Infantery Attacks: Infanterie Greift An by Erwin Rommel

Author:Erwin Rommel [Rommel, Erwin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-01-09T22:00:00+00:00

Preparations for the attack of August 11, 1917. View from the west.

My attack order was: "On my signal the forward line (1 platoon of the 3d Company and Grau's machine-gun company) creeps forward silently through the ferns toward the assumed position up on the slope. As soon as hostile sentries or the garrison opens fire, Grau's machine-gun company combs the hostile position with continuous fire of all guns and stops on my signal after about thirty seconds. At this moment the platoon of the 3d Company and the other units of the detachment, which have to be kept closed up, break in on the hostile position without shouting. Individual squads block the shoulders of the breach immediately and the main body breaks through to the defensive zone of the enemy and seizes the ridge as initial objective and prepares to advance to the southeast. To deceive the enemy as to the place of breakthrough and to disperse his defensive fire, the sectors of the hostile position on both sides of the breakthrough point are to be engaged by hand-grenade squads."

All these preparations and discussions were carried out noiselessly within a hundred yards of the hostile sentries. Since I had left Lieutenant Hausser with the 5th and 6th Companies, I was obliged to do all the work myself.

We were ready a few minutes before noon. The Rumanians had done us the favor of not disturbing us. On the eastern slope of the Piciorul, Rumanian detachments of platoon size were crossing the path by which we had advanced. It was high time to attack and I gave the signal.

The detachment worked its way up the slope only to be fired on immediately from enemy positions near at hand. The enemy fire was quickly answered by all the machine guns in Grau's company.

Hand grenades burst to the right and left as we lay ready to charge. The heavy machine-gun fire in front of us pinned the hostile garrison to the ground and left the enemy firing wildly from the right and left. I gave the signal to stop the heavy machine-gun fire and the mountain troops stormed up the slope, broke into the hostile position without any real losses, took a few captives, blocked off the area, and then charged forward to the right into the defensive zone. Everything went with the clocklike precision of a peacetime maneuver.

Soon the bushes in front of us began to thin out and we advanced another hundred yards before lively machine-gun fire hampered our advance against a slope rising gently to the right. The fire, coming from a wood located on the highest hill about six hundred yards away across a broad grassy surf ace, increased in violence.

The platoon of the 3d Company and the heavy machine guns of Grau's company took up the fight, and the remainder of the 3d Company and the machine-gun company of the 11th Reserve spread themselves out to the left. The enemy on the edge of the wood was being reinforced and we were soon engaged with several dozen machine guns.

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