German infantry

“ Regiments and batteries, with complete self-abandonment, faced hopeless duels at impossible ranges; brigades of cavalry on the flanks boldly threatened divisions; and in the half-shelter of their trenches the infantry, withering but never budging, grimly dwindled before the German guns. It was our first experience on a large scale of modern artillery in mass. For the first six hours the guns never stopped. To our infantry it was a time of stubborn and almost stupefied endurance, broken by lucid intervals of that deadly musketry which had played such havoc with the Germans at Mons. ”

“ Infantry. As everybody knows, Infantry is intended to go anywhere and fight anywhere. It is, therefore, equipped for all contingencies that may arise, and is armed with a weapon for use either at a long range or in close hand-to-hand fighting.
The German Infantry is [14] armed with a capital magazine-rifle, with a bore of ·315 inches, which, with a point-blank range of over 300 yards, will carry up to 2,400 yards. [Pg 24] The magazine is detachable, and holds 8 cartridges. The bayonet is a short sword-bayonet, very similar to the new English bayonet. ”

“ The French infantry were drawn up within and in front, as well as on the left of the town; while the artillery had taken up their position on a small hill to the right, from which they could rake the plain before them, should the Prussians give them battle. In the rear of the artillery, and away from the town, were placed the cavalry. ”

“ Every time a German's head showed above the trenches and every time the German infantry attempted to rush a position there came a withering rifle fire from the khaki-clad forms lying in extending formation along a big battle front. ”

“ The British guns are shooting almost horizontally at the German infantry trudging through the mud 2,000 yards away.
"I count easily five regiments together, but further to the right a sixth one evidently wards off a flank attack on the part of the French colonial troops. The lone regiment is the Second Prussian regiment of the guard, the emperor's own, the elite of the Kaiser's army, 2,500 of the brawniest, most disciplined men in the world. It is now 1 o'clock. In one hour only 300 of these men will leave the field.
"A gust of wind brings to our ears the sound of music. ”

“ The very strength of our artillery was sapping the old reliance on the rifle, and when the barrage stopped the infantry often seemed to be powerless to defend the captured positions.
On the other hand the superior and more lengthy training of the German reserves now began to tell. Personally, I never admired the German as a fighting man until he was now for the first time driven out of his vast defences. On the Somme the Germans had artillery support nearly equal to our own, and they were defending superb trenches with unbroken roads and country behind them. ”

“ The German infantry also shoot poorly from an American standpoint, but do better than the French. Their uniform is the most nearly perfect of any of the armies in the war, and the Germans are virtually [Pg 327] invisible at short range if they are not moving. Their helmet is easily the best headgear in the matter of invisibility. It sets tightly on the head, and owing to its shape virtually never casts a shadow. The Germans have been from the beginning very accomplished trench diggers and have had elaborate theories as to the construction of trenches and much practice in making them. ”

“ The fighting forces on the German side at the beginning of the war on or near the east front included the First Army Corps at Königsberg, the Twentieth at Allenstein, the Seventeenth at Danzig, the Fifth at Posen, and the Sixth at Breslau. These mustered a total of forty-four infantry, twenty-one cavalry, and twenty-five artillery regiments, augmented by four battalions of rifles (Jaeger) , and twelve formations of technical troops. ”

“ The marching powers of the German infantry are well known. Before a Prussian recruit is entered in a foot regiment he is carefully examined in order to see whether his feet will bear the strain of long marches, and the greatest attention is paid to the fit of the excellent boots with which he is provided. In war time, moreover, whenever practicable, the knapsacks are conveyed in a cart attached to each company, in order to facilitate rapid motion. ”

“ French artillery was up on the wooded heights above the river and swept the German regiments with a storm of fire as they advanced. On the right bank the French infantry was intrenched, supported by field guns and mitrailleuses, and did deadly work before leaping from trenches which they occupied and taking up a position in new trenches further back, which they held with great tenacity. ”

“ The German Infantry Drill Regulations (par. 397) further emphasize the fact that, when well-trained infantry employs its rifles to good advantage in defense, it is very strong in front; that it can hold a position with a comparatively small force; and that, in this case, it has only one weak spot, the flank, which it must seek to protect by distribution in depth. This view is fully borne out by the recent events in South Africa and in Manchuria. ”

“ Declarations gathered from prisoners and the observations of the French staff led the latter to estimate that at least one-third of the total number of men engaged were the minimum losses of the German infantry during the first forty days of the battle, or 150,000 men of the first fighting line alone. ”

“ The opinion is also recorded that our infantry make such good use of the ground that the German companies are decimated by our rifle fire before a British soldier can be seen.
From an official diary captured by the First Army Corps it appears that one of the German corps contains an extraordinary mixture of units. If the composition of the other corps is at all similar, it may be assumed that the present efficiency of the enemy's forces is in no way comparable with what it was when war commenced. The losses in officers are noted as having been especially severe. ”

“ It was to be victory or death with the corps d'élite of the German army, but it was no less victory or death with the men who opposed them. After an artillery preparation of appalling intensity for three hours along the line of both the First and Second Divisions, the infantry advance began about 9.30 on the morning of November 11 amid a storm of wind and rain. They are gregarious fighters, the Germans, finding comfort and strength in the rush of serried ranks. ”

“ In the German army the cavalry is merely an adjunct of the infantry. It is the infantry which decides battles—not [Pg 34] the cavalry, not even the artillery. However, the infantry of to-day is something very different from the infantry of the eighteenth and even from that of a great part of the nineteenth century. German military writers acknowledge that the world learned new tactics from the sharpshooters and riflemen of the American war of the rebellion. The whole modern battle formation rests on the idea of giving more play to the individual. ”

“ My personal observations lead me to estimate that the percentage of casualties from artillery wounds has been nearly 50% of the total.
There are very distinct differences in the methods of the French and German field artilleries. The French field artillery is always used in indirect fire and the positions are usually a long distance behind the infantry—from fifteen to twenty-five hundred yards. The emplacements are often in deep wooded valleys. Too close proximity to the infantry is avoided. ”

“ The infantry attack is the more ghastly, but the artillery the more awe-inspiring. This was the fifth day of constant fighting and still the German trenches hold.
"Today's battle opened at dawn. With two staff officers assigned as my chaperons, I had been attached overnight to the field headquarters. I slept well, exhausted by the excitement of my first sight of modern war, but when dawn once again revealed the two long lines of the Russian and German positions the Russian guns began to hurl their loads of shrapnel at the German trenches. ”

“ After they had gone some distance the first ranks of infantry lay down, and permitted other waves of men to pass through their ranks. Great numbers of three-inch guns and small cannon on low carriages that could be swiftly moved were now brought up behind the infantry and the attack went on.
The German attack was directed against the center of the Allies' position. Their aim was to drive a great salient on a front of fifty or sixty miles through the occupied lines which would divide the French and British, after which they were to be dealt with separately. ”

“ By elevating the small guns the curtain fell farther and farther into the enemy's territory, thus making it possible for the Allies to go on farther and farther across No Man's Land.
The infantry rushed forward, fighting and dying nobly in a noble cause. Position after position was consolidated as the Germans fell back before the rain of shot and shell. It is always this way in an offensive, small or large. The first rush of the attacking side, be it German, French, British, or American, carries everything before it. It is the counter attack that tells. ”

“ So now the British troops in the north are faced by enormous forces. Nearly thirty German divisions are against them from Wytschaete to La Bassée Canal, and with those troops are innumerable machine guns, trench mortars, and massed batteries of field guns, very quick to get forward in support of their infantry. ”

“ They are the boys who weave the “curtain of fire” which you read about in the French official bulletins as checking an infantry charge; which demolish the barbed-wire entanglements to let an infantry charge get into a trench. If a general wants a shower of bullets over any part of the German line he has only to call up the eighteen-pounders and it is sent as promptly as the pressure of a button brings a pitcher of iced water to a room in a first-class hotel. A veteran eighteen-pounder crew in action is a poem in precision and speed of movement. The gun itself seems to possess intelligence. ”

“ Every man stood in his place, with his hand on his rifle, and ready to begin at a moment's notice. Our forces at this point consisted of a regiment of marine infantry, a couple of regiments of the Line, a few hundred cavalry, and three batteries.
We took our position on the route Impériale, immediately outside the town, from which place one could observe how the forces were disposed, and the relation which we bore to the enemy. There was a forest in front of Neuville, some few thousand yards away from the earthworks, and in and beside this wood the Prussians held their ground. ”

“ The tactical note gathered such of the more urgent lessons of the preceding actions as were capable of immediate application: the importance of close co-operation of infantry and artillery in attack; of artillery preparation of the assault, destruction of enemy machine-guns, immediate entrenchment of a position won, organisation for prolonged resistance, as contrasted with “the enthusiastic offensive”; extended formation in assault; the German method of cavalry patrols immediately supported by infantry, and the need of care not to exhaust the horses. ”

“ To maintain the normal semblance of trench-warfare was an easy task for the German, and one that he never failed in. Repeatedly in his retirements during the war he removed (p. 055) his real forces, his artillery and stores unbeknown to our watching infantry and their questioning staff. The screen of a retreating enemy is not easily caught up and pierced by an advanced guard not superior to it in strength and inferior in mobility. ”

“ Over the ridge there our infantry was pushing forward, each regiment unrolling behind it its field wire and every unit constantly in touch with this man lying in the wheat field who with finger on map was directing the following up of the retreating enemy. Wherever one could see a road it was black with traffic moving forward, and wherever one looked over the ridges beyond us one saw the puff of shrapnel [169] and heard the boom and reverberations of our heavy guns and the sullen report of bursting German shells. ”

“ I imagined they were moving parallel to the firing line, changing position. How close were we now? Probably six kilometers. Two miles riding up the road to Arras with the battlefield of October 1st, the muddy, desolated fields on either side. It was up this road that the French artillery made its retreat, across those fields that their infantry poured with the Duke of Altenburg's Saxonians in hot pursuit. Ober-Lieutenant Herrmann had told me that the French had given way all along the line here before [130] the German second drive, retreating to Arras, which they now held. ”

“ As has been explained, the German reserve divisions were markedly stronger than the French, and the German corps generally were more homogeneous. (2) The table shows only the maximum development of each army. Light artillery was probably in about the same proportion as the infantry, with a marked advantage of quality on the side of the Allies; it had not been possible to bring the full German superiority in heavy guns to105 bear on the new front. ”

“ The truth seems to be that the Germans are outmatched, first and foremost, in aircraft and in guns. You will remember the quiet certainty of our young Flight-Commander on March 1st—"When the next big offensive comes, we shall down them, just as we did on the Somme." The prophecy has been made good, abundantly good!—at the cost of many a precious life. The air observation on our side has been far better and more daring than that on the German side; and the work of our artillery has been proportionately more accurate and more effective. ”