The German Army at Passchendaele by Jack Sheldon

Author:Jack Sheldon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783409044
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

On a day of almost unrelieved frustration and disaster for the defence, there was one slight crumb of comfort: the performance of the regiments of 2nd Guards Reserve Division, backed by 236th Infantry Division. A wide gap was torn between the Reserve Infantry Regiment 15 and Reserve Infantry Regiment 91, but the survivors fought on, and the defence, which covered the vital approaches to Passchendaele, did not buckle completely. Thanks to the commitment of the very last of the regimental reserves and an extraordinarily gallant attack by the 236th Infantry Division, the defence did at least push the enemy back to the rough line of the Wilhelm Stellung to the west of Passchendaele. Nevertheless, the day had taken a severe toll as Kleine, an eyewitness from Infantry Regiment 459, and Tambour Wibbe, of Reserve Infantry Regiment 15, describing the situation that evening, explain: 4

“The entire sector was under extremely heavy artillery fire. In attempting to get forward and close with the enemy on the slopes to the front, our assault companies and their supporting battery suffered severe casualties. Nevertheless the counter-attack which had been ordered was pressed home and the enemy driven back. How mundane that sounds; what a bloody tragedy these words disguise … We, in the command post, had heavy losses as well. About 7.00 pm fourteen of our comrades were killed by a direct hit … Killed at a single stroke and with hardly a murmur. In an instant they were covered by a thick layer of dust. I was hit in the groin by a flying fragment, but luckily it was just a piece of a tile. Next to me an Unteroffizier of our signal detachment went off his head. We had to restrain him, binding him tightly, because he had been rushing around, lashing out and foaming at the mouth. I raced off to the casualty clearing point about one kilometre to the rear to fetch stretchers and stretcherbearers.” 34

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