Douvrin, 22 July 1915
[Thursday]
Dear
family,
Since I
last wrote you I received both of father’s letters from the 15th 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 19th
or the 20th? 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:
[*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 2nd Btl Grenadier Guards
for 21st 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 21st 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 21st 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:
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