A good friend of mine has just had his second book published, on the rather rare topic of a WWI German soldier's front line memoirs. There are surprisingly few WWI memoirs in English of German soldiers' experiences. The book, available on Amazon:
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There are a lot of good details that don't normally come out in higher level unit histories.
Imperial Germany's Iron Regiment of the First World War German Soldiers' Wartime Experiences Published in English, Canal Winchester, Ohio October 20, 2014 – "We took the first enemy trench to rest up before taking the second trench, whenthe enemy artillery suddenly started to fire upon us. They knew the distance very well, and we laid flat into the trench, but were nearly buried alive. The shells and shrapnel so often burst in the trench that I thought the 3rd Battalion, Regiment 169 had ceased tofight. A piece of shrapnel took the drum out of the drummer's hands without injuring him. But meanwhile we had dead and wounded. Next to me someone shouted, "Help, help me, I am wounded!" I wondered how one could best take him out of this witches' cauldron, because if we both exposed ourselves in full size we would have been easy targets for the French infantry . " AlbertRieth, Bugler, Infantry Regiment 169: Battle of the Frontiers, Sarrebourg, Lorraine Province, August 20, 1914.
"Still the English attack; even though hundreds of them are shot down in front of our lines, fresh waves continue to pour over fromtheir jumping-off positions. We have to shoot! The English are already in hand-grenade range; grenades fly to and fro. Themachine-gun's barrel's been changed and the gun jacket filled – load! Hand-grenades and rifle-grenades explode violently in front ofthe gun – the loading begins to tangle! You recite loudly, slowly and clearly saying to yourself: "forward – feed – back!"….tack-tack-tack-tack….a furious sustained fire once more strikes the "khakis" in front of us!" Otto Lais, Machine-gunner, Infantry Regiment 169: Battle of the Somme (Serre Sector), July 1, 1916.These are the words of two German soldiers who served with Infantry Regiment 169. One hundred years on, therere mains an astonishing gap of English-language accounts of the German World War I experience. Fewer still are comprehensive histories of individual units. In an effort to help fill this void, this book provides an account of the World War I journey of German soldiers in Baden's Infantry Regiment 169 (IR 169).
This book was inspired by wartime journal of the author's grandfather Albert Rieth. Albert served in IR 169 in the firstsix months of the war, and where he was first wounded in the Battle of the Frontiers in August 1914 and again inFlanders in January 1915. His journal, written in a military hospital in March 1915, provides a fascinating, Germaninfantryman's perspective of the opening days of the war. The author spent nearly 20 years of research to find a numberof rare German accounts from other veterans of this regiment. Among the most significant finds was the postwar memoir of Otto Lais, titled A Machine-gunner in Iron Regiment 169, published by G. Braun GMBH in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1935. Lais, who became an artist of some note in the postwar years, served as a machine-gunner during the epic Battle of the Somme and was later promoted to a company commander in the final year of the war. Many readers willfind his words to be among the most gripping accounts of the horrors of World War One trench warfare.
In the words of Colonel Gerald York, U.S. Army Retired and grandson of the Medal of Honor winner, Sergeant Alvin York:A n excellent writing looking at World War 1 from a German soldier's perspective. I have read many accounts of the US activities in the war to include my Grandfather's war diary detailing his observations. This is a rare glimpse in to the same view from a German soldier and to look at the similarities of their experiences, although on different sides of the conflict. It was very good reading and I highly recommend it to everyone interested in learning more about the GreatWar." The author, John Kurt Rieth, a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, holds a lifelong interest in military history. He is theauthor of Patton's Forward Observers; The History of the 7th Field Artillery Observation Battalion and is a member of the Army Historical Foundation. "Imperial Germany's Iron Regiment of the First World War" is now available in all formats at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple and other retailers.
