Toward 0600 on August 10, telephone communication had been established with the battalion. Through the administrative officer I learned that Major Sproesser had arrived with the other companies of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion and he gave fullest praise to the Rommel detachment for its conclusive success on August 9.
I then oriented myself to the situation facing the detachment on its east front. There the Rumanian sentries behaved incautiously even in broad daylight. In fact, some units of the Rumanian garrison were sunning themselves hard by the positions dug during the night between Petrei Hill and the oak copse. Things were quite different with us. The sentries and garrison of the Rommel detachment were well concealed and had strict orders not to let themselves be seen anywhere and to shoot only in case of a hostile attack.
The hostile positions stretched from the bare west slopes of the Petrei (693) along the ridge rising toward the oak copse; the ridge had only a few clumps of bushes. The oak copse itself seemed to be strongly fortified. It commanded the area toward the south, west, and north. North of the oak copse the enemy positions extended valley-wards through the undergrowth toward the deep gorge of the Slanic. The positions consisted of individual nests and larger strong points, all mutually supporting which dominated the bare slopes to their front. (Sketch 25)
According to brigade orders, which arrived shortly after 0700, the mountain battalion was to continue the attack and seize the bend in the road four hundred yards west of Hill 674. Once again the enemy had to be driven from his positions. This attack was to
Sketch 25
Attack on the Ridge Road Bend, August 10, 1917.
Be made without artillery support for our guns had insufficient time to displace forward. Major Sproesser detailed me to prepare and execute this manoeuvre and gave me the 1st, 3rd, and 6th Mountain Companies as well as the 2nd and 3rd Machine-Gun Companies. This gave me command of a sizable force.
My plan of attack was to strike the unsuspecting enemy suddenly with machine-gun fire toward noon, force the hostile garrisons located in the area four hundred yards south to three hundred yards north of the oak copse to take cover, pin them down and, at the same time, break through in the region of the oak copse with some of my units, roll the enemy back close to the left and right of the oak copse and block him off. With these operations accomplished, I planned to take my main force and, in a single push, break through and fight my way to Hill 674.
The preparations were tiresome and time-consuming. During the forenoon I personally concealed ten heavy machine guns, moving them into their positions by wide detours, so as to avoid hostile observation. Some were emplaced on the wooded crest of the heights close behind our forward line and the remainder were in the rills and folds of the south slope. I assigned targets to each gun and planned the fire schedules to be followed before, during, and after the attack. I set the opening of fire for 1200 and designated the platoon located nearest the ridge road bend as the base platoon.
The remaining units of the Rommel detachment finished their preparations toward 1100. I selected the south edge of the oak copse as the breakthrough site. The depression ninety yards southwest of the oak copse was being filled silently with assault troops, namely the 3rd, 1st, and 6th Companies and a heavy machine-gun company. I issued orders and instructions to the assault team (3rd Company), to the elements of the 3rd Company which were to make the feint, and to my main attack force. (Sketch 26)
Mail arrived ten minutes before the attack and was quickly distributed.
Punctually at 1200, I gave the base machine-gun platoon the prearranged signal for opening fire. A few seconds later all ten heavy machine guns were in action with particular concentration of fire on the oak copse. In order to mislead the enemy and to cause hasty commitments on his part, the left-flank platoon of the 3rd Company shouted as loudly as possible simultaneously with the opening of machine-gun fire and threw numerous hand grenades into the northwest corner of the oak copse. All this was done from cover in order to keep losses to a minimum. The Rumanians were not slow in answering our fire.
Amid the ear-splitting roar and the partial concealment offered by the smoke and fumes of exploded hand grenades drifting toward them, the assault troops of the 3rd Company now stormed forward to traverse the one hundred yards from just behind the ridge road to the southwest corner of the oak copse. The heavy
Machine guns, which from the rear had given the enemy positions a good pounding, were now ordered to train their fire to the left and to the right, leaving a fire-free zone for the storming party. My staff and I followed closely behind the assault troops who were silently advancing, on the double, and were determined to finish
Sketch 26
Fire plan for the heavy machine guns in the attack of August 10, 1917. View
From the south.
The job at hand. The remainder of 3rd Company with a heavy machine gun platoon were hard on our heels. There was great banging and shooting on all sides.
Scarcely two minutes had elapsed since we opened fire, and our heavy machine guns were still hammering away, when we heard the sounds of a savage battle on the left near the ridge road. At the same time our assault force broke into the oak copse and encountered their first serious resistance in the enemy trenches. Our mountain troops made short work of this. Where their advance was held up, they simply abandoned cover and charged the position. They were given admirable support by the machine gun platoons which had reached the edge of the oak copse, quickly set up, and directed their fire from the left to pin down the enemy just in front of the assault group. One of my staff orderlies put a shot through the head of a Rumanian on my left, aiming at me from a distance of fifty feet.
No sooner were we in possession of the oak copse than the enemy launched a strong counterattack from the northeast. None of our heavy machine guns had yet been properly sited forward and those back at the start line could not be brought to bear on the reverse slope to the northeast. The enemy was soon within hand grenade range and a furious carbine and grenade fight ensued in which the staff also had to use their weapons. Although the foe was superior in numbers, we fought stubbornly to hold the ground gained. Minutes later, one of our heavy machine guns got into firing position and the tide soon turned in our favour. I could then get back to my duty of commanding the detachment.
Elements of the 3rd Company and a heavy machine-gun platoon secured the section of the copse in our possession to the north and south. I assigned my remaining forces (1st and 6th Companies, as well as the elements of both machine-gun companies made available by our successful breakthrough) the mission of breaking through along the ridge in the direction of Hill 674. While some heavy machine guns pinned the enemy down in his positions on both sides of the oak copse other units blocked the shoulders of the breach in the hostile position thus allowing the main body to storm the ridge regardless of strong fire on all sides. Hill 674 was our sole objective and we advanced in a column of companies, 1st Company leading the way, at a brisk pace. (Sketch 27)
Without meeting any resistance, leading elements of the 1st Company soon reached a small knoll a quarter of a mile west of Hill 674. I was close behind them and was just crossing a small depression when I was forced to hit the dirt by a burst of machine-gun fire coming from the right. The bullets dug small holes in the turf and their source seemed to be a slope some nine hundred yards southeast of Hill 674, nearly thirteen hundred yards away. I had only pitiful cover behind a small mound and I intended to dash on when the machine gun fire lifted. Suddenly, I received a bullet from behind in the left forearm and the blood spurted. Looking around, I discovered a detachment of Rumanians firing on me and a few men of the 1st Company from some bushes about ninety yards behind us. In order to get out of this dangerous field of fire I made a zigzag dash to the knoll in front of us where some elements of the 1st Company had to defend themselves for about ten minutes until the Rumanians to the west had been taken care of in hand-to-hand fighting by the men following us. The French officer commanding the Rumanian unit kept shouting “Kill the German dogs” until he took a bullet at close range.
Farther back violent fighting had also developed. The Rumanians had recovered from their initial fright and were trying to recapture their lost sectors by means of counterattacks with local reserves. The decision was ours thanks to the incomparable bravery of all the mountain riflemen and the energy of the officers.
The 1st and 6th Companies took Hill 674 without encountering further resistance. Meanwhile my arm was bandaged by Dr. Lenz.
Sketch 27
Attack towards Hill 674. View from the west.
Then I ordered my unit to occupy the captured territory and to reorganize. The order was:
—The 6th Company reinforced by Aldinger's heavy machine-gun platoon, on Hill 674. All other units at my disposal in the broad hollow just north of the ridge road four hundred yards west of Hill 674.”
In spite of severe pain and exhaustion through loss of blood, I did not give up command of the unit. Major Sproesser was informed of our success by telephone.
About this time a long column was seen marching toward us on the ridge road from the direction of Mount Cosna. So we organized the defence, and the spade came into its own. I urgently requested artillery fire on approaching hostile forces but this request could not be fulfilled as all artillery units were displacing forward. The enemy drew nearer unhindered.
Captain Gossler arrived with the remaining companies of the Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion and we split the command. The Rommel detachment consisted of the 5th and 6th Companies and Aldinger's machine-gun platoon as front-line garrison and the 2nd and 3rd Companies and the 3rd Machine-Gun Company as second-line garrison. Gossler was given the 1st and 4th Companies as well as the 1st Machine-Gun Company. His detachment was dug in some three hundred yards west of Hill 674 just south of the ridge road. Contrary to expectations, the Rumanian infantry approaching from the direction of Mount Cosna did not counterattack our new line in the vicinity of Hill 674. They merely contented themselves with feeling out our positions with strong reconnaissance detachments which were easily repulsed. Following this, the Rumanians occupied the ridge opposite the 5th and 6th Companies. Their position was half a mile away and was some twenty-two hundred yards long. Under these circumstances there was no need for us to increase the front line garrison. The 5th and 6th Companies together had a front of about seven hundred yards with their open flank curved to the rear. Gossler's detachment was in contact with the 6th Company and provided security on the southern slope while the remaining units of my detachment provided security for the north flank of the 5th Company. The entire defence area in the captured sector was further secured by a system of combat outposts in considerable depth.
About 1500 hours the Rumanians withdrew from the line extending from the west slopes of Petrei Hill through the oak copse to the west bank of the Slanic. Nevertheless, it was impossible for us to make contact with our neighbours to the right and left. Violent Rumanian artillery fire began and soon destroyed the wire connections, denied all movement to runners, and cut up the terrain on both sides of the ridge road between the oak copse and Hill 674. The telephone connections with the 5th and 6th Companies were repaired repeatedly, a difficult and dangerous task for the wire details. The fire persisted during the entire afternoon with undiminished violence. Fortunately, the companies up forward and the reserve areas were not seriously inconvenienced. In the late afternoon the Austrian artillery made itself felt. Among other things, a 305mm shell struck in the midst of a group of men (as it later turned out, a group of Rumanian and French officers) on Mount Cosna's summit. Fortunately, my detachment losses during the attack and the subsequent artillery bombardment were very low. During the bombardment, I prepared my combat report on the action Oak Copse-Hill 674 in my command post located on the steep slope four hundred yards west of Hill 674. The hostile artillery fire did not stop until dark when our pack train came up with rations and ammunition.
I was exhausted by loss of blood, and the tightly bandaged arm and overcoat thrown over my shoulders hampered every movement. I was considering giving up the command but the detachment's difficult position prompted me to remain at my post for the time being.
Additional troops were put under Major Sproesser's command. His command post was in the oak woods twenty-two hundred yards southwest of Hill 674. There, too, were the reserves of the Sproesser group (units of the 18th Bavarian Infantry Regiment) and the observation posts of the artillery liaison officers.
Night fell.
Observations: The attack by the Rommel detachment on August 10, 1917 against the commanding, fortified Rumanian position had to be carried out without artillery or mortar support. Only heavy machine guns were available to support the attack. The attack was successful and cost little in the way of casualties because: first, we had prepared a heavy concentration of machine-gun fire on that point in the hostile position where the 3rd Company's assault team was to break through; and second, we succeeded in pinning the enemy down with machine-gun fire both during and after the initial assault.
On August 10, the Rumanians did not make the mistake of the preceding day, when they neglected the position on the slope. A breakthrough into the hostile position half way up the slope would have promised little success on August 10, since the terrain was open, and such an attack could easily be blocked off by machine-gun fire from the heights round about. The enemy had to be tackled along the ridge itself.
Battle reconnaissance: Sharp observation of the hostile territory yielded excellent results during the night of August 10 and in the first hours of the morning. The forward hostile installations and the behaviour of the garrisons were accurately ascertained. Scout squads were not sent out by us, in order not to arouse the enemy and make him curious as to our attack preparations. The enemy, however, committed the great mistake of not surveying the terrain in front of his position, and in fact behaved in a most un-warlike manner (visible sentries, garrisons outside of their shelters). Thus our surprise attack struck him like a thunderbolt.
The assault team of the 3rd Company had a path to the oak copse prepared by several heavy machine guns which covered the enemy in the oak copse with combined fire from positions two hundred yards west of the breakthrough site and then shifted their fire to right and left, so that the advancing squad of the 3rd Company was not endangered. In the further course of the attack the same heavy machine guns admirably supported the rolling up of the hostile positions by laying their fire close in front of their own assault teams.
The feint one hundred yards to the left of the breakthrough point delivered from complete concealment with hand grenades and shouting was to draw the defensive fire of the enemy in the oak copse in a false direction and to bring about the premature commitment of reserves. It fully achieved its purpose in helping the assault team forward, without producing any losses.
To be sure, the enemy quickly and skilfully delivered a counter thrust from the northeast against our breakthrough in the oak copse, but the superior fighting ability of the mountain riflemen also proved itself in the defence.
The Rumanians had occupied the crest of the heights to the rear of the continuous position with reserves but the latter were, for the most part, not prepared to react against our surprise breakthrough and were overrun in their dugouts. Wherever they took up the defence or counterattacked, they were quickly overwhelmed by the greater strength of the mountain soldiers, for five companies advanced through the breach to be followed by the Gossler detachment and four more companies. Thus the surprise attack had the necessary power.
After seizing the objective we went over to the defence. The companies of the front line dug in with good concealment. The open flanks on the north and south were secured by combat outposts from the reserve company. It was not advisable to send out scout squads to greater distances. They might easily be shot or captured by the garrisons of rearward Rumanian positions. On the other hand, the hostile territory was most thoroughly studied from the various observation posts. Shortly after reaching the objective, our troops vacated the ridge between the oak copse and Hill 674. They had dug in laterally on the irregularities of the terrain and the very heavy hostile artillery fire in the afternoon did little harm.
The attack of the Rommel detachment along the ridge forced the enemy to evacuate his breached position in the afternoon and to withdraw to a new position.
The hostile command was not very active, limiting itself to nothing more than defence and not daring to launch a resolute counterattack, although numerous reserves and strong artillery were at hand, and the terrain to the north would have been, like that in the south, most favourable for a counterattack.
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