44 - Bersée, 16 May 1915

Bersée, 16 may 1915

[Sunday]

Dear family,

The day before yesterdat I received father’s letter of the 5^th and Hanne’s letter of the 4^th, furthermore the parcel with the Wickelgamaschen [puttees], underwear and cigars. Many thanks for everything.

The money has arrived fortunately, I am very happy with that. It’s no fun if you walk around with only 25 Centimes in your pocket, and with that you also have to buy shoe-polish, razorblades etc. We don’t get paid by the Kompagnie as long as we are here. Now at least I can buy eggs and bacon, and drink a glass of beer. The eggs you sent me arrived spoiled. That is because they got broken en route, which is mostly the case upto now. Other men received them in good order, but there they were securely packed.

So please try to pack them more securely. I love to eat them. And please send me some more marmelade. I got used to eating it on bread, and like it almost more than meat or cheese. Can’t you buy it in securely closed tins? When mother sends it in normal tins a lot spills out.

You can’t get much marmelade here anymore, rhubarb-marmelade at the most, which tastes surprisingly good, but of which you can’t eat too much in one go, because of the effect it has on your stomach.

Today I’m sending you a few postcards of this village. Please keep them safe. On it you can see what it actually looks like here. On the postcard of the Rue de la Motte you can see the school where we are now billeted, the second house on the left with the little turret.[*1]

You can also see that the church is the most beautiful building of the village. But that is the case in every little place here. The church really is beautiful. The area here is also beautiful. It reminds me of the area around Mettman [= city between Düsseldorf and Wuppertal.] Rolling corn fields with farmbuildings in between, which are reasonably well kept, with many fruittrees and little pockets of trees. It’s as hilly as around Mettmann. The farmers can’t keep the corn they harvest of course. In exchange the people receive American flour. The bread that’s baked from that is actually ganz miserabel, and also not very nutritious. I’ve tried it once. Our bread really is a lot better.

This morning we were in Orchies, about 9 km’s from here, where our wounded were so miserably treated  last September. Maybe you remember that.

The village, which had about 5000 inhabitants, looks terrible. It was burned to the ground then, on orders of the Kaiser. There are still a few houses left standing, but not many. [*3]

The municipality of Orchies has created a cemetary for the soldiers that were killed then, and it looks very nice. Of course the inhabitants did not do that voluntarily, but on higher orders.

The march was very nice. It’s beautiful weather, only rather warm. This wearm weather has the disadvantage that there are many lice. They are a terrible plague, and fenneloil does not help one bit, really not one bit. The only remedy is to check everything in the evening and morning, and crush them to death. We are all suffering from it here. So you can imagine what a nice sight it is every evening and every morning.

But enough

With many warm greetings  your Fritz

[*1]

The cards Fritz sents home unfortunately did not survive, but here is a typical card of rue de la Motte of the period, showing the school where he was billeted:

 

Google streetview of september 2013 of the same street.

And the schoolbuilding itself in september 2013:

[*2]

 

(https://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/)

 Orchies in October 1914

Message from German Headquarters, 30 September 1914:

http://www.stahlgewitter.com/14_09_30.htm

http://archivewk1.hypotheses.org/4563

The Commanding General of the Medical Services, and the Commander of the Fieldhospitals have informed the Kaiser of the following: A few days ago a military hospital in Orchies was attacked by franc-tireurs. On 24^th september, during the punitive action against Orchies, we encountered enemy troops, and, after 8 dead and 25 wounded, we had to retreat. A new Bavarian pioneer-batallion did not encounter opposition the next day. The inhabitants had abandoned Orchies. 20 wounded soldiers, whom we had to leave behind during the first attempt, were found in the village. They were murdered by pouring sawdust into their mouths and nostrils, and afterwards their noses and ears were cut off. Two French priests confirmed the atrocities. Orchies was later flattened. (Orchies lies between Lille and Valenciennes, near the Belgian border)

An article about Orchies (in French)

http://civils19141918.canalblog.com/archives/2011/01/26/20229080.html

The original letter: