‘Vizefeldwebel Sellse’ of the 6 Kompagnie: at night we lay in the gunfire of a farmstead as a reserve. The regimental commander, Oberst Wilhelmi, was standing with us. I still remember exactly how he calmed us down in his calm Southern German dialect when a man from my company, wounded in the thumb and chest by a rifle , cried out loudly: “Children, this is not the first and will not be the last. After the battle had been going on for some time, I was ordered to cover the MG platoon with my platoon. Given the confusing terrain, no one could tell me where this platoon was.
I only found it sometime later. I had my platoon move out of the garden in groups, with the result that due to the nature of the terrain I soon had only a few people with me. Vizefeldwebel Krahnke of 5 Kompagnie, a professional soldier, was carried past me, badly wounded. He had advanced too far without leaning to the right or left and had been shot in the abdomen from the rear, he died a short time later. I tried in vain with my good glasses to find out from where we received fire. There was nothing to be seen, and the losses kept increasing. The English were sitting and lying in shiny camouflaged holes in the turnip fields, in small trenches hidding in groups behind the hedges, in the attics of the houses. They shot down the men advancing , just like in a drive hunt. Despite the fierce fire, we had jumped into clearer terrain. A short time later, the machine gun platoon under the command of ” Leutnant Burghardt arrived here and took up fire against Langemark, which was now clearly visible in front of us. Apparently the fire from the machine guns became very annoying for the enemy, for it was not long before the platoon received such heavy artillery fire that we would have to change positions backwards . As I was not sighted by the artillery fire on the side of a railway embankment leading to Langemark, I remained here for a while, then collected a number of men wandering without a leader in the field and led the way. Further to the right, I saw Hauptmann Ebel, with drawn sword in front of a line of men, also advancing against Langemark, but soon lost sight of him. Although, as I assume, as a result of the reckless advance of individual companies and detachments, which, like us, kept rushing forward, the enemy’s fire from the turnip fields and hedgerows to the side gradually ceased and the enemy fell back in shooting from that position, it came all the more fiercely from the village. For hours, we shot our way around the almost invisible enemy. Since we could only see the success of our fire a few times, we finally systematically shelled one house roof after the other, spreading towards one small hedge after the other, and actually noticed that the fire lingered. My detachment was reduced to no more than 10 men, including the ‘kriegsfreiwillger’ Mewes of 8th Company. In the turnipfields, many or those who were seriously wounded were left to die alone, without the others scattered around noticing much. Unless their groans or helpless coughs reached the ears of their comrades passing by at night. Nevertheless, we eventually managed to get to the first house of langemark. the village exerted a magical, irresistible attraction on us, otherwise I can’t explain why we struggled forward despite everything that had happened there, as did other detachments, made up of the most diverse regiments, who later joined us . So we met “Offizierstellvertreter Schwenk” with the ‘gefreiten Baumann Franz’ and Schmelzer, the Wehrmann Engels and the reservist Dieren of the 11/236 and a number of 235s.
Perhaps it was also the German soldier’s urge to go forward. I also suspected that they had already entered Langemark from the southeast or northwest, because the fire had noticeably diminished. I had only noticed some artillery fire in the morning. In any case, several houses were ablaze, which could only have been set on fire by artillery. After crawling through a hedge and passing through a garden, we were between the houses on the road that leads from Poelkapelle into Langemark.
The course of the battles on the evening of the 22nd and the following night was reported by Kreigsfreiwilliger Korpien: On the morning of the 22nd, I had met the remnants of my company, 27 men and one non-commissioned officer. I learned that my kompagführer ‘Leutnant Küppers’ was still alive and leading the II Battalion. We spent the whole day in a little house with the rest of 7 Kompagnie, trying to escape. Strangely enough, the English left us completely alone. We must have been loud, because a sergeant from RIR 233 or 234, joined us and led us back to Poelkapelle. There we were to spend the night in the first houses. But because I was too excited, I went to a guard who was accommodated in the last house in the parlour of a tavern. There I met Sergeant Schmidt and Ludwig, a war volunteer, from my company. They shared their last piece of bread with me. Having returned to my section, I had just laid down in a hallway when the alarm was sounded and drums were beaten. The enemy was attacking. Up to here the ‘hurrah’ of the English could be heard. Under the command of the battalion commander, Lieutenant Rüppers, we quickly moved to the left towards the trench of RIR 233. We did not need to intervene, as the English attack was soon repulsed. After a long time we were led back to Poelkapelle together with the pioneer company lying next to us. In the morning, under the leadership of ‘ Offizierstellvertreter Müller, the 3 Kompagnie was hunkered down in the trenches near Poelkapelle. I sent 15-20 men from 5 Kompagnie under the command of Vizefeldwebel Schmidt and stayed with them.
Then he goes on describing how they try to push forward but also metions how many soldiers paid the price for these attacks and he gives a name of a 60 year old kriegsfreiwillige who died, his name was Sinnig.
That made me curious, is this correct, age 60 ? Will I be able to find him in the ‘verlustlisten’ ?
Took me 9 kompagnies to find him but indeed Sergeant Sinning Karl born in Gemünd Euchkirchen 17.08.1856 ( the name misspelled by Kreigsfreiwilliger Korpien in the regimental history and to be correct he was 58 ) died 21.10.1914 no location.
Lieutenants Heldt, Haering and Sempell had to leave the troop due to illness. Vizefeldwebel Axe now became the regimental adjudant. Hauptmanns Ebel’s departure from the frontline was felt most bitterly. The way he stood up for his subordinates remains unforgotten. While rescuing wounded men who were waiting to be transported in an endangered corridor, he himself was wounded while helping out. The previous adjutant, Lieutenant Kirchner, now took over the command of the III/236.The achievements of the regiment were recognised by the award of the first iron crosses to the following officers and teams: the wounded regimental commander, Oberst Wilhelmi and his successor in the command of the 236th, Hauptmann Holtey=Weber, Leutnant Heldt ( regiments adjutant, der fuher der 2 kompagnie, Vizefeldwebel Axe und feldunterartz Kersting des 1 bataillons. Von der jungen Kampfern wurden die kriegsfreiwilligen Gräf Edgar und Schüller Otto der 1 Kompagnie ausgezeichnet.
Image A big thank you to Jurgen Jürgen Schmieschek for letting me use this for my blog