I fell asleep on my straw couch. Around midnight I awoke with a start. Combat raged ahead and to the left of us. It was raining cats and dogs and I was soaked to the skin. Off to the left I saw signal lights blinking and heard the continuous chatter of rifles. A messenger informed me that the battalion commander was at the regimental command post.
The sound of firing came closer and I began to wonder if the French were making a night attack. To find out what was going on, I took a runner with me and headed in the direction of the noise. Suddenly, fifty to sixty yards ahead, I saw human forms approaching us in a column of twos. I thought them to be French, who had penetrated the gap between the 124th and the 120th Infantry Regiments and were trying to strike the 2nd Battalion in flank and rear. As they came closer and closer, I wondered what we should do. I decided to rush off to the right to inform Count von Rambaldi, Captain of the 6th Company, of the situation and request that a platoon be placed under my orders. The request was granted and I deployed my men and approached the enemy. When the light of distant flares allowed us to distinguish the outlines of the column, I ordered my men into position with rifles unlocked. I was still uncertain as to identities and challenged the column when it was some fifty yards distant. The 7th Company answered back. The company commander, a young lieutenant, was withdrawing from his position (echeloned to the left rear of the battalion) and was trying to move a quarter of a mile to the rear. His explanation was that there was going to be a fight and that his company was in the second line. Little pleased by his actions, I gave him a short tactical lecture. I still get the cold shivers when I think that I came close to firing on my own recruits.
Shortly afterward the battalion commander returned from regimental headquarters with the regimental order for a night attack. Our battalion (in front line in the regiment) was to take Hill 287, about five hundred yards north of Rembercourt, by storm. The adjoining regiments (the 123rd Grenadier Regiment on the right, and the 120th Infantry Regiment on the left) were to attack at the same time. The time of the attack had not been decided on, but the battalion was to get ready immediately. The order promised a release from the hell of French artillery fire. The objective was not far away, and we wished that the French artillery positions on the hills around Rembercourt were also included. (Sketch 6)
In a pouring rain and in pitch darkness, the battalion got ready for the attack on the left of the former sector. Bayonets were fixed, rifles unlocked. The password was “Victory or Death.” On the left there had been activity for quite some time. Rifle fire flared up and then died in one sector only to come to life somewhere else.
Sketch 6
Night attack against Rembercourt.
The 1st Battalion had come up. The regimental commander was with the 2nd Battalion. Our information about the enemy was limited to a knowledge that he was along the railroad and in cuts south of the railroad and along the Sommaisne-Rembercourt road. Our men waited anxiously for H hour. By this time they had been soaked to the skin for hours and frozen with cold. Hours passed. Finally at 0300 we got the attack order.
In massed formation the battalion plunged down the slope onto the enemy along the railway, overran him, seized the cuts on the Sommaisne-Rembercourt highway, and stormed Hill 287. Wherever the enemy resisted he was dispatched with the bayonet, the rest of the battalion by-passing the local point of resistance. With all four companies in line the battalion occupied Hill 287. Since units attacking on our right and left had not kept pace with us, we deployed both of our flanks on a front curved toward the rear to protect ourselves. Units were badly mixed and reorganization proceeded slowly. Dawn began to break and the rain started to let up. The units were digging furiously to provide protection from the French artillery fire which was expected shortly. Work progressed very slowly in the wet, clayey soil. Over and over, shovels became coated with a thick, sticky coat of clay and had to be cleaned.
And now, in the gray morning light the shape of the hills around Rembercourt became plainly discernible; they dominated our new position. Suddenly our outpost sounded the alarm. Large masses of Frenchmen had been observed in the depression on the north side of Rembercourt.
At the moment of the alarm I was on the battalion right flank with Captain Count von Rambaldi's 6th Company. Closed columns of Frenchmen were marching into Rembercourt from the northwest. The 6th Company and parts of the 7th Company opened fire, and a very lively fire fight got under way at three to four hundred yards' range. Some French tried to find protection up the slope in the streets of Rembercourt, but the majority returned our fire. Most of our boys were so glad to have a Frenchman in their sights that they fired standing. After about a quarter of an hour the enemy fire slackened. In front of us at the north entrance to Rembercourt, there were large numbers of dead and wounded and our own zeal was responsible for the large gaps in our own ranks. The morning's fight was more expensive than the night attack.
We regretted not having been allowed to storm the village of Rembercourt and the hills on both sides of it. Our fighting spirit was unbroken in spite of all we had passed through and we wanted to be at grips with the French infantry which, so far, had proven inferior to us in all engagements.
After the fire fight died down all units continued to dig. Before they were a foot into the ground the French artillery let loose in its accustomed manner and prevented further work in the open.
So far the battalion staff had had little time to provide shelter for itself, the fight on Hill 287 and at the north entrance of Rembercourt having kept us constantly on the go. Now a French battery was firing at us from an uncovered position on the hill just west of Rembercourt. The range was scarcely more than eleven hundred yards. Fortunately there was a high percentage of duds because of the wet ground. We dived into ploughed furrows to avoid the enemy's shells and covered ourselves with bundles of oats in hope of escaping the eyes of the enemy observers. The heavens opened again and our furrows turned into rivers. French shells hit us, and our attempts to dig from the prone position were unsuccessful because of the clay coating on the shovel blades. We were literally covered from head to foot with a thick coat of sticky clay and were miserably cold in our wet clothes. In addition to all this my ailing stomach was particularly troublesome, and I was forced to change shell holes every half hour.
The attacks of our neighbouring units had been stopped, leaving the 2nd Battalion far ahead of the division front. At about 1000 a howitzer battery from the 45th Field Artillery attempted to help us from positions in the rear of our sector. The enemy maintained too great a superiority of fire, and the net results were to draw an even heavier fire on our own heads. Just as on the preceding days, we saw little of the French Infantry, which did not trouble us much in the way of fire.
Time stood still. A few months ago we would have laughed had we been told that this kind of miserable existence was even possible. We wanted to get out of our predicament and were not particular about methods. To attack would, of course, be preferable.
The French fire kept up all day long with countless shells thrown at our position on Hill 287. Just before dark we had the usual —goodnight kiss” and then in plain view, they hitched up and moved their batteries to the rear. They must have believed in maximum security at night.
Our losses on September 10 were considerable—four officers and forty men dead; four officers and 160 men wounded; eight missing.
After the night attack the French fortress of Verdun was all but encircled. A strip nine miles wide to the south of Verdun was all that separated the 10th Division east of Fort Troyon from the divisions of the XIII and XIV Corps attacking from the west. The only rail connection with Verdun was through the valley of the Meuse, and that was under German fire. (Sketch 7)
Night fell and we got busy with our digging. About midnight the kitchens arrived. The thoughtful Hanle had brought me dry clothes, underwear, and a blanket. Because of my stomach I decided to forego mess. I was not going to report sick as long as I could stand on my feet. In dry clothes, I got a few nightmare-packed hours of sleep and at daybreak returned to my pick and shovel.
Sketch 7
The situation around Verdun after the night attack of September 10-11, 1914.
On September 11, the French artillery carried on as before but our units were well entrenched and losses were light. The continuous rains along with the cool temperature did not make our stay too pleasant. The kitchens again came up around midnight.
Observations: During a night attack it is very easy to fire on one’s own people. In the 2nd Battalion we missed doing this by a hair. The night attack of September 9 carried the 2nd Battalion half a mile ahead of the division front, and we reached our assigned objective at a cost of few casualties. Had a continuous advance been undertaken, it would have met with little resistance. The rain favoured the attack. Heavy casualties only occurred when large masses of French were retreating into Rembercourt and while we were entrenching under French artillery fire. Had the French opened up before our trenches were a foot deep, losses would have been higher. A logical conclusion: Plenty of pick-and-shovel work before dawn. Because of ammunition shortage, our own artillery gave us but little support on September 10 and 11; and the French fired unmolested from exposed positions.
During action the volume of enemy fire was such that the kitchens came up only after dark. During the day they were several miles behind the front. The men quickly became accustomed to this manner of eating.
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