67 - Uhrgraben, 31 July 1915

Uhrgraben, 31 July 1915

[Saturday]

Dear family,

I received mother’s letter of the 25^th and parcels nr. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38. Many thanks for everything. I’m out of wiriting paper unfortunately, and also can’t buy it here in the canteen today, so you have to make do with a short letter this time. But I’ll have more to write about the next time.

The ring for Hanne is mostly my own handiwork. I didn’t do the polishing though, and also didn’t put that little stone in. I don’t know either what kind of stone it is, but it certainly isn’t a piece of an English bone. Hanne can take it out if she prefers, or have the ring gilded and another stone put in, if of course she wants to wear it.

We’re in reserve again at the moment, and the English are still well behaved. [*1]

I’ve already taken 12 photographs, you’ve got a lot of work coming your way.

Until then with many warm greetings

Your Fritz

[*1]  From the 2/HLI wardiary :

July 29^th: “Our trenches shelled by howitzers and considerably damaged”

No mention of casualties.

The original letter:  

 

66 - Prellbock, 28 July 1915

Prellbock, 28 July 1915

[Wednesday]

Dear family,

Since I last wrote you I received mother’s letter of the 21^st. Furthermore parcels nr 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 34 arrived, together with the large parcel containing the camera. Many thanks for everything.

Thank Aunt Lise for the cigarettes from me please.

The camera isn’t that big at all. I have packed it in a cigar box, together with the cassette and the films, and can take it along very easily that way. I have already made some photographs with it.

When we get back to Douvrin again I’ll develop them there if possible. Can you please send me developer and fixer in powderform. And when they have it, a red lightbulb for my pocketlight and a spare battery. If you can’t find a red lightbulb please then send me – this is how it’s written in “the handbook of photography” that Uncle Otto once gave me - a piece of red culluloid which I can then put over the lightbulb. I’ll then send you the developed films and you can have prints made from it.

I can also develop them here in the trenches if you can find me two very light bowls. We’ve got the perfect dark room here in the tunnel.

I hope to be able to send you some nice photographs, so you can see what it actually looks like here. The camera seems to be very good. It’s very nice weather today, so maybe I can make some more photographs later today. I’ll also photograph our Leutnant, when he isn’t looking. I’ll have more opportunities to photograph in the Uhrgraben then here at the Prellbock.

By the way I’m now the only One-year-volunteer from Barmen left. But, as I already wrote you, I’ve become friends with Otto Mertens from Solingen, also a high-school graduate. We two are our Leutnant’s special friends. He always calls us Max und Moritz. [*1]

You can write either Einj. or Musk. [One-Year-volunteer or Musketeer] on the envelope, it doesn’t matter which one you use. The others also writen Einj.

I liked that story about “Laba See”. So now I’m in the Navy too. [Play of words on La Bassée – just north of the Prellbock - : Laba See = Laba Sea]

The boiled meat you send always arrives in perfect order, just like the beansalad. Please try the same with other vegetables, but nothing too fancy. After all you have to keep some for yourselves. It’s the vegetables I miss the most. Or is it diffcult to get the tins now? Here they’re all collected, because there’s a shortage of them in Germany.

I also long for preserved fruit, at the moment it’s very difficult to get here. We do cook rhubarb once in a while though. I’m surprised every time that it is still available here at this time of year. And it tastes very good too.

Once the plums are ripe it will all be better. I’ve seen some beautiful Reine Claude in Auchy.

I am at the end of my wisdom again. The English, or rather the Scots which are now opposite us behave themselves very well. [*2] They don’t seem to have enough ammunition. For one English shot they get 5 German in return. It used to be the other way around.

On the whole it seems the most dangerous phase here in the West is now over. You hear all the time about troops from the East that have supposedly been shifted to the West.

Once Iwangorod [now Deblin/Poland] and Warsaw fall, many more will come here, and we’ll advance again.

But enough for today, I’m on dry land again [Have nothing more to write].

Please send me some writing paper.

With many warm greetings also to all acquaintances and everyone who asks after me

Your Fritz

[*1]  Max und Moritz :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_and_Moritz

[*2]  2nd Bt. The Highland Light Infantry (Scottish)  relieved 2nd Wortcestershire Regiment (English) in the trenches at Cuinchy (= opposite Auchy/Prellbock)  on July 26th 1915.

They reported "quiet days" for 26th and 27th July. 

On the 28th "The Germans shelled our saps and caused casulaties amongst our working party"

The original letter:

65 - Douvrin, 25 July 1915

Douvrin, 25 July 1915

[Sunday]

Dear family,

Since I last wrote you I received mother’s letter of the 18^th and parcels nr 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27. Many thanks for everything. The big parcel hasn’t arrived yet, I hope it will be in the mail tonight though.

Furthermore I’m happy the carnations flower so beuatiful again this year. I hadn’t really expected that.

I will now réally write to the Bonert in the coming days. I have a bad conscience, I have been meaning to write to them for so long now.

It may be of interest to you that we now have a coldstore here in Douvrin, in which the meat is kept.

The silk shirt you sent me is very nice. I don’t believe though it will remain vermin-free, but that’s okay. If and when you send me another one please make sure it’s one without so many folds around the breast area. It’s the preferred place for those little animals.

Yesterday we had our Kompanie’s Schützenfest: target-shooting in the morning, and then in the evening the awards-ceremony with beer. It got very late last night. That’s the excuse if this letter doesn’t turn out quite right. The small hours got bigger and bigger by the time we went home. It was great fun. I didn’t shoot myself to the prizes unfortunately.

There were great prizes to be won actually, e.g. watches, cigarcases, Wickelgamaschen, pocketlights etc.

Even the highest gentlemen made an appearance, our Regimental and Battalion commander etc. And they had even published eine Bier or better still a Schützenzeitung [= Trench newspaper], in which everyone from the Leutnant down was made fun of [“Durch die Zähne gezogen wurde”]. I haven’t laughed so much in a long time, but then I also hadn’t drunk so much beer for a long time. And in the end we have even danced. Can you imagine that? We’re doing okay here, but those poor soliders in France….

I’ll send you a copy of the Schützenzeitung if I can. There aren’t enough for everyone unfortunately. You won’t find anything about me in there, as usual. There was, amongst others, a nice poem about our Leutnant [Ltn Walther Stennes]. He has the little habit of using, in every conceivable situation, the expression “I am broken” [“Ich bin gebrochen”], whether he likes something or not. Herr Oberst-Leutnant fell off his chair laughing. I think he [Ltn Stennes] quite liked it, which can only be good for our Kompanie.  He is a cheerful man anyway, but very strict in army matters. You can read all about it if I can find you a newspaper. I will send clarifying notes with it too.

Please call the Steigleders and tell them I will immediately make a photograph of Karl’s grave when I’ve got the camera here. It is very dificult to find another photographer here. I know of a few in 5^th Company, from our time in Don, who could do it, but I can’t meet them. Whenever we are in the trenches they are in rest, and vice-versa. I used to know several artillery-guys, but almost the whole artillery has moved away from here.

By the way Carl Jäger from the Allee [now: Friedrich Engels Allee, Wuppertal] is here too, he is a Lieutenant with the Artillery, and also “Häschen” from Juist [an German island in the North Sea]

Hanne and Helene will certainly remember the Lieutenant.

But now I really don’t know anything anymore, so end.

With many warm greetings,

Your Fritz

I received a parcel with lobster from the Benzenbergs. Please thank them for me.

The original letter:

64 - Douvrin, 22 July 1915

Douvrin, 22 July 1915

[Thursday]

Dear family,

Since I last wrote you I received both of father’s letters from the 15^th and the new Kriegskarte [*1]

Many thanks for everything. I’ll confirm receipt of the parcels when mother has written again. Hopefully the large parcel will arrive shortly.

There’s nothing to reply to in these ltters. Or it should be : menthol lozenges, for refreshment only. They don’t taste good enough to eat. Ordinary mints do the same for less money. Better still are those lemon lozenges that you can now get. They look the same as mints.

We arrived here today for our 4 days rest. I was quite pleased with that as we had a lot of work to do the last few days. Last night we neatly blew the English away. Just before dinner they received a heft Feuerüberfall, accompanied by artillery fire, with rifle grenades as a garnish. I believe they suffered extensive damage. Our artillery fired perfectly. The sandbags of the English flew everywhere. [*2]

The English are in the habit of building high barricades with sandbags. We on the other hand are digging ourselves in ever deeper, iso that their artillery can’t damage anything, in any case not with their light ammunition.

Then last night at 11 sharp the party started. Our artillery fired one shot, and on that sign the fireworks started. Feuerüberfall! I fired about 50-60 rounds.The barrel of my rifle was hot, even the wood. But it was great fun. [*3]

Apparently the English were terribly frightened. They fired off one flare after the other. I hope you of course know that in order to be able to see anything at night you fire off flares, to light up no man’s land. Our flares are actually much better than the English’s. The French’s are even worse.

I’ve grown to respect rifle grenades actually. It ius a good thing you can see and hear them coming so well. We always send the English a lot of them. Rifle grenades look like ordinary ammunition, a metal tube with the dynamite in the top, and are easily put into the rifle with the appropriate amount of dynamite behind it. You have to try it several times first before you find the right position of your rifle. Usually you don’t hit anything with them. I’ve fired quite a lot of them lately.

Then I almost again forgot to wish Hanne a Happy Birthday. Is it the 19^th or the 20^th? As a sorry for the fact that I had almost forgotten her I’m sending her today a brass ring, made from the brass part of the fuse of an English grenade. Everyone here in the trenches now makes these things. It’s a nice pastime when things get boring during the day. You have to file them down a bit and polish them. It’s not a lot of work but also no work of art. Hanne can choose whether she wants to wear it or not. In any case it’s worth it to keep as a souvenir. I don’t even know whether it fits or not. I’ve taken my little finger as a measure. Maybe it will fit Else or Helene.

But enough for today, I didn’t sleep last night and haven’t slept up to now, so I want to lie down for a while now.

So, with many warm greetings

Your  Fritz

[*1]  = War-map. Probably something like this example from 1915:

http://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN756252601&PHYSID=PHYS_0001

[*2]  The war diaries of the English noted the shelling, but there is no talk of damage to the front line trenches:

War diary of 2^nd Btl Grenadier Guards for 21^st July 1915:

“A quiet day until 4.30pm when the enemy shelled a good deal, especially roads behind the line. Relieved by the Worcester Regt who had some casulaties coming in at 6 pm.”

War diary of 2nd btl Worcestershire Regiment for 21^st July 1915:

“Battalion relived 2/Bn Grenadier Guards in the Cuinchy sub-section, Relief commenced 4pm, complete 7 pm. Relief delayed for a short time owing to the enemy shelling the main road and entrance to the communication trench.”

[*3]  The war diary of 2nd btl Worcestershire Regiment for 21^st July 1915 mentions the Feuerüberfall matter-of-factly (Looks like the English take as much notice of them as the Germans do!)

“Quiet night except for 10 minutes “hate”about 10.10 pm”

The difference of 1 hour between the letters of Fritz and the war diaries is because the German army was on European time, whilst the English, French and Belgian armies were on Greenwich Mean Time (which is one hour behind).

So 11pm for the German army was 10pm for the English 100 meters away. 

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=229728&hl=

The original letter: