Very early on January 7, 1917, I sent scout squads toward the Putna valley on both sides of Gagesti. It was bitterly cold with twelve inches of snow on the ground and a heavy fog prevailed. Toward 1000, Mess Sergeant Pfaffle reported that he had ridden about two and a half miles in the direction of the valley without encountering the enemy. At that point he heard sounds of numerous columns and much noise coming from the valley. Apparently the enemy was withdrawing, although the fog prevented visual observation.
I forwarded this report to Major Sproesser by telephone and asked permission to take the 2nd Company (reinforced) and feel out the way to Gagesti.
An hour later we moved off down the valley in single file through the sparse forest. Fog limited the visibility to about a hundred yards. Our security detachments consisted of advance and flank guards, the former made up of a squad under our able Technical Sergeant Hugel, preceding us by about a hundred yards. The heavy machine-gun platoon was in the centre of the company with its guns loaded on pack animals.
It took us thirty minutes to emerge from the woods and we found ourselves on a narrow footpath leading through a very dense nursery of young trees a few yards tall. I marched at the head of the main body. The fog had lightened.
Suddenly shots rang out in front followed by Hugel giving orders and then his report that we had encountered a Rumanian scout squad on the trail. His first shots killed the leading Rumanians and the remainder, seven in number, surrendered. Meanwhile the company had deployed, for caution seemed indicated. Perhaps the prisoners were the security elements of a hostile column. Hugel continued his advance and, in a few minutes, reported that he had reached the eastern edge of the nursery and that an approaching hostile skirmish line estimated as a company was about a hundred yards away. Immediately I ordered the leading platoon to deploy at the nursery's edge astride the trail and open fire. Our answer was violent hostile fire which whistled through the brush and drove us to earth. The employment of the heavy machine-gun platoon caused some difficulty and its leader reported that his guns were frozen and that he would have to thaw them out. A lively exchange broke out a few yards to the east of the nursery edge. To all appearances we had met an enemy force in superior strength. In a small hollow the heavy machine-gun platoon was working feverishly to thaw its guns with alcohol. The hostile fire rattled through the low trees. It was more than annoying that the heavy machine guns were unable to intervene at that moment. If the enemy had enveloped our left or right, we would have been obliged to retreat. The 2nd and 3rd Platoons provided security in these directions.
Finally the first machine gun was in order and went into position, but it never had an opportunity to fire.
In an ever-thickening fog, the enemy disengaged from combat and soon deprived us of remunerative targets. To fire into the fog would have been a waste of ammunition, improper for mountain troops operating under our difficult supply conditions. Under the fire protection of the heavy machine guns I took a platoon and advanced to a slight elevation crowned by a small house standing in a fenced-in vineyard. No shots were being exchanged. We could see many Rumanians milling about in a leaderless fashion on the bare slope across from us. We waved to them with our handkerchiefs and soon had twenty prisoners without firing a single shot. The Rumanians were sick of a war which had certainly gone very badly for them. Some of the prisoners helped us to round up more of their comrades. The rest of my company came up. Our position was such that the enemy was capable of striking us from any point of the compass. Therefore, we prepared the position for all-around defence with security and scouting elements out in all directions. These began to send more prisoners back. Lance Corporal Bruckner surprised five Rumanians in a vineyard building and quickly disarmed them. Lieutenant Hausser and I went into the forward area in search of a more suitable spot in which to locate the company. We hoped to find a farmstead. The temperature was 15 degrees and we were beginning to suffer from the cold and hunger. We were unable to locate a farmstead in the vicinity, but we did find a better position for the company just north of a deep gully in the middle of a fenced-in vineyard. A small house was located in the middle of the position and here in a single, unheated room we found a severely-wounded Rumanian who had been abandoned by his countrymen. Dr. Lenz did what he could for him, but there was little chance of bringing him through. The company moved in.
The deep gully led down the valley toward Gagesti. The terrain to the north and east was open for about a hundred yards with light brush stretching out in the other direction. Fog still swirled hither and yon and at times we had visibilities of only two hundred yards. We heard the sound of voices over on the slope to the left. Dr. Lenz and I crept in that direction and, some thousand yards from our own position, we discovered a large Rumanian troop formation, about a battalion in size, resting in an open field behind an orchard. Hundreds of men, horses, and vehicles were assembled in this small area. Camp-fires gleamed.
While the fog allowed us to approach without being seen, I decided against an attack because the terrain was such as to make it impossible to use our weapons with maximum effectiveness.
It was 1400 and we had an hour and a half until dark. The extreme cold made it impossible to bivouac in the open. Where was Gagesti? We preferred to seize some village buildings for our night quarters instead of returning crestfallen to Schitul Tarnita. In addition to shelter we needed food. Hunger makes soldiers enterprising.
With Dr. Lenz and his orderly, I moved to the east of the company position, on the left bank of a gully about ten feet deep. Technical Sergeant Pfeiffer with three or four men kept pace abreast of us some fifty yards on our right.
We had covered less than a quarter of a mile when we located a large number of Rumanians on the northern side of the gully near a small house. Were they a combat outpost? In spite of having but one carbine with us on the north of the gully and having but four on the south, we advanced toward the enemy and by shouting and waving handkerchiefs ordered him to surrender. The Rumanians neither budged nor fired. We were within thirty yards of them and retreat was out of the question. I was secretly worried over the outcome. The Rumanians were standing close together with their rifles at the order and were talking and gesticulating among themselves, but refrained from firing as if to show their friendly intentions. Finally we came up to them and had them disarm. I told them a cock-and-bull story about the end of the war and then turned the thirty prisoners over to Pfeiffer's squad.
The three of us continued eastward toward the valley. Some distance farther on we saw the outlines of a deployed company loom up out of the fog. They were still fifty yards away but we decided to risk it. We advanced waving our handkerchiefs and shouting. The company was taken aback. Their officers shouted angrily: —Foc! Foc!” (Rumanian for “Fire!”) and also began beating their men, who apparently preferred to lay down their arms. We were in a most precarious position. The company took aim and a hail of lead whistled past. We dropped to the ground and then Dr. Lenz and I rushed to the rear while the doctor's orderly fired a few shots before taking leave. The fog soon concealed us from further aimed fire. A portion of the enemy followed us, while others fired at random into the fog.
Hard pressed by the enemy, we reached Pfeiffer's squad and found the thirty prisoners still standing alongside their weapons. We herded them quickly into the gully, which offered cover against the pursuers' fire and chased them toward our company at the double. We would have been forced to abandon our gully had the enemy shot up its axis. The Rumanians were poor marksmen and we reached our outfit with all our prisoners and without any losses.
Soon after our return, the fire of the company halted the enemy who was pressing forward on a broad front. A lively exchange developed at a hundred yards range and thanks to our heavy machine guns we enjoyed a considerable superiority in fire power. Should I attack? No! It would be a shame to lose even a single man under these conditions. Night was falling, and the intensity of fire was dying down with both sides firing intermittently to show they were still there. In the bitter cold the prospects of finding accommodations for the night and a warm meal were far from promising. Lieutenant Hohl (3rd Company) arrived on horseback to see about us, took charge of our eighty prisoners and moved them to the rear. He also reported in Schitul Tarnita that I had decided to make a night advance on Gagesti.
During the past hour the weather had cleared considerably but the cold had also intensified. The stars shone in the sky and the bushes and trees were black silhouettes against the white snow. Carbine and machine-gun fire constituted my final greeting to the enemy and then I disengaged my force. We moved silently up the narrow mountain path in a north-westerly direction. Advance guard and rear guard secured the march and the heavy machine-gun platoon was in the centre of the column. The heavy machine guns, still warm from firing, were protected from freezing by blankets and shelter halves. After proceeding some six hundred yards on the path, I turned off to the north. The North Star replaced the compass and we slipped forward along black thorn hedges which allowed us to move without standing out in contrast to our surroundings. Not a word was spoken. The rear guard reported that a strong Rumanian detachment was following it, whereupon I halted at a dark row of bushes and set up a heavy machine gun. The manoeuvre proved to be superfluous, for the leader of the rear guard acting on his own initiative ambushed the enemy at a suitable spot, and captured him without a shot. Twenty-five Rumanians! They were of no use to me so I sent them under guard to Schitul Tarnita.
We moved on to the north. A half mile farther on I turned again to the east. Before moving out, I had studied the map thoroughly. We must come out on a dead line with the north end of Gagesti. The company deployed silently and advanced with all three platoons abreast; I was with the heavy machine-gun platoon in the centre. Thus we felt our way from bush to bush. The land sloped gently toward the Putna valley. We halted repeatedly and carefully observed the surroundings with the glasses.
While the moon rose on our right, the glow of a fire became visible on the left in the valley before us. Soon we located several dozen Rumanians standing about a huge campfire some seven hundred yards away. Beyond, a hostile detachment was marching from left to right, presumably toward Gagesti. The village was concealed by a long, bare hill, on which only individual clumps of trees were to be seen with the glasses. To the right front the view was cut off by extensive orchards. (Sketch 20)
Like hungry wolves, the mountain troopers crept closer in the cold winter night. Was I first to attack the enemy to the left front in the valley, or was I to by-pass him and head straight for Gagesti?
The latter course seemed best. Clinging closely to the black hedgerows, the three columns crept slowly and cautiously forward until they were within three hundred yards of the bare hill whose summit was still a hundred feet above us. About fifty Rumanians were sitting around a fire three hundred yards on our left. Several of my men claimed to have seen signs of movement among the groups of trees on the hill ahead of us, but I was unable to verify these observations with my field glasses.
We crept along the hedges and finally gained the lower part of the hill, which could not be observed from above. During the time required for assembly, scouts worked their way forward to the crest of the hill where they located Rumanian sentries some hundred yards ahead of us. The first question was whether I should await the heavy machine guns. That seemed unnecessary for the few men
Sketch 20
Enemy positions on the outskirts of Gagesti.
Involved. I wanted to seize the hill by surprise and, if possible, without resorting to gunfire. The attack on the northwest part of Gagesti, which I assumed to be heavily occupied, was also to come as a surprise.
The subordinate commanders received their instructions and we rushed forward without a sound. Not a whistle, not a command, not a shout! The mountain troops rose before the Rumanian sentries as if conjured up out of the ground. It happened so rapidly that the latter did not even have time to fire a warning shot. They hurriedly disappeared downhill.
The hilltop was ours. Ahead and to our right front the moonlight glistened from the roofs of Gagesti, a village about half a mile long. The nearest farmsteads lay a bare two hundred yards away at an elevation differential of a hundred feet. There were large intervals between the groups of buildings.
Alarm bells began to ring in the north of Gagesti. Soldiers rushed out into the street and gathered in clusters. At any moment, I expected them to storm up in a dense mass to recapture the lost height. We were ready for them. The heavy machine guns were loaded for steady fire and the riflemen went into position on a two-hundred-yard front. One platoon remained in reserve behind the left flank.
The minutes passed. Things quieted down in the village. Since we did not show ourselves on the hill and did not fire, the alarmed troops returned to their warm quarters, which they had probably left most unwillingly. We were amazed! For not even the Rumanian sentries tried to return to their former places. Apparently they were down there among the farmsteads.
By this time it was 2200. We were freezing and hungry and within sight of the warm houses of Gagesti. Something had to happen. The decision: The northern-most farms of the large village were to be captured from the enemy. We would entrench ourselves in them, warm and feed ourselves, and rest at least until daybreak.
I sent Technical Sergeant Hugel with an assault detachment of two squads from the right platoon against one of the farms. He was to proceed along a dark hedge; if fired on, he was to answer the fire and then in conjunction with the left platoon, capture the farm opposite him under the fire support of the other units of the reinforced company. The various units were instructed as to their tasks, and Hugel moved forward. (Sketch 21)
The assault group approached to within fifty yards of the farm before it was fired on. All the machine guns and Janner's platoon opened fire immediately and the left platoon rushed toward the village with a great shout. The mountain troops were in the town. Hugel attacked from the other side before the Rumanians could get out of the buildings. The rest of the reinforced company roared out into the night at the top of its lungs, as loud as a battalion. The heavy machine-gun platoon could no longer fire without endangering our own troops in the farms on the north end of Gagesti and shifted its fire to the right and sprayed the roofs of the extended village for several minutes.
Down below the north end it became surprisingly quiet. Only a few shots were being exchanged. The Rumanians were surrendering. I hurried in that direction with another platoon and a heavy machine-gun platoon. The prisoners were being gathered together as I arrived among the buildings. There were more than a hundred of them. Still more pleasant was the fact that none of us had been wounded during the fire fight. Not a shot came from the farms round about. Only our machine-gun platoon occasionally fired to the right across the roofs. Since everything had gone so well, I moved to the right with the company from farm to farm. We cap-
Sketch 21
Hugel's storming party in position to attack the farmhouses of Gagesti.
Tured the entire Rumanian garrison which accepted its fate without offering further resistance. With all-around security and with the prisoners and the platoon in the centre, I moved with the whole company toward the south along the village road. Two hundred prisoners! There was no end to them. Mountain troopers knocked at the doors all around and brought out new prisoners. We approached the church. The number of prisoners was three times our own. Three hundred and sixty men!
The church was on a small elevation, which descended sharply to the east toward the lower village some two hundred yards away. A semicircle of dwellings lay about the church. This seemed to me to be the ideal place for safe accommodations for the remainder of the night. The prisoners were herded into the church and the company was quartered in the houses round about. I made a reconnaissance of the lower village, through which the Odobesti-Vidra road passed, but encountered no more Rumanian soldiers. To all appearances the sound of combat in the upper village made them shift their quarters to the east bank of the Putna. I met the local mayor, who through a German-speaking Jew informed me that he wished to surrender the keys of the town hall. In anticipation of the arrival of the German troops, the community had baked three hundred loaves of bread, slaughtered several head of cattle, and placed a number of casks of wine at the troops' disposal. I had them bring enough for our needs to the church in the upper village which we had made our quarters. It was past midnight when the last units of the reinforced company moved in. Sentries protected the sleeping men.
Being located some four miles ahead of our own lines without contact to right or left, I felt safe in Gagesti only so long as it was dark. For safety's sake, I wanted to be on a commanding height just east of Gagesti by daybreak, at which time the enemy would be definitely located.
The troops ate and rested. I prepared a short report, which was dispatched at 0230 to Schitul Tarnita by runner. He also took along a Logele (a three-quart wooden cask) of exquisite red wine for First Lieutenant Lieb.
The rest of the night passed without disturbance. Just before daybreak (January 8) I moved my whole formation to the heights just east of the church at Gagesti. When day broke we were able to determine the snow-covered territory round about to be free of the enemy. We did see enemy troops entrenching on the east bank of the Putna. I returned to our former quarters around the church and sent out scout squads in various directions.
Mess Sergeant Pfaffle and I took a morning ride through the lower village in the direction of Odobesti. During the night we had sent our pack animals back toward Schitul Tarnita for their neighing would have betrayed our advance on Gagesti. Pfaffle brought the remainder of the detachment up after daybreak. I rode in the direction of Odobesti in an effort to establish contact on the right with our own troops west of the Putna.
Not a shot sounded as we trotted through the lower village of Gagesti. A ride in the cool of morning was most refreshing. I let “Sultan” step out briskly and paid more attention to the horse than to my surroundings. Pfaffle rode about ten yards behind me. We were about eleven hundred yards from Gagesti when something moved on the road ahead of my horse. I looked up and was more than surprised to see a Rumanian scout squad of about fifteen men with fixed bayonets right in front of us. It was too late to turn back and gallop away, for any indication of intended flight would have brought me a couple of bullets. I quickly made up my mind, trotted up to the scout squad without changing pace, greeted them in a friendly way, gave them to understand that they must disarm, that they were prisoners, and were to march toward the church in Gagesti, where four hundred of their comrades were gathered. I doubt very much whether any of the Rumanians understood my words. But my demeanour and my calm, friendly tone of voice had a convincing effect. The fifteen men left their weapons on the road and moved off across the fields in the indicated direction. I continued my ride for another hundred yards and then galloped back to my company by the shortest route. I would probably not have encountered such simple adversaries a second time.
In the course of the forenoon the 1st Company and 3rd Machine-Gun Company arrived as reinforcements and were attached to my command. The Rommel detachment now consisted of two rifle companies and a machine-gun company. Lieutenant Hausser was adjutant.
Our scout squads brought in more prisoners. Toward 0900 “the war started again.” Rumanian and perhaps Russian artillery subjected Gagesti to very lively harassing fire from positions on the heights east of the Putna. We vacated the most endangered places for we had plenty of room in the extensive village. Fortunately we suffered no losses.
During the afternoon the hostile fire increased to great violence, reminding us of the western theatre of the war; shells fell all around. Some came through the roof of the house in which the detachment command post had been established. Here too—as often before—the violent bombardment was probably the result of the active movement of runners. Conditions became very uncomfortable. The detachment occupied the outskirts of Gagesti and dug in. Was the enemy going to attack?
During the heaviest phase of the bombardment, Major Sproesser arrived in Gagesti on horseback and set up his command post in the front line along the Odobesti-Vidra road. The hostile artillery continued firing with undiminished violence until dark. We figured on a night attack, of which the Russians are especially fond, and secured our open flank with special care.
Observations: A few shots quickly decided the battle in the forest nursery between the advance guard and the Rumanian scout squad. At such times it is important to move toward the enemy with weapons at the ready (safety off, light machine guns carried in position for shooting). For he wins who fires first and can deliver the heaviest fire.
In the fire fight a few minutes later with a stronger enemy, the heavy machine guns JToze at the most critical moment. They had to be heated with an alcohol flame a few yards behind the front line. During later phases the heavy machine-guns were kept warm with blankets.
The disengagement from fighting at dark was achieved without friction after a short, powerful burst of fire on the nearby enemy.
The night attack on the north part of Gagesti by moonlight over the snow was from two directions with strong fire support by the heavy machine-gun platoon. Even after the successful attack this platoon supported the advance in the long village by indirect fire delivered over the tops of the houses. There was little to be hit, of course, but the psychological effect on the enemy within the warm quarters was so great that he allowed himself to be captured without offering much resistance. There were no losses on our side in the fighting at Gagesti.
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