Bkimberl at 18:37, 13 July 2009

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Hirgen at 22:25, 30 October 2008

2008-10-30T22:25:25Z

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Hirgen at 00:43, 2 September 2008

2008-09-02T00:43:52Z

New page

<CENTER>V 

THE HORRORS OF STREET FIGHTING </CENTER>

 WE left Sugny the next morning, and an hour later we crossed
the Belgo-French frontier. Here, too, we had to give three cheers.
The frontier there runs through a wood, and on the other side
of the wood we placed the 21-cm. mortars in position.

 Our troops were engaged with the rear-guard of the enemy near
the French village of Vivier-au-Court. We were brought in to reinforce
them, and after a five hours' fight the last opponents had retired
as far as the Meuse. Vivier-au-Court had hardly suffered at all
when we occupied it towards noon. Our company halted again here
to wait for the mortar battery.

 Meanwhile we walked through the village to find some eatables.
After visiting several houses we came upon the family of a teacher.
Father and son were both soldiers; two daughters of about twenty
and twenty-two were alone with their mother. The mother was extremely
shy, and all the three women were crying when we entered the home.
The eldest daughter received us with great friendliness and, to
our surprise, in faultless German. We endeavored to pacify the
women, begging them not to cry; we assured them again and again
that we would not harm them, and told them all kinds of merry
stories to turn their thoughts to other things.

 One of my mates related that in a fight in the morning, we
had lost seven men and that several on our side had been wounded.
That only increased the women's excitement, a thing we really
could not understand. At last one of the girls, who had been the
first one to compose herself, explained to us why they were so
much excited. The girl had been at a boarding school at Charlottenburg
(Germany) for more than two years, and her brother, who worked
in Berlin as a civil engineer, had taken a holiday for three months
after her graduation in order to accompany his sister home. Both
had liked living in Germany, it was only the sudden outbreak of
war that had prevented the young engineer from returning to Berlin.
He had to enter the French army, and belonged to the same company
in which his father was an officer of the reserve.

 After a short interval the girl continued: "My father
and brother were here only this morning. They have fought against
you. It may have been one of their bullets which struck your comrades
down. O, how terrible it is! Now they are away---they who had
only feelings of respect and friendship for the Germans---and
as long as the Germans are between them and us we shall not be
able to know whether they are dead or alive. Who is it that has
this terrible war, this barbaric crime on his conscience? "
Tears were choking her speech, and our own eyes did not remain
dry. All desire to eat had gone; after a silent pressing of hands
we slunk away.

 We remained in the village till the evening, meanwhile moving
about freely. In the afternoon nine men of my company were arrested;
it was alleged against them that they had laid hands on a woman.
They were disarmed and kept at the local guard-house; the same
thing happened to some men of the infantry. Seven men of my company
returned in the evening; what became of the other two I have not
been able to find out.

 At that time a great tobacco famine reigned amongst us soldiers.
I know that one mark and more was paid for a single cigarette,
if any could be got at all. At Vivier-au-Court there was only
one tobacco store run by a man employed by the state. I have seen
that man being forced by sergeants at the point of the pistol
to deliver his whole store of tobacco for a worthless order of
requisition. The "gentlemen " later on sold that tobacco
for half a mark a packet.

 Towards the evening we marched off, and got the mortar battery
in a new position from where the enemy's positions on the Meuse
were bombarded.

 After a short march we engaged the French to the northeast
of Donchéry. On this side of the Meuse the enemy had only
his rear-guard, whose task was to cover the crossing of the main
French armies, a movement which was almost exclusively effected
at Sédan and Donchéry. We stuck close to the heels
of our opponents, who did not retreat completely till darkness
began to fall. The few bridges left did not allow him to withdraw
his forces altogether as quickly as his interest demanded. Thus
it came about that an uncommonly murderous nocturnal street fight
took place in Donchéry which was burning at every corner.
The French fought with immense energy; an awful slaughter was
the result. Man against man! That "man against man!"
is the most terrible thing I have experienced in war. Nobody can
tell afterwards how many he has killed. You have gripped your
opponent, who is sometimes weaker, sometimes stronger than yourself.
In the light of the burning houses you observe that the white
of his eyes has turned red; his mouth is covered with a thick
froth. With head uncovered, with disheveled hair, the uniform
unbuttoned and mostly ragged, you stab, hew, scratch, bite and
strike about you like a wild animal. It means life or death. You
fight for your life. No quarter is given. You only hear the gasping,
groaning, jerky breathing. You only think of your own life, of
death, of home. In feverish haste, as in a whirlwind, old memories
are rushing through your mind. Yet you get more excited from minute
to minute, for exhaustion tries to master you; but that must not
be---not now! And again the fight is renewed; again there is hewing,
stabbing, biting. Without rifle, without any weapon in a life
and death struggle. You or I. I? I?---Never! you! The exertion
becomes superhuman. Now a thrust, a vicious bite, and you are
the victor. Victor for the moment, for already the next man, who
has just finished off one of your mates, is upon you---. You suddenly
remember that you have a dagger about you. After a hasty fumbling
you find it in the prescribed place. A swift movement and the
dagger buries itself deeply in the body of the other man.

 Onward! onward! new enemies are coming up, real enemies. How
clearly the thought suddenly flashes on you that that man is your
enemy, that he is seeking to take your life, that he bites, strikes,
and scratches, tries to force you down and plant his dagger in
your heart. Again you use your dagger. Thank heavens! He is down.
Saved!---Still, you must have that dagger back! You pull it out
of his chest. A jet of warm blood rushes out of the gaping wound
and strikes your face. Human blood, warm human blood! You shake
yourself, horror strikes you for only a few seconds. The next
one approaches; again you have to defend your skin. Again and
again the mad murdering is repeated, all night long

 Finally, towards four o'clock in the morning, the rest of the
French surrendered after some companies of infantry had occupied
two roads leading to the bridges. When the French on the other
side became aware of this they blew up the bridges without considering
their own troops who were still on them. Germans and Frenchmen
were tossed in the air, men and human limbs were sent to the sky,
friend and foe found a watery grave in the Meuse.

 One could now survey with some calm the scene of the mighty
slaughter. Dead lay upon dead, it was misery to behold them, and
above and around them all there were flames and a thick, choking
smoke. But one was already too brutalized to feel pity at the
spectacle; the feeling of humanity had been blown to all the winds.
The groaning and crying, the pleading of the wounded did not touch
one. Some Catholic nuns were lying dead before their convent.
You saw it and passed on.

 The only building that had escaped destruction was the barracks
of the 25th regiment of French dragoons. However, we had not much
time to inspect things, for at seven o'clock the French artillery
began already sending shell after shell into the village. We intrenched
behind a thick garden wall, immediately behind the Meuse. Our
side of the Meuse was flat, the opposite one went up steeply.
There the French infantry had intrenched themselves, having built
three positions on the slope, one tier above the other. As the
enemy's artillery overshot the mark we remained outside their
fire. We had however an opportunity to observe the effects of
the shots sent by our own artillery into the enemy's infantry
position on the slope in front of us. The shells (21-cm. shells)
whizzed above our heads and burst with a tremendous noise, each
time causing horrible devastation in the enemy's trenches.

 The French were unable to resist long such a hail of shells.
They retreated and abandoned all the heights of the Meuse. They
had evacuated the town of Sédan without a struggle. In
fact, that town remained completely intact, in contrast to the
completely demolished Donchéry. Not a house in Sédan
had suffered. When the rallying-call was sounded at Donchéry
it turned out that my company had lost thirty men in that fight.
We mustered behind the barracks of the dragoons, and our company,
which had shrunk to ninety men, was ordered to try and build a
pontoon-bridge across the Meuse at a place as yet unknown to us.
Having been reinforced by eighty men of, the second company we
marched away in small groups so as not to draw the enemy's attention
to us. After an hour's march we halted in a small wood, about
200 yards away from the Meuse, and were allowed to rest until
darkness began to fall.

 When it had become dark the bridge transportation column---it
was that belonging to our division---came up across the fields,
to be followed soon after by that of the army corps. All preparations
having been made and the chief preliminaries, like the placing
of the trestle and the landing boards, gone through, the various
pontoon-wagons drove up noiselessly, in order to be unloaded just
as noiselessly and with lightning speed. We had already finished
four pontoons, i. e., twenty yards of bridge, without being observed
by our opponent. Everything went on all right. Suddenly the transportable
search-lights of the enemy went into action, and swept up and
down the river. Though we had thrown ourselves flat upon the ground
wherever we stood, our opponents had observed us, for the search-lights
kept moving a little to and fro and finally kept our spot under
continual illumination. We were discovered. We scarcely had time
to consider, for an artillery volley almost immediately struck
the water to our left and right. We were still lying flat on the
ground when four more shots came along. That time a little nearer
to the bridge, and one shot struck the bank of the river.

 Immediately another volley followed, and two shells struck
the bridge. Some sappers fell into the water and two fell dead
on the bridge; those in the water swam ashore and escaped with
a cold ducking. One only was drowned. It was the man of whom I
told before that he was despised by his fellow-soldiers because
he had hurt the child of a poor woman with a stone he had thrown
through the window into her room.

V THE HORRORS OF STREET FIGHTING - Revision history

Bkimberl at 18:37, 13 July 2009

Hirgen at 22:25, 30 October 2008

Hirgen at 00:43, 2 September 2008