Before continuing with the last 2 Pages of his Militätpaß, we summarize in a few word, what he has done until this moment. The war started for him in Belgium at the beginning of 1915, moving soon after to Poland and Gallize for the Gorlice- Tarnów Offensive, been injured and moved back to Flanders, where he participated in the Battle of Arras. He was injured and sick a couple of times, but back on business for the battle of Messines. Sorry, like last week, it will be a long story today.
We move now to the pages 16 and 17, which covers the period from September 1917 to the end of the war and I will combine the information in these pages with the one in the Archives. As explained last week, the rest of the pages are blank and are dedicated to comments and permits, that he took.
On the 21st of September 1917, Peter was transferred to the 22nd Reserve Infantry Regiment to the area of the East Bukowina, which is located in the north of Romania for the German Offensive. A few months later, Romania will be out of the war, for just a while only.
He was not even a month there, when he was moved back to Flanders for the third battle of Ypres (and the second Battle of Passchendaele), participating in the fights of the 22nd of October 1917 against the Canadians and ANZAC troops. The British and French armies made some good progress on the field, but paying a big price in Casualties (nothing new). Even if the advances captured some of the high ground in the area, the offensive was not completely satisfactory. In this moment, there were other events (for example, the Battle of Caporetto, which ended up in a huge Italian defeat), that slowed the offensive. During these attacks and counterattacks, Peter would be wounded again, coming back to service in December 1917.
In Flanders he will remain for the winter, ready to take part in the German Spring Offensive in March 1918, the famous Kaiserschlacht and under the Sixth Army of Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern. The offensive will retake all or most of the ground lost in during the allied offensive of autumn 1917. Peter will be in an attacking position from the 9th to the 29th of April 1918. But due to the severe casualties and the stubborn British defence, the offensive will see an end, with many ground taken, but not fulfilling the required objectives.
On the 29th of April, the Unit from Peter will be sent back to Lorraine until the end of June, between Metz and Nancy. In July, he will be sent to fight in Reims, in time for the last major German offensive, the Second Battle of the Marne. This offensive started well and managed to gain some ground, but it met also some hard defenders, which slowed down the attack. The German did not make the expected break through. Soon later, the Allied counterattacks, in the hands of the British, French, North Americans and Italians manage to push back the Germans. Even retaining some ground, the attack was a failure and the start of 100 painful days for the Imperial Germany. Peter will be on the mobile defensive between the Marne und Vesle, always in the area of Reims.
The Allied push will not end and for Peter, it will mean to retreat more into the Champagne area, between the Rivers Aisne and the Meuse or Maas. That is on the North east of Reims. The French army will push hard on the Germans, even breaking the Hindenburg Line. The war will be over soon, and what started on a 18th of January 1871 in Versailles, will be ending in 1918.
In the page 17 at the bottom, we can see the decorations conceded to him during the war. I believe, that the dates of concessions in this MP are wrong, if we compare them with the dates in the archives in Munich:
– 12th December 1917 – Iron Cross Second Class (Prussia) – In his MP it is written 1915.
– 15th of April 1918 – Military Merit Cross Third Class with Swords and Crown (Bavaria). – In his MP it is written 1915 too.
– 18th of June 1918, Wounded Badge in Black. Here the years are matching, 1918.
Peter was in the war from 1915 to 1918 and during this time, he served in Belgium, France, Poland, Ukraine and Romania. In one of the pages of his Records in the Hauptarchiv München, it summarizes all in just few words: “Campaigns against France, England, Russia and Romania, 1915/16/17/18”. The reality is, that he fought against English, Australian, New Zealanders, Canadians, North American, Canadian, Italian, Russian and Romanian, at least. He fought against the whole World.
Now that I finished with the MP, I will summarize also the structure of it (yes, I should have done it at the very beginning, but now I have your attention):
– The first 6-7 pages are just guidelines for the holidays or permit days.
– Page 1: Personal Details and enlisted Regiment.
– Page 2: Units where a soldier is deployed, promotions and date, when he left the army.
– Page 3: Information about the Number of Reservists in his unit, decorations and campaigns.
The pages 2 and 3 are not normally updated, so in further pages you will find more information about those points.
– Page 4: Special Training Received.
– Pages 5, 6 and 7: Equipment given, entitled payment, Information about Landwehr.
– Pages 8 to 17: entries about where he was (during the war), campaigns, battles, transfers, injuries, decorations, etc.
– Last pages: Comments and Holidays.
There are times, where additional pages are manually added, depending on what the soldier did during the war.
Next Week, I will come back to Beer.