This week Sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday
RIR 235 trying to get into Langemark
langemark, for the first time the name was heard, which was to have such great significance for the regiment. the III Battalion in front took up its position. Spibe was the commander and Oberleutenant Frost with the 9 Kompagnie. So they left Poelkapelle again, left the road leading to Ieper and turned onto the road to langemark. For another quarter of an hour they passed between isolated houses, then came a hedge, behind it, on the left of the road, a windmill and then the road was open , on the right a stinking wide ditch and on the left lower-lying fields. The night was deadly dark, you couldn’t see 10 metres in front of you. They had already reached the vicinity of Langemark when a murderous infantry attack made them realize that the village was heavily clouded and the enemy had prepared for a fierce fight back. The III Battalion was therefore withdrawn back to Poelkapelle. The company commander ordered everyone to lie down and sleep, and the non-commissioned officers to do the same. That was probably around 4 a.m.
21.10 came out of thick fog the regiment arrived on the road in Poelkapelle. The colonel gave out the orders, all that was known of the enemy was that they were occupying the houses and hedgerows of Langemark and Kerselare ( Vancouver corner), it was to be attacked! The enemy was to be murdered!
Battalions were deployed on the two roads leading from Poelkapelle to langemark. No pen will ever be able to fully describe the events of the following days . The records are incomplete. who had time to think of war diaries! The adjutants had other things to do. Besides, they changed all the time. So it is impossible to single out any one of them. The depiction of the deeds of these last days of October must therefore be given special emphasis in order to fully grasp their heroism. It all happened so quickly that no one really came to their senses. At 9.30 in the morning, the first companies marched out of the gardens on the edge of the road towards langemark. The sun broke through the fog and showed real Flemish land, a plain indeed, but completely confusing. Everywhere hedges and fences, trees and clumps of trees, blasted by the eternal wind. In between, criss-crossing ditches and paths, more ditches, wet meadows and beet and chicory fields. Scattered throughout the country are individual houses and farmsteads, some surrounded by moats like castles. Orientation is very difficult. Where does a village begin and where does it end?
Suddenly there was a bang, an invisible enemy fired volleys at the advancing wagons. In between, two, three, five machine guns hammered from somewhere, from the front and from the flank. So everyone is more or less on their own. A platoon tries to dig in, too late, the volley from the flank crashes in and takes the platoon down. The other platoons were already 20 m ahead, but without the platoon leaders…… The reserve platoon swarms in, when it is in front, the platoon leader is missing, fallen? The orderly who is to report to the company commander does not get far. A machine gun covers the poor boy. The report never arrives. The man it was supposed to reach didn’t hear it either, the orderly was left on the edge of the village, never to return.
Where has the company gone, where is the battalion? In front, a few groups of men are still storming ahead, but no one knows where the rest is . The companies on the right and left are invisible. And still nothing of the enemy is to be seen. but he pushes all the harder. His artillery is also becoming active. Grenades and shells are sweeping the countryside. behind the companies, there is a crashing of heavy shells. The own artillery is now coming into action. They occupy the border land, and heavy shells rush forward, where langemark must be lying somewhere. Fires blaze up, and fire runs around roaring until it sinks. and still there is no enemy to be seen. at last they have found him! In front, at 300 m, behind a hedge. Shapes in brown become visible. finally, targets! They are drawn down, the fire is opened and the battle swells. in barely an hour, the reserve companies are deployed. As they advance, they encounter dead and wounded and no one can tell where the front line is until they are shot down by enemy or friendly artillery, no one can tell. Individuals and groups are massing in yards, waiting for orders!! But the leaders are no longer there. The last battalion enters, it shares the fate of the troops in front. Already there are other regiments mixed between the 235. A turmoil fists the troops in the hellish hurricane. the bullets only clatter between the beet fields, but the men still go forward. On the left wing, on the Poelkapelle – Kerselare road, there is, of course, no way forward. the land here slopes down and every movement is visible for hundreds of meters. As if on the stand, the enemy shoots at anyone who even shows himself. Entire platoons lie shot through the head, rifle in hand. But on the right, it goes forward. A few farmsteads are stormed here. Around late afternoon, a few houses at the gaswork factory in langemark are occupied, and the brave 7th company even manages to take a few prisoners, at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the enemy artillery fire dies down. The enemy apparently had the impression that the German troops had been beaten down and now they tried to break through to Poelkapelle. English firing squadrons came through the causeway trenches from Ieper.
Sources :
RAPPORTS SUR LES ATTENTATS COMMIS PAR LES TROUPES ALLEMANDES PENDANT L’INVASION ET
L’OCCUPATION DE LA BELGIQUE by Albert DE WIT Libraire-Editeur I Veuve LARCIER, Editeur Rue Royale, 53. | Rue des Minimes, 26. LIEGE ,Georges THONE, Imprimeur 1923
Das Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 235 im Weltkriege Otto Hennig
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