45 - Bersée, 19 May 1915

Bersée, 19 may 1915

[Wednesday]

Dear family,

Since I last wrote you I haven’t received any mail from you. You can see that our Kompanie treats the mail clumsily. Other Kompanies get their mail daily. Then the next time you receive mail you get a whole lot, which you then have to schlepp around with you.

The course is almost at its end. Maybe before Pentecost, or in any case shortly after the feast days, we can go back to our Kompanie. When exactly nobody knows, like always. The course wasn’t overly purposeful. I didn’t learn many new things. But in any case I experienced it. It’s out of the question that I’ll go to Döberitz or anywhere else in Germany. That happens, as I have heard, only very rarely.

And furthermore, I may not be the worst here, I’m not the best either. So let’s not make illusions over holidays etc. I’d need a lot of luck for that.

In the best case scenario I get my Knöpfe [= promotion to Gefreiter/ Lance Corporal]. That’s all. In any case I’ll be going back to my Kompanie, and they will then decide further. I’m only worried about the way back to the front. That’s about 30-40 km’s. Luckily the weather isn’t that warm anymore. It has completely turned around. It seems another rainy period has started. That’s good news for the crops of course. By the way the crops look great, the grain stands almost a meter high already, and the grass in the meadows reaches up to almost over your boots. That’s why I got a pair of soaking wet feet today. But mother supplies me with a great amount of socks, so it isn’t that bad. I still have at least 8-10 pair in my rucksack, and I’ve always had the dirty ones washed and mended. I haven’t had to do that myself yet.

I rather would have liked to stay here for a little while longer, I quite like it here in Bersée. So it is only a little town , but it’s very cosy. We again have a local hangout, like we had in Kevelaer, in one of the little shops. We are not allowed to go to local taverns or cafes. But here we can also get excellent coffee. 10 Centimes per cup, and if you take two you get the third one for free. With it we have Leibniz keks [Butter biscuits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz-Keks ] which are always fresh from Lille.

The lady of the shop, a stout old woman, has a son in the army too. But she hasn’t heard from him since the Germans are here, so since end of September. She swears at the war all the time of course. But I tell her then that it’s the English who started it. That’s what I always say when I talk about the war with the French. Hopefully something sticks.

You’d be amazed how well I can talk with these people and how well I understand them, eventhough they have a terrible accent.

Huit [Eight in French] they pronounce as oat e.g., Allemagne as Alleman, paysan as pisang (Else and Hanna may find this interesting). It is very hard to understand them sometimes.

Did you already receive the picture I sent you from Auchy? You don’t write about it at all. Benzenberg has another picture of me, on which I’m difficult to recognise though. If you don’t have the other picture then Benzenberg maybe would like to give you his picture.

But I’m at the end of my wisdom. I really don’t have enough material anymore to write you long letters. Please ask me questions, so that I know what you want me to write about.

I only have one subject in stock, and that is : Lice and the extermination of them. But I’ll spare you, and I don’t really want to describe to you what it looks like here in the evening when everyone “am Lausen ist”, to use some “Barmer Missingsch” [Barmer dialect] for a change.

Also schluß

With many warm greetings to August and everybody else

Your Fritz

It’s too much work to read through this letter again. So please excuse me obvious mistakes. We just received a message: we are to be transferred to the 57’ers, because they suffered many casualties in the last attack by the English [*1]. I don’t believe it yet though. They don’t communicate here like they do at home.

[*1] Heeresbericht of 16^th May 1915:

http://www.stahlgewitter.com/15_05_16.htm

Western front.

[……] South-west of Lille the English attacked our positions south of Neuve Chapelle, after heavy preliminary artillery-fire. It was repelled in most places. In some places fighting still goes on. […..]

Wardiary of 2nd South Staffordshires:
15th May 1915, Richebourg-l'Avoué

16th May 1915, Richebourg-l'Avoué

 17th/18th May 1915, Richebourg-l'Avoué

19th May 1915, Richebourg St Vaast

The original letter:

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:

43 - Bersée, 13 May 1915

Bersée, 13 May 1915

[Thursday]

Dear family,

it seems like they have the plan to take us on a tour of Northern France. Yesterday we moved again. Other troops were coming into Oignies, the Regiment nr 25 [Infanterie-Regiment von Lützow (1. Rheinisches) Nr. 25]. It looks to me like they’re upto something here in the neighbourhood. The whole 8^th Armycorps is coming here from Verdun to reinforce the 7^th.

Maybe to show Italy something untill the 20^th [*1] , maybe it’s because 3 French Armycorps are on their way here from Arras. One says this, the other that. What is true?

In any case something is going on. They also talk about the mailservice being suspended. I sure hope that is not the case!

Since I last wrote you I haven’t received anything from you. It’s a shame they’re so clumsy with the mailhandling back in Douvrin. It shouldn’t really be too much trouble to put the mail on the large trucks that always drive to Oignies, and now to Bersee.

If Herr Kompanie Feldwebel in Douvrin only worked a little harder. It’s no wonder some things arrive rotten when you leave them lying around for so long.

The march here was beautiful. The perfect blossom-tour. I have to admit it was a little too warm for me. But the blossoming appletrees are beautiful. I’ve never such beautiful blossoms on an appletree.

All the plants here look beautiful actually. The grain stands almost a meter high already.

Everything that is grown here is for us. They have calculated that the agricultural land in the occupied part of France yields enough to feed the entire population of Germany for 40 days.

And because the harvest here is a little earlier than back home it can be used to fill a really dangerous gap. Hopefully the war ends before the grain ripens.

Bersée is a very beautiful little town, a little bigger than Oignies. There aren’t many good shops here yet, because there haven’t been many soldiers here who have money to buy things. The civilian population here is also not as friendly as they are elsewhere.

We’re billeted now in a schoolbuilding. I’m sure the children liked getting holidays all of a sudden. When we arrived here yesterday they were still teaching. Classes were dismissed straight away, the furniture was taken out, straw was slepped in, and our little hut was ready.

The only shortcoming of Bersée seems to be the lack of water. That is because the town is situated on a little plateau. It could also be of course because of the continuing dry weather.

It’s raining at the moment. Won’t last long hopefully.

I’ve run out of things to write about now. This morning we had churchservice outside in the park of the Chateau [*2]. Nothing special. The Catholic Divisions-pastor preached. Catholics are always a little quicker than Evangelicals.

Why didn’t you write that Wilh. Philipps received the Iron Cross? Or didn’t you read about it? Aunt Bonert sent me a newspaper clipping mentioning it.

I’m looking forward very much to H.E.H.’s letters [Hanne, Else and Helene, his sisters], Especially to E’s. I’m sure she has some time for me now. But I understand fully well if she hasn’t.

I don’t have any special wishes really. I can use some writing paper in a while, and a pair of braces.

With many warm greetings to you all    your Fritz.

[*1]London Pact (Italian: Patto di Londra), or more correctly, the Treaty of London, 1915, was a secret pact between the Triple Entente and Italy, signed in London on 26 April 1915 by the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the Kingdom of Italy.

Its intent was to gain the alliance of Italy against its former allies, including Germany.

As per the pact, Italy was to leave the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) and to join the Triple Entente; and Italy was to declare war against Germany and Austria-Hungary within a month (this happened against Austria-Hungary within a month, but not until 1916 against Germany)

Italy left the Triple Alliance on 3rd May 1915.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London_(1915)

 

[*2]  The Château at Bersée

The original letter: