This week Sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday RIR 235 part tree losing the Oberst 22 October 1914
as could be ascertained from soldier books found, veteran soldiers from the island of Malta who had served for 15 to 20 years. They shot at the German soldiers still visible in the fields like rabbits. The men now fled back to Poelkapelle individually and in smaller groups; the dead had to remain lying there. The enemy assault came to a halt in front of the village. Exhausted, the remnants of the battalions finally dug in directly in front of Poelkapelle on the two roads leading to Langemark. Anything that didn’t make it went back to Poelkapelle. And the village was almost as busy as it had been the night before. Fieldkitchens have been brought forward. This magic formula drove the famished, overtired volunteers on. The Oberst, who had gone up to the front line several times for personal reconnaissance and had himself operated a machine gun there for a while, tried to get an overview. The losses of the men could not even be approximated. the officer corps had serious gaps. The commander of Battalion II, hauptmann Heimann, was wounded, and his adjutant, Lieutenant Lehwald, was missing. Hardly any of the company commanders were still unwounded. The fallen were Lieutenant FaBbender, 3 Company; Captain Schröter, 5 Company; First Lieutenant Schröder, 7 Company; Samliche zugfuhrer of 8 Company; First Lieutenant Frost, 9 Company; Lieutenant Schulz, 9 Company; First Lieutenant von Bracht, 10 Company. In addition, most of the other officers were wounded. the colonel tried with all his energy to put the regiment in order during the night. he succeeded in doing so to the extent that he was able to gather together at least some of the units. So this is how the 21st of October ends, a disaster and the next few days will not be better.
The next day, 22.10, the division order came: new attack on Langmark. On the road to Poelkapelle station, in a beet field, the Oberst gave the order for the rest of his regiment to attack. Then shells hit the middle of the group. Their own artillery fire also began. Forward! Shouts Oberst Von Gilsa and draws his sword. The companies swarm out and rush forward. The buglers blow and the tambourines beat! After a few minutes, the following is announced backwards: Oberst von Gilsa has fallen, where is Major Bredt?
No one saw the Oberst fall. Silently he fell, his sword in his fist. In the evening he was carried back and buried in the garden of the convent of Poelkapelle. Majot Bredt now took over the command of the regiment and tried his best to bring the attack forward. But it would not and could not succeed. Despite all their enthusiasm, leaderless companies of young volunteers did not succeed. The enemy’s resistance was too strong. Although the reserve field artillery regiment 51 fired with all available firepower, the attack did not advance. after a short time, Major Bredt had deployed everything available from the 12 companies. Again, the picture was the same as the day before: the hastily arranged units were mixed up, other regiments of the division squeezed in between, and every small gain in ground was bought with enormous losses. Here and there, individual troops lay with the most diverse fronts, sometimes firing at each other in the darkness of the night. All of a sudden, everyone was chanting: ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über alles’, in order to make themselves known to each other and to dig into the soil at the same time. The hours dragged on endlessly. There was nothing to be gained from this attack. The regiment now lay in disjointed trenches on the western edge of Poelkapelle, about 500 metres from it. This day, too, the losses were extraordinarily high. In particular, the number of casualties was alarmingly , there was no overview of the strength of the companies. Major Pastau, III Battalion, was shot , Hauptmann Sommerlatte was wounded. So there was hardly an officer left now. The following day, the picture was the same. All the losses of individual groups, almost gaining ground of their own, collapsed again and again in the heavy infantry and machine-gun fire. The heavy enemy artillery fire interrupted all traffic and made it impossible to order the troops. To make matters worse, the regimental commander, Major Bredt, was also slightly wounded, leaving the regiment leaderless once again. It was placed under the command of Major Grimm of RIR 236, and Major Lehmann took over the II Battalion. The leaderless volunteers, scattered throughout the country, gradually became deeply indifferent. However, the troops still had so much backbone and good spirit that repeated enemy advances could be repelled in the evening. At night, the individual groups and remnants of the platoon were even put on night duty without orders, and individual patrols scoured the countryside. A stronger advance under Oberleutenant Bacmeister reached the left of the road to Kersekare across the Hanebeek’.
Unfortunately, own and enemy infantry fire forced Bachmeister to return with his men to the starting position. In addition, an attempt was made to connect the individual potholes to form a small trench. This was the first time that the difficulty of trenching in Flanders became apparent, because even in very shallow trenches, groundwater came up after a short time.
More to come next week.
Source :
Das Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 235 im Weltkriege Otto Hennig
Images : convent Poelkapelle, kampfgelande Langemark