian regiments were to conduct the assault.
When the Upper Silesian division approached the village from the east, German scouting reported that the French troops are rather small. But the reconnaissance was imprecise; what probably hindered it were dense forests and well-hidden subunits of the Colonial Corps. While approaching Rossignol, the Germans unexpectedly encountered strong fire of the French avant-garde from the forest near the village. It was then when the subunits of the Regiment No. 157 first encountered the advance guard:
The advance of the Second Battalion of the Regiment No. 157 was very slow due to forest density and strong enemy resistance; the commanders of companies and platoons had to get used to a constantly changing situation; squads and individual shooters always shifted fire to greater distances, but it soon turned out that the enemy hides on the trees. Our musketeers were especially delighted in shooting down those “tree shooters” like sparrows.190
With toil and considerable losses, they tried to push through the forest step-by-step, to its southern edge that went along the road from the village of Les Fossés. Initially, their own artillery did not conduct fire because it was unable to fire at ←70 | 71→the forest with German infantry mixed with small French subunits or even individual soldiers.