At 0300 on August 20, the enemy reopened the battle for the Mount Cosna massif with violent artillery fire from numerous batteries. A large number of heavy shells struck in the vicinity of the command post and the reserve areas, and forced us to vacate the endangered areas and take shelter in the draw half a mile north of the summit. The enemy fire increased steadily with its bulk directed at the position captured by us east of Mount Cosna, where the Rumanians imagined us to be. I was very glad that I had only a few of my men dug in there, for the fire soon converted this position into a mass of rubble.
At 0700 the enemy began to advance against the deep outpost occupied by the 1st Company and the draw near Nicoresti began to fill with Rumanians. The 6th Company, which was in the north, reported that it could observe attack preparations on the part of the enemy in its sector. All doubt vanished and we became convinced that the Rumanians intended to regain the territory lost the previous day. It was high time to shift to the defence.
A continuous line had to be formed in the rugged and wooded terrain, and the uncovered north flank required particular protection. I decided not to occupy the old Rumanian positions for they had been under heavy fire all morning, and the Rumanians had their range and knew their details most intimately. Defended, these positions would cost us too many casualties. In spite of the work involved and the short time remaining before meeting this strong enemy, I preferred to move the forward-slope position to the east and in the woods.
I issued the necessary orders on the spot and the companies dug in while the 1st Company outposts fought a delaying action. Digging was easy in the loamy soil, and the reserves helped the frontline units to dig their positions and their communication trenches so that all was in readiness when the combat outposts were finally driven into the positions. The initial assault was easily repulsed and the Rumanians began to dig in some fifty yards away from us. Rumanian artillery tried to reach our forward-slope positions but had to give up because of the danger of firing on its own troops. It therefore restricted itself to pounding the former Rumanian positions up on the ridge.
I had few worries regarding the eastern front (1st and 4th Companies), but the north and northwest sectors were a different story, for there we had a huge gap in our defence.
Our contact to the left (1st Battalion, 18th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment) was along the northeast slope of Mount Cosna, on the ridge leading from Hill 491 to the summit, and the Rumanians took advantage of the draw and climbed up and reached the rear of our position. The 3rd Company, hitherto in reserve, had to close the gap between the left flank of the 5th Company and the 1st Battalion of the 18th. It held in spite of a numerically superior enemy, poor defensive terrain, and miserable visibility. The battle increased hourly in violence, and during the day the enemy launched at least twenty assaults against us; some of them were preceded by a short artillery preparation and some were not. The Rumanian front was a semicircle about us and we had to rush our few reserves from one threatened point to another. The hostile artillery fire tore up the ridge but the mountain troops did not waver. Our losses were small in proportion to the enemy's. We had a total of twenty.
I was so exhausted, probably because of the exciting activities of the past days, that I could give orders only from a lying position. In the afternoon, because of a high fever, I began to babble the silliest nonsense, and this convinced me that I was no longer capable of exercising command. In the evening I turned the command over to Captain Gossler and discussed the situation with him; after dark I walked down the ridge road across Mount Cosna, back to the group command post, a quarter of a mile southwest of Headquarters Knoll.
The Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion held its position against all Rumanian attacks until August 25th, when it was relieved by the 11th Reserve Infantry Regiment and moved behind the front into division reserve.
The battles for Mount Cosna exacted a terrific toll from the young troops. We had five hundred casualties inside of two weeks and sixty brave mountain soldiers lay in Rumanian soil. In spite of the fact that the major mission was not achieved and that we failed to destroy the enemy's southern flank, yet the mountain troops executed every assigned mission in a masterful way in the face of a hard-fighting, tenacious, and well-equipped enemy. I still look back on the days as commander of such troops with intense pride and joy.
After the arduous days on Mount Cosna, a few week's leave spent on the shores of the Baltic Sea restored me to tip-top form.
Observations: In the defence on August 20, 1917, the main line of resistance was shifted to densely wooded terrain on the forward slope in order to nullify the anticipated action of the Rumanian artillery. This was completely justified, for in the course of the fighting the enemy did not succeed in covering this concealed main battle line with artillery fire. The main defence positions were being prepared while the combat outposts withdrew fighting and the reserve companies were employed to dig well concealed communication trenches for the forward line. These trenches proved to be important for moving supplies of all kinds and evacuating the wounded under fire without losses, or at least with only slight ones. Afterward the reserves dug themselves in at designated locations.
The defensive fighting on August 20 required using the reserves at the frequently changing danger spots. Where danger threatened, the reserves had to occupy the main battlefield in depth. Reinforcing the front line proper with reserves was avoided as far as possible.
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