Poem ~ Verdun: A German Success? - Thursday, 24 February 1916

Source: File: Germans helping a French wounded soldier.jpg. [online]  Available at: <http://wereldoorlog1418.nl/battleverdun/kortverdun/index.htm#03> [Accessed: 24 February 2016]

Via the waves of wireless press,

Came a version from the other side -

Two days after an initial German

Push, news finally reached Berlin.

In content of a report from main

Headquarters, told how from east

Of Souchez, their enemy's trenches

Fell, damaged by German mines.

With Souchez success brought

Rewards of three machine guns -

To capture prisoners; 348 soldiers,

Along with 11 French officers.

Meanwhile upon the Meuse Hills,

On the 21 day of February, saw duel

Of artillery along the Meuse's east

River bank, in a plan of strategy.

A French hope had been to hold

Onto that rivers edge - seen to be

Where they had worked to fortify

A hold for over a year and a half.

In that situation the French would

Suffer catastrophe from German

Artillery attack; close to communes  

Of Azannes and Consenvoye.

With fated villages in a fortressed

Area, defences of German held out

North of Woevre - all to add to their

Success by second day of Verdun.

Across a three mile push inwards,

Bois des Caures was taken; troops

Closed in on Flabas village - later

To take the village of Haumont.

German successes in upper Alsace

Lay in eastward attacks of Heidwiler -

Capturing an allied position, half mile

In length and 400 metres in depth.

The victory for Germany had totaled

3000 prisoners and material claims -

To then fail 23 February, by French

Resistance at Bois de l'Herbebois.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. The Verdun Battle - German Version. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 24 February 1916. P.9. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12169037/Daily-Telegraph-February-24-1916.html [Accessed: 24 February 2016].

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12169037/Daily-Telegraph-February-24-1916.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Bayonet Charge on Skis - Friday, 5 March 1915

Source: File: Alpin Chasseurs.jpg, 2015. The Battle of the Passes. [online] Available at: <http://www.front-vosges-14-18.eu/english/montagne.php> [Accessed: 5 March 2015].

Source: File: Battling on skis - a charge by the Chasseurs Alpins.jpg, 2015. Picturing the Great War
The First World War Blog from Mary Evans Picture Library Monday, September 09, 2013. [online] Available at: <http://blog.maryevans.com/2013/09/battling-on-skis-a-charge-by-the-chasseurs-alpins.html> [Accessed: 5 March 2015].

i

A reporter watched skiers return from a fight,

On a march, to make an impressive sight -

That had taken place in mountainous region,

Of the Alsatian border, of a French frontier.

Formed from the days of Italian threats,

Trained in mountain warfare, the Chasseurs

Alpin Corps - with an attachment of French

Skiers - returned from a campaign - skis

Over shoulders, proving selves a stoic force.

Within the last two months of a cold winter,

The combined corps had fought against

A flawed enemy out in a mountainous

Campaign - skiers and Chasseur Alpins

Succeeded in destruction of enemy batteries.

In the regions of Alsace and the Vosges,

A varied, mountainous, unforgiving terrain

For the German units of Landsturm - men

Aged between 34 and 55 made up numbers

To form second and third class reserves.

Lacking quality, they made up in numbers -

A heavy presence of determination - whose

Purpose for a German offence, setting out

To Displace the French from the old town

Thann - on the river Thur, beside the Vosges.

Experiencing the appearance of the Ski

Corps, the Germans then formed companies

Of their own skiers - in attempt to even

Out their disadvantage - fighting on slopes

Of winter snow against French expertise.

Facing the hardship of this high frontier

And skilled opposition, German Landsturm

Lost 10,000 of their men, within the period

Of only one week – to result in a continued

Static place - proving selves in abject failure.

In a remorseless terrain of rocky outcrops

And steep slopes - within the midst of winter -

An attack was to form on the rocky pyramidal

Spur of Hartmannsweilerkopf - to overlook

The Rhine valley - a long named place,

Where German force struggled to entrench.

The low mountains of Vosges, within east

France was a varied formation summit line -

Of fourteen high and twenty two lower

Peaks, to border Germany's Palatine forest.

In the plains north of Thann, slopes became

Haphazard German burrows of trenches,

Reinforced by countless wire entanglements.

This German foothold spread out to summits -

In a great enduring effort, to continue a line,

Carved by dynamiting the mountain edges.

On the sheltered side of a slope, a soldier's 

Village took shape for the Landsturm troops -

With recreational huts, canteens, beer barrels

Brought and stored in cellars - even to include

Telegraph, telephone and electrical supplies.

ii

In learning of this, the French made plans,

Setting out to drive them from this place.

In an account, one of the Alpin's told of this

Process - as they set out almost in a game

To capture sentries of Hartmannsweilerkopf.

By this method they advanced and reached

The stream of the Sultz, a stealth of advanced

Forces, consisting mainly of skiers – in use

Of skill they slipped about the mountains -

Skiing about in varied directions, to avoid

Shots of the enemy’s attempts to trace them.

In curving paths, the ski corps were seen

As 'shadows,' almost impervious to all hits -

Skiing to a place behind Hartmannsweilerkopf

And the site of the ancient area, Freundstein –

Completing this without an enemy in sight.

A clear evening turned to clear night, as

The moon rose to illuminate the mantle

Of dense snow - between the pines

They formed a camp – no lamp or fire

Would be lit, in giving away their position.

Sweeping away snow to settle and rest

The night was not quite quiet - in a right

Direction came the thud, thud of a 77mm

German Battery - somewhere from

An opposite crest a French 75 mm replied-

Squabbling like two angry night birds.

While some skiers rested, with knapsacks

For pillows – sentries kept watch as other

Skiers went on a reconnaissance - in quiet

Manoeuvres under the pine trees - swift

Shapes, they shrank to specks to vanish.

Some hours passed with the reassuring

Boom of the field guns, filling the clear,

Vosges air - when sudden rifle fire cracked.

Two scout skiers re-appeared, to say that

A German battery was two kilometres away,

Hidden by the castle ruins of Fruedenstein.

This battery kept silent to keep their secrecy

But with the sudden discovery of the skiers,

A company of enemy pursued the Chasseurs

Alpins and their skiers, who replied in kind -

With two officers wounded the Germans made

Their rapid retreat back to their enemy lines.

The skiers took news swiftly back to their own

Heavy batteries near Thann - who then used

Precise coordinates of concealed enemy guns.

Within a time of thirty minutes, a hidden battery

Along with ammunition wagons, were blown.

iii

With the ski corps re-grouped the order

Was to advance - within minutes reaching

Sudel Farm, an enemy equipped redoubt -

Concealed machine guns waited, but seen

by scouts, the skiers turned towards a crest.

There, a small Landsturm party sat to rest -

Not expecting an attack, as they smoked

Their pipes - surrounded they surrendered

As prisoners - in a position they overlooked

Sudel Farm, on which they made fire -

This account ended in a German retreat...

Alternatively was an attack on Sudel Farm

Made for a French defeat - with Chasseurs

Alpin and two officers cut off by Germans.

Refusing orders to surrender, men on skis,

With fixed bayonets, charged the slope

Into the German trenches - where struggle

Ended with the French being overcome

The fight's final clarity would yet be known.

by Jamie Mann.

Beaumont, A., 1915. War in the Snow – Capturing a Hill – Work of the Skicorps. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 5 Mar. p.10. Col.3. Available online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11447691/Daily-Telegraph-March-5-1915.html [Accessed: 5 March 2015].

Anon.,1915. Alpine Chasseurs Charge Down Slope Upon Enemy on Skis. British Columbia Historical Newspapers Feb 20 1915, [online] 5 Mar. P.1. Col.2. Available at: http://historicalnewspapers.library.ubc.ca/view/collection/bellacoo/date/1915-02-20#1 [Accessed: 5 March 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 5 March 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11447691/Daily-Telegraph-March-5-1915.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Fight for Steinbach - Wednesday, 6 January 1915

Source: File: Steinbach.jpg, 2015. An Alsace town captured by the French: Steinbach - The church and Cure's House, used as a French Field Hospital. From the archives of the Illustrated London News. Places That Have Made History: "Plug Street, " and Other Centres . 4 January 1915. [online] (updated 1 January 2015) Available at:< http://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/item/places-that-have-made-history-plug-street-and-other-centres-iln0-1915-0403-0015-001/>[Accessed: 5 January 2015].

In Haut-Rhin Region of French Alsace,

Stand the Palatine forest and the low

Ranges of the Vosges Mountains -

Of a northerly border, to form the line

Boundary of France and Germany.

From the Vosges Mountains flows

The river Thur, through towns of Cernay

And Thann - with its history of sorcery.

And in that commune lay Steinbach

Whose capture is accounted in Matin.

At Thann, on night of 29 December,

A French force crossed the river Thur.

With dawn breaking, this next day

Saw a duel ensued between artillery

Of French and German guns -

Situated on heights of Wattweiler -

Concealed within a forest of fir, came

Returned fire of posted enemy gunnery.

Flying reconnaissance was proved

Impossible by the forests density -

The French patrols alternatively,

Beat their way into the woods - ready

For enemy ambush, chasseurs infantry

Pushed on through – by close of day,

Three fourths of enemy guns lay

Out of action - the rest had retreated.

By the opening day of 31 December,

The French had taken the crests lying

Above Steinbach – for over 48 hours

The battle had ensued about the village

Of Steinbach – the outpost of Cernay.

A message of parle was taken – a reply

Within one hour of a Commander's word,

Said German forces did not consider

They were surrounded – the Sennheim

Road was open for a possible retreat -

That while the troops might be killed,

An Emperors army would not surrender.

By making escape a hostage had said,

In previous evening had been executed

Thirty Landsturm soldiers, who were

Not Steadfast – having been openly shot,

Out on the village square of Steinbach.

The village would have to be taken back,

House by house – the trees that had

Given German cover from the 75’s would

Allow Infantry cover to reach Steinbach.

Forming columns the French moved on

Edging their way towards the village.

Then the German 77’s fired, the ground

Being against them - German advanced

Posts were in houses  - at the village

Edge to where the Senegalais Tirailleurs

Reached within 200 yards – a mitrailleuse

Volley gun, emplaced in the church tower,

Then fired out, at the edge of the wood.

In a crossroads stood a small farm,

Where defence was held, and placed

A line of civilian hostages – one woman,

Could be seen, her hands tied behind

Her back – the French soldiers in fury

Of this, stormed forward with rifle

And bayonet - despite the enemy fire -

With losses they enemy were taken,

The farm door was reached at 1 p.m.

As the Farm was taken by French hands,

This proved a link to Steinbach's centre -

With row of barns where a machine gun

Was prepared - with granary ventilation

Holes in walls gave good views of enemy

Trenches - Both surveyed the main street,

Where the enemy were then situated.

A sharp shooter of the company,

Concealed himself in a close by shed.

In the village square guns were situated,

Firing to the road where reserves

And reinforcements started to arrive -

One by one the crack shot aimed,

Taking out the gunners one by one -

Providing time for the French advance.

While the Germans lost valuable time,  

To replace their fallen gunners.

Fighting moved into evening - each side

Locked by frustration, to gain advances -

Cottages become fortresses – the lanes

About, become places of ambush walls -

And doors that are taken became targets,

For sudden hand to hand fighting.

The battle stopped with night’s arrival -

Under this cover a volunteer succeeded

In setting fire to a stable, where German

Forces sheltered - the enemy fled by light

Of flames as mitrailleuses opened fire.

Within an hour the Germans attempted

To return the gesture, with incendiary

Bombs thrown on French possessed barn-

Yet with a wind from the west,

Flames were thrown back on the enemy.

A reverse of their attack forced them

To abandon their first trench line -

The fire then fiercely spread, to reach

An ammunition reserve to explode -

Onward the fighting skirmishes continued.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Fierce Battle of Steinbach – Three days’ Fighting – Village Stormed. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 1 Jan. P.9. Col.2. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11323632/Daily-Telegraph-January-6-1915.html [Accessed: 6 January 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 6 January 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11323632/Daily-Telegraph-January-6-1915.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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