Fritz Limbach - letters from the front - 1915: 55

55 D[ouvrin], 20 June 1915

[Sunday]

Dear family,

Since I last wrote you I have received mother’s letters of the 13^th and the 14^th with the photographs and Walter Benzenberg’s letter. Furthermore some parcels arrived. I don’t know the numbers anymore, I always forget to note them down, and then when I write to you I’v already discarded the cartons. I believe though that all the latest numbers were there. Many thanks for everything.

Then I received a further two parcels from A. Weyerbuschs (Please thank them for me!).

I really find that contraption for purification of water total nonsense. First of all the water tasts horrible (you have to add a lot of sugar), and then I think it’s impossible that this apparatus really purifies the water. That apart from the fact we have clean drinkingwater in the trenches.

Please send me lemon- or blackcurrant juice, which I already received. Please also send me now and then some Puffertkuchen mit Kraut. Make me some nice ones with a lot of raisins, I só long after them. I wanted to write that to you earlier, but I forgot every time. So please get yourself baking.

And mother wants to send the young man, who “accidentally” took my Gamaschen, some parcels too? [See letter nr 48 and flwng] Now that would really be the limit. He gets enough from home himself. By the way he got wounded the day before yesterday.

I was very happy with the photographs of the soldiers in the coldstore. I did think however you would send me a couple of photographs of you, that August had made? Or didn’t they turn out? [August is his sister Else’s fiancé] .

We don’t get thirsty here much. Every morning we’re supplied with a Feldflasche full (about 1 liter) of coffee, chocolatemilk or tea. Which is in itself sufficient. Apart from that there’s always plenty of dsrinkingwater available.

It’ts not so warm anymore. I even wear my coat most nights. The way Hedwig Scharwächter drew you the trenches is exactly like it is here. E.g. our Leutnant has such a beautiful dugout too: bombproof, planks nailed against the wall over which fabric has been stretched, the seams finished with polished strips of wood, white floor, the top parts of the wall painted red, bottom parts painted grey, a beautiful campbed, table and easychair. Everything requisitioned from a luxury car which was left behind at the station. You can imagine life is good there.

The sappers are building us a new dugout too. For the rest it’s just like that [as Hedwig had drawn] in our trenches: we also have watertanks, garbage cans, and bins for dry bread etc. We even have a canteen now in the trenches. We’re not allowed to go there from the Prellbock, but someone goes there every day to get something for everyone. I always treat myself to, when it’s available, a bottle of Rhenser Sprüdel [= carbonated mineralwater], which tastes perfect with the juice you always send me.

At the moment we’re enjoying our 4 day rest. And this time we really deserved it. We had an awful lot of work because of the attack the English, of which you can read in the Daily Communiqué of General HQ of the 16^th . [*2]

Apparently the English wanted to attack here too, but agreed against that after they got thrashed to the right of us. So we only had the artillery-bombardment preceding the attack, that is: not our Kompanie as we were in the reserve-trenches at the time.

I can tell you the Prellbock was a beautiful sight when we arrived on the 17^th. Not one sandbag on top of the other. Luckily we still had a part with which the artillery couldn’t do much, that part was still perfectly in order. The rest was a mishmash of sandbags, duckboards, poles etc. You just cannot imagine it. But everything has now been cleared in some degree, and put back together even more secure and tighter than before.

In the 4 days we were up there the English tried twice more to attack to the right of us. The first time they reached midway between the English and German trenches, but then got só hit by our machinegun fire that no-one made it back. The second time they were bombarded by our artillery the moment they got out of their trenches, and they quickly aborted that attack.

They say that during a new attack the English soldiers refused to come out of their trenches, and in the end the English artillery started bombarding their ówn trenches. But that didn’t do the trick either, the English could not bring themselves to attack again. I think they were lucky: if they had attacked us it would have ended véry badly for them.

But enough for today. I hope to write you again soon (Tomorrow or the day after).

Hopefully I can now put my plan to work.

With many warm greetings

Your Fritz

[*1] Puffertkuchen apparently are a regional thing, a sort of little pancakes with raisins

http://alte-rezepte.blogspot.nl/2013/09/puffert-hefekuchen-1888.html

[*2]

http://www.stahlgewitter.com/15_06_16.htm

Großes Hauptquartier, 16. Juni.
Westlicher Kriegsschauplatz:
Wieder einmal veranlaßt durch die russischen Niederlagen, griffen Franzosen und Engländer gestern an vielen Stellen der Westfront mit starken Kräften an.
Den Engländern gelang es bei Ypern, unsere Stellung nördlich des Teiches von Bellewaarde etwas zurückzudrücken. Es wird dort noch gekämpft. Dagegen sind zwei Angriffe von vier englischen Divisionen zwischen der Straße Estaires-La Bassée und dem Kanal von La Bassée vollkommen zusammengebrochen. Unsere tapferen westfälischen Regimenter und dort eingelassene Teile der Garde wiesen den Ansturm nach erbitterten Nahkämpfen restlos ab. Der Feind hatte schwere Verluste; er ließ mehrere Maschinengewehre und einen Minenwerfer in unserer Hand. An die Stellungen der mit größter Zähigkeit sich behauptenden Badener bei der Lorettohöhe wagte sich der Feind nach seinen Niederlagen am 13. und 14. nicht wieder heran.

The Vlissingsche Courant, a newspaper in neutral The Netherlands, also mentioned the English defeats in an article on 19th June 1915 :

"Western wartheatre, [ .... ] . The English suffered new defeats north-west of the La Bassée-canal. Their attacking forces were annihilated. Only a few escaped. [ .... ].