This week Sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday
RIR 236 and their opponents November 1914
It is always good to see both sides of the story how opponents describe the actions. And RIR 236 actually gave me the French units I had to look for. Each French regiment has a war diary .
RIR 236
During the night of 17 to 18 November, a Frenchman was captured. Through him they learned of the replacement of the 16 French Army Corps by the 9 Army Corps that night. More prisoners were brought in by the 6 Company during the night of 20 to 21 November. Their interrogation revealed that le 114e régiment d’infanterie was in the trench opposite , the French position with the 90 and 125 Line Regiments consisted of four trenches in a row and the garrison was mostly reservists. Further, the displays revealed rumours of the enemy’s intentions to move and disrupt German expectations. Strong French patrols advancing against the frontline were repulsed with the loss of 15 deadly casualties.
114e régiment d’infanterie
They had been in the area around Zonnebeke where on the 17 they were released by le 66 régiment d’infanterie and went to St Jan for 2 days bivac.
20 November: The regiment is set up east of the Poelkapelle road behind the “kerbaerbeek” creek with 1 and 2nd battalion in the frontline and 3 BN. in reserve; the reserve BN has its location at the crossing 800 m east of St Julian on the Zonnebeke – Langemark road. Quiet day, isolated gunfire, light cannonade, but still heavy casualties. 1 officer wounded, 11 men found killed. 4 wounded. At 11 p.m. the left companies of the 1st line are relieved by 1 BN of the 146th. The first battalion went to billet at Fortuin.
21 November: Quiet day on the front line, little gunfire and shooting. Casualties : 5 killed and 5 wounded for the day.
125 Regiment d’infanterie
20 November: the regiment is billeted at Vlamertinge after 28 days in the trenches, the next day 300 new soldiers arrive to reinforce ; On the 22nd of November at 9 pm they get order to relieve the 66 et le 68 in front of Zonnebeke.
90 regiment d’infanterie
Beteen the 17th and the 22nd of November they relief ‘le 122’ in the sector North and in front of St. Juliaan neer the Steenbeek . they don’t make any attacks but the Germans attack them with hand grenades and shells.
So none of these French regiments mention men being MIA, so no chance here to find out from witch regiment the prisoners were.
RIR 236
the companies, which were accommodated behind our trenches as combat reserves with the echelons and were supported night after night with advice and assistance by sappers of the reserve sapper company 51, entrenched in front with the trench crew,. They began to build dugouts and cover trenches at their accommodation and thus created the beginning of a second and third line. No regiment member from this period will forget these dugouts named after leaders and adjutants. The house ‘Heydrich’ was included in the first line on the left wing. Behind the right wing of the regimental position lay the house “Grimm” and in the section of the second battalion we had the house “Langer”, “Kirchner” and “Mennecke” determined the course of the third position, in whose village field lay the house Bohnenkamp.
See the map to find these houses.
On the way to the front trench, a work detachment of the 2 company made an important discovery on the night of the 23rd of November. To the right of the Grimm House a telephone was found in a straw barn near the Wolf house in the RIR 235 section, operated by a French officer and three men. After their capture, the building, which had hardly been damaged so far, was shot up by enemy artillery like the other farmsteads. During this period of deployment, the regiment had at first hardly noticed, but from now on this was part of the trench soldier’s life, sometimes short boring hours, at other times disturbing short hours of much-needed sleep: “ die kleiderläufe”
At last the fight with mud and water came to an end, the ‘landwehrregimenter 73, 74 and 37 took over on the 26th of November in the past 10 days they had lost 11 men, one of them was dead the others wounded. They went on to Oostnieuwkerke for Bivac,
The following funny incident occurred, as Major Grimm recounts: during this inspection, General von Kleist asked for special wishes. I asked that the delousing facility in Roeselare be made available to the regiment on the same day. A disapproving look from the division commander accompanied the exclamation: Was, Sie haben Läuse??!!!! Then he turned to a commander standing next to me : does your regiment have lice too??? Hesitantly, a negative answer followed. But when our companies arrived at the delousing centre in the afternoon, they found it crowded with members of the louse-free regiment.
Sources : das reserve infanterie regiment 236 Mayor Arthur
Memoiresdeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr journeaux des marches et operations des corps de troupe 1914-1918
Images : Map RIR 236 thank you to Jürgen Schmieschek for letting me use this. letter from RI 125, area map Spriet from geopunt Vlaanderen