…. Before continuing with the life of Peter through the First World War, just to make a quick summary from last week. Peter joined the army in November 1914, when the war was starting to settle down, the miracle of the Marne was left behind and the race to the see was still on. Another thing is, that I will not follow the page order of the Militärpaß (MP), because it does not follow a chronological order. We left last week in Page 7 and now we jump to the pages 14 and 15. I will be adding too, the maps of the campaigns, where he will be involved. Sorry, but the Article today is quite long.
Peter, with the Royal Bavarian 22ndInfantry Regiment, moved in February 1915 to the Ypres Area, participating, straight away in the fight with the 3rd Division (see Map) in St. Eloy, where no significant advance was made, not even during the Second Battle of Ypres, just weeks after. A really infamous battle, where the gas was first used, but the German didn’t take advance of its effect in that moment, right, Mr. Falkenheim? But he will not be there for that offensive, because Peter will move from Belgium to Poland to participate in the Gorlice- Tarnów Offensive in the east.
The Royal Bavarian 22nd Infantry Regiment will be now part of the Royal Bavarian 11th Division, which in that moment was located in the 11th Army under the command of August von Mackensen, whose Picture, at this point, is very familiar to most of the people here. He will be the one leading the main attack.
The attack started on the 2nd of May 1915 after a violent artillery barrage. The advance was strong and managed to overcome and defeat any of the Russian counterattacks. First moving in the direction to Lemberg, which was captured at the end of June after the Russians were given order to leave Gallize, to then move north in the direction of Brest-Litovsw.
Unfortunately, in the MP I could not find any notes of Peter and the battles, where he participated between August 1915 and the beginning of 1917. I could only find in the Hauptarchiv München, that he was injured on the 27th of July 1915 and was move to the hospital, where he stayed a few weeks and moved back to his Regiment in November 1915. At this point, I am going to move only in assumptions, because this part is missing in both sources.
When he arrived back to his Regiment, it was now in Hungary for resting until February 1916, when was sent to France, to take part, soon after, in the Battle of Verdun. The 11th Division had to fight in the north west part of Verdun (left bank of the Meuse) in the Avocourt Area, not far away from Malancourt and the Cote 304. The amount of casualties were horrendous. His division suffered a 75% of loses, between dead, prisoners, wounded and missing. In June 1916, it was taking out of the front.
During the second part of 1916, he was moved for training to the 3. Ersatz- Maschinengewehr-Kompanie., in Germany, more exactly, as seen before in Hammelburg. Soon after it was moved to the Royal Bavarian 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd MG Company, as we can see in the Pages 8 and 9. This Regiment was in the Royal Bavarian 3rdDivision.
Continuing with the pages 10 and 11 over his first part of his life in 1917, still in the Regiment above, he was moved to the French Flanders in January and then participating in April in the Battle of Arras. This one was a major British and French offensive, which produced very significant advances, but at a huge costs for both sides. Peter fought in the south east of Arras between the 10th and 14th of April. In that day, he was wounded in his foot, due to a grenade, in Monchy-le-Preux and taken out to the hospital. He returned to his unit on the 12thof May 1917. During this time, the division took a huge toll in casualties and was sent to rest and reorganize until June 1917. Just to mention that also in June, Peter had to be sent to the hospital due to sickness (not specified).
Peter will be back on action on the 1stof July 1917, for a week in the battle of Messines and Wyschaete, with another advance of the allied troops. This battle is going to be famous because the explosion of 19 huge mines (from 26), which produced a big hole in the German defence. I believe, there is still one, that has not been exploded and even cannot be located.
Just to mention that this pages finish with 3 parts, very common in a MP: Führung(Leadership), Straffen (Penalties) and Orden. As we can see, he was awarded with the Iron Cross 2nd Class. But he will be awarded it not in July 1917 but in December 1917, as shown in his Records in the Hauptarchiv München.
We will finish today with the pages 12 and 13, which shows only a transfer to another company, this time to an independent company under the command of the 2nd Army Corps.
At this point, we have seen the first 15 pages of the Militärpaß. Just remember that the pages 14 and 15 are dedicated to 1915, seen today. Just 2 more to see, but that will be next week.