Another Pipe, another Regiment. This time we will hear the sound of the cannons of the Artillery. I will be talking about a “Reservistenpfeife” from the Königlich-Preußisches 2. Lothringisches Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 34. Just to understand the “numbers”, it was the second Regiment from Lorraine but the 34th from the whole army.
I like, that this Pipe has 2 Sides: the first one, the most “military” one, you see the Horseman with the sentence, Victory or Death” on the Top. Let’s remember, that a Field Artillery Regiment had many horses attached to them, for transport. We see also the unit where the recruit were. Nice to see also the Regiment logo at the bottom, which is, what you expect to find in the shoulder strap of his uniform. In the other side of the pipe, you find a different picture, the recruit just having a walk with a girl, and on the top of them, you can read, more or less, “this is the best part of the (military) Service”. The “Reservist” was in that regiment until 1903. Another detail, that I like of this “Pfeife” is, that you see the typical “Pickelhaube” of the Artillery Units on the lid. This is something, that we have seen in my previous articles, for example, with a different “Pickelhaube” depending, if the Regiment was from Hessen or Prussia (See my articles over the IR 117 and the IR 55 for comparison).
At the beginning of the War, this regiment was part of the 33rd Division, XVI. Army Corps, 5th Army, under the command of Kronprinz Wilhelm von Preußen, the son of the Kaiser.
I already spoke about this 5th Army in a previous article about a bottle of the 2. Hannoversche Ulanen-Regiment Nr. 14, which was in the 34th Division. You can find it here.
But just summarizing, this regiment took part in the battle o Longwy-Longuyon, making advances against the 3rd French Army and the Army of Lorraine and interrupting the communications with the Champagne (between Sedan and Verdun). From this time well until August 1916, the Regiment was going to be in the Argonne (Argonnewald), where also terrible battles occurred, including “mine warfare”.
In August 1916, the division was sent to Verdun, near by Fort Vaux and in the East of Fleury. The regiment suffered heavy casualties, as well as the artillery. The French counter artillery worked very well. In addition, in this moment, the air superiority was in the hands of the French Army.
The rest of 1916 is the Regiment again in the Argonne and in December in the Somme, in the area of Beaumont-Hamel, remaining there until February 1917 and suffering heavy casualties.
During 1917, the 33rd Division was going to be oscillating between Champagne and Argonne, for resting and reorganization. In Champagne, it arrived to Cornillet and Mont Blond just after the Battle of the Hills in April. The Regiment was one of the units, that “witnessed” the collapse of the Cornillet Tunnel on the 20th of May due to artillery fire. Hundreds of soldiers of the 476th Infantry-Regiment died due to air intoxication (carbon monoxide poison) as all the exits were totally blocked.
During the “Kaiser Offensive” in the spring of 1918, the Germans tried hard to break the defensive allied line, almost everywhere in the west front, taking advantage of the amount of troops received from the East, after the Russian surrender. During this time, the regiment was going to be located near Amiens, making some advances during the battle of Picardy.
In the summer of 1918, they will be involved in the second battle of the Marne, where they suffered heavy casualties and the advances were soon converted to retreats and defensive fights. That was going to be the normal until the end of the war, both in Reims and Verdun, one of the last know locations, where the Regiment was. It was after the Marne, when the division just broke down.
The regiment was part of a first class division and fought like that until the second battle of the Marne.
Sources:
Histories of the Two Hundred and Fifty One Divisions of the German Army.
Maps from Wikipedia.