The Offensive, 1918.
THE YPRES TIMES
69
By Walter Bloem, late Captain and Battalion Commander.
THE 12th Grenadier Regiment had been resting in billets in Champagne since
the end of January, 1918. I had taken part in the 1916 offensive at Verdun
as Commander of the 1st Battalion, whose 2nd Company I had led in the
advance. I was then transferred to the General Staff with which I stayed a year
and a half. At the end of 1917 I begged to be sent again to the front; I was
too much of a soldier to stand office work now that the decisive battle was impend
ing. I felt freedom once more in being amongst my comrades in arms, true
there were not many of them left. Out of the 250 men of the 2nd Company,
whom I had led into the field three and a half years before, there was, apart from
splendid Ahlert, the Sergeant-Major, only one solitary man remaining, and he only
because the Company Commander, who wanted to keep him as a survivor, had had
him attached to the transport.
The Regimental Commander came from an outside unit, the Officer Command
ing my old 1st Battalion was senior to me, and so I was given the 2nd Battalion.
Of the officers with the regiment at the beginning of the war, only the three
Battalion Commanders, who had been Captains, were still left. One of the Com
pany Commanders of my Battalion was a reserve Lieutenant who had, on the
outbreak of war, set off with the Reserve Regiment we had raised. Beyond these
four and myself, all the rest wearing the silver grey shoulder straps, were war
promotions; young fellows, hardly one over eighteen, excellent and keen as far
as fighting went, but of doubtful value as regimental officers and in many cases
without proper authority over their men. It is true that these latter belonged
for the most part to the youngest advanced class, but there was also a stiffening
of older men, some of whom were more than twice as old as their company
commanders. Their equipment was in a lamentable condition, the rifle and
machine-gun barrels were so worn out that the rifling was hardly visible, jackets
and boots were almost patchwork, and the harness had, with difficulty, been mended
with string and wire.
The anti-tank ammunition we had been promised had not reached us when
we moved off, and we went into action without a single round of it. As the
devastated and waterless area of the old Somme battles lay to our front, we were
to have been issued with a second water-bottle. W'e did not get itThe one
thing in which we were up to the mark was the training of our foot-slogging,
job-lot unit. During the two months' rest in Champagne we were able to learn
our separate and collective roles in the stern task before us to an amazing degree.
We had even been able, during a large divisional rehearsal which took place on the
Ancre, to thoroughly test in all details an intended crossing of the Somme on the
third day of the battle. Another point is worth noting: in order to deceive the
enemy as to the sector in which we were to attempt our break through, every
village and every house in Champagne was prepared for receiving a heavy con
centration of troops, by the construction of bunks, latrines, etc. When we moved
later to our real positions of concentration it was evident our local Area Com
mandant had been completely misled. All this caused a great deal of friction and
discomfort, but the surprise came off.
To keep my story within the space allowed I shall have to confine myself
to outlines and leave out many interesting details. In the middle of February
we were suddenly sent from Champagne to the small town of Binche, near Mons,
in southern Belgium for a week, where we rested or rather spent our time
in strenuous daily preparation.
