by Ludwig Renn
We moved out. It was completely dark. At first the way led to the right. Then we curved to the rear in an area without a path through either woods or high bushes, full of broken limbs, and there were shell holes in the ground. Then there was a narrow strip of grass, then medium high fir forest. I had the feeling that we continually changed direction. Then appeared a meadow.
Our guide halted and looked around on all sides. I could distinguish individual dark places but couldn’t tell what it was.
“We have to search,” said the guide.
We went further in the darkness. There was something black lying on the ground. The guide bent down.
“It is a dead Frenchman, but not the one near our position.”
Suddenly there were birches standing thickly before us. The ground was completely churned up and bright.
“Careful! This area is full of shells!”
There was an artillery piece standing there with a limber and in front of it, dead horses.
We curved to the left in a depression.
“Here is the dugout.”
I went inside. Sitting there were a lieutenant and seven men.
“Have you come to relieve my company?—Hopefully you are stronger than I. These are all my survivors. All I have to turn over to you are five light machine guns.”
“We have almost no one trained on machine guns, Herr Leutnant!”
“We had absolutely no one.—One more thing, the neighboring division is lying with an outpost about 150 meters to our right rear in a trench. That’s where you are to make contact.” At the same time he laughed somewhat oddly. “I wish you more luck than we had.—Listen to me: be careful with the sentries during the day so that you don’t draw any unneeded barrage!”
He moved out with his seven men.
I sent Israel to Lamm to report the relief. Then I organized two outposts and then pulled out the people trained on machine guns. There were only four men and they were only familiar with the heavy, not the light machine gun. I manned three machine guns, each with a leader and three men. Afterwards I retained three more groups under Hartenstein, Weickert, and Sendig.
“And what about quarters?” asked Hartenstein.
The dugout where the lieutenant had been held only ten or twelve men. I placed Hartenstein’s group there and then continued looking around. The depression in which we found ourselves was a large artillery emplacement. A large artillery piece stood leaning with a broken wheel.
We found another entrance. However, the roof had been torn off and the beams lay around all splintered.
“Here is another gun emplacement,” said Sendig.
There we found two more bunkers. I went with Weickert into one of them. Someone made a light. Before us, in the corner, a man was leaning. Weickert jumped back. On the ground was another one all twisted. Weickert looked at them in horror and his men stood motionless.
“Don’t be dumb!” I said. “We’ll take them out of here.”
Someone moved forward to take hold of the one on the ground. He laughed scornfully. I moved to help him. Then Weickert said: “but the smell of the bodies will remain in here!”
“Good,” I said. “Then you can look for your own accommodations!” I made to leave.
“We haven’t eaten anything all day!” complained someone.
“I will ask the lieutenant for permission to eat the second iron portion.”
“I don’t have any more.”
“Then I can’t help you. Why have you already eaten them?”
“One has to eat when one is hungry!” grumbled someone.
“Where am I supposed to get something to give you?” I left and went to Sendig. He had already set himself up in his bunker with the machine gunners.
In the meantime some two hours had passed since the relief. I felt unsettled because of group Weickert.
Wolf had taken my baggage to Hartenstein and made a bed for me. I was still unused to being served.
“Has Israel not returned yet?”
“No.”
“I have to establish contact on the right. Wolf, you come with me! You, Hartenstein, take over the platoon while we are gone!”
We picked up our rifles. Outside I met Weickert.
“I have found another bunker.”
I had him show it to me. It was somewhat apart on the far left.
“You will also have to set up sentry posts here!”
“It is creepy here,” he said. “Can I get a machine gun?”
“We will first have to see it by day. I can’t have the men move again until I know it is necessary.”
I went with Wolf toward the right rear. But was that the direction?
We came to a meadow. Here lay another dead Frenchman. The meadow became quite steep and with every step was more churned up.
My right foot got caught in some wire. It appeared to be a shot up wire barricade.
Ahead a white wall lay across our way.
“Halt, who goes there?”
“Contact patrol, third company.”
It was a sentry from our regiment standing in a deep ditch. We climbed into the ditch. There were a number of people there. One of them stood up. “Where did you come from?”
From the manner of his speech I reckoned he was an officer. He asked a lot of questions. I didn’t quite understand what he wanted.
“You must be lying ahead of us. We have always assumed that we are the most forward line here.”
He directed me further to the right.
Here it appeared that there were absolutely no bunkers. The whole trench lay full of sleeping men. Therefore we climbed out of the trench to the rear in tall forest.
Suddenly, I stood still. To the right was a dark object. I saw it clearly. It was a wagon, but—.
I went toward it, but couldn’t comprehend it. I could already reach it with my hand and did not know—. I moved closer. It stank. Then I saw: a horse was hanging with its front legs and head out of the wagon.
Scattered around lay trees, limbs, beams, rolls of wire, and iron posts.
“It appears to have been a supply train station here,” said Wolf. “But there—.”
He pointed into a tree. A horse hung over a heavy limb, oddly thin, like only a skin. What kind of shells must those have been to have thrown a whole horse up there!
Wheee——Booom in the rubble.
We moved on quickly.
We found the outpost of our neighbor division thirty paces ahead of the main trench in a trench leading to the front. It appeared to me to be very disorderly here.
They had been here for three days already and the guard commander didn’t know where we were or where the positions of his division were located.
We went back cross country and after a short time could see our birch forest.
It began to grow light. Before Hartenstein’s bunker stood some ten men with two heavy machine guns.
Israel came excitedly toward me.
“The Herr Leutnant sent you a platoon of heavy machine guns, sends his greetings and to say that an iron portion is to be eaten.”
“Now, where should I set you people up? We only have one more bunker. However, there are two bodies in there.”
“Ach, we’ll throw them out,” said the machine gun platoon leader—he was a sergeant.
“The Herr Leutnant is coming!” called Israel.
“Good morning, Renn!” said Lamm and gave me his hand. “I must speak with you and Sergeant Schatz immediately.”
He took us forward and looked over the area that was just appearing in the twilight. We were on a small rise in the middle of the area. To the right lay a wide mountain with two flat humps. They appeared oddly bluish white.
“That is the white mountain that has been fought over for days now. There and forward is where the danger lies. The disposition here is good, but it is like a lonesome island. This is the most dangerous point of the entire division. Do you feel yourself strong enough here?”
“Yes, I have three
groups, two heavy and five light machine guns. I have three of the light ones manned.”
“But you don’t have nearly enough trained people.”
“No, only four. However, maybe the sergeant can train the others on the most important points.”
Lamm looked at me thoughtfully.
“Sergeant Schatz, you are to take over our machine guns also and set up your own outposts! However, even though you are in a higher rank, in battle I must place you under Unteroffizier Renn.”
He left with his messenger.
It had become completely light. I went into the bunker. Israel had opened a can of beef for him and me and warmed it in a field kettle over alcohol tablets. We tossed in field zwieback, which became soft and we ate it like that.
Israel was a violin maker and had flashing, brown eyes. Wolf was a laborer, careful and taciturn, with somewhat dull, blue, cow eyes, however, he was not dumb. He moved to sit in a corner and listen to Israel’s lively speeches and every now and again to say something very articulate. He was barely nineteen years old, slender, tall, and placed value in his clothing and his hands.
We lay down and slept.
VI
I woke up about midday and felt very hungry. Also today was my birthday.
“Du,” I said to Hartenstein, “Could we not send a patrol over to where you found the field zwieback yesterday?”
“Yes, Kettner and one more can do that. He is very resourceful, especially at catching lice.” He reaches inside his coat and there he’s got one.
Kettner, who was sitting close by, laughed. “Yeah, that’s for me! But I would rather go alone.”
I went outside and looked around. The bunker with the torn-off roof was more than likely an exploded munitions depot. The shells, which lay scattered over a wide area, were about fifty centimeters long. If I only knew whether they were still dangerous! At least up ahead next to the lopsided cannon where Brand was standing guard there weren’t any.
I asked him, “Do you know where our sentries are located?”
“No.” He looked at me fearfully. He appeared to still be completely bewildered from the rolling barrage yesterday.
“Do you see the shell hole there to the left? The company commander is located there with both the other platoons. Then comes the large opening over to us, and then to the right, behind us is the next sentry post of our neighbor division.”
I became alarmed as I said that. If the French were to attack in the area around us we would have to repulse them alone. The lone sentry would not be able to shoot and give the alarm at the same time. I would have to set up other alarm posts.
I went farther to the right. In the next artillery emplacement there was only one heavy machine gun with a sentry. Around it were also thirty-five men in two bunkers. I went into Sendig’s bunker where the light machine guns were located.
“Why is it that none of your machine guns are outside?”
“No one said anything to us.”
“Did Sergeant Schatz not come here and show you the locations?”
They looked at me awkwardly. I was annoyed.
“Sendig, you have to place a sentry up above here to alarm both bunkers. Also, as long as it is peaceful, we all have to be trained on the machine guns. Otherwise why do we even have the things?”
“What are we going to do today for food? We haven’t received anything proper in three days and the iron portions have all been eaten.”
“I have already sent someone out. I will let you know if I get anything.”
A shell exploded outside.
“The crap is starting up again!” complained Sendig.
I went outside. It had landed close to the sentries. Smoke from the shell was still there.
What should I say to Schatz? It would have to come to an argument.
I went in the other bunker. Schatz was playing Skat with both riflemen.
“You haven’t told my light machine gun people that they are attached to you?”
He looked at me half arrogantly, half afraid from the side.
“We have to be united,” I said, “how we are going to do things. Where did you think the light machine guns should be placed for an attack?”
“Right above here,” he said indifferently and tossed a card.
“What? All five machine guns in a space hardly six meters wide!” I had the feeling I was becoming pale with rage.
“Well, if you want, you can place them somewhere else.”
I didn’t know what to reply. Should I simply go up and give the orders I wanted? But what would Lamm say about it?
“Can you give me someone who can instruct my people on the machine guns?”
“Yeah—Trump!” He slammed a card on the table.
“Who?” I asked and my knees began trembling from rage.
“There, Corporal Janetzky.”
“Can I have him at my disposal?”
“Do as you please.”
“Yes, I’ll do that!” I bellowed at him and went out with a pounding heart. They laughed behind me.
I gathered together my group leaders and the crew members for the light machine guns and together we searched out the spots where they could be set up in an attack.
“We are at the most endangered point of the whole division section. Unfortunately the heavy machine gun people have no understanding of it.”
“That Schatz is a real dirty dog,” said Hartenstein. “I have already seen how his company commander got rid of him.”
“I asked him to give us someone to instruct us on the machine guns. But I think we can’t depend on it. However, we have to service the things. Each of you take a light machine gun into your bunker and let yourselves be shown the most important moves by those who are trained!”
“That’s something I have always wanted to learn,” said Weickert. The others nodded.
In the meantime heavy shells began exploding to the right on White Mountain. The whole right slope lay under a grayish white cloud. Also at the trench behind us shell explosions rose along its whole length. There was heavy firing again by the steep slope where we were yesterday, only there the shell explosions appeared darker, maybe because of the soil in the woods.
“We have to watch carefully,” I said. “If the French in the woods ahead of us come, then they can hit the other platoons in the flanks and in the rear.”
“The breach is awfully big!” said Weickert and looked at me with surprise.
“If the sentries keep a good watch, then I don’t fear anything,” I said.
Kettner came bent over with a wool blanket over his back, in which the rattling of glass sounded.
“We shouldn’t show ourselves very much here,” said Hartenstein. “The French on White Mountain must be able to see us.”
Kettner put down the blanket: “I had to play Indian. When I got to the supply depot there was a guard. I thought: Better not ask, just wait! Just then they began firing. I sat in a shell hole and waited. Then I heard someone tell the guard that no one would come stealing during a barrage and he should leave. Afterwards I sneaked in and have brought this with me.”
He not only had soda-water and Zwieback, but also dried vegetables in cubes. Everything had, however, become somewhat damp.
I divided up the food and sent Israel to Lamm to ask whether the field kitchen would come tonight and where. They wouldn’t be able to come here because of the trenches in the ground.
In the meantime Hartenstein had brought a light machine gun into our bunker and laid it on the table.
Brand, who was trained on the heavy machine gun, fingered around on it and, flicking his eyes upward with embarrassment, began:
“The machine gun 08 is a self-loading weapon. It consists—”
“Leave the crap,” said Hartenstein, “and show us how you shoot the thing!”
Brand examined it embarrassed and wanted to open the top. But it wouldn’t open.
“Get out of the way!” said Kettner, who opened it and looked inside. Every
one talked at once. They felt around on the weapon and unscrewed things. The bolt was removed.
“We won’t be able to shoot with it,” said Brand.
“Why ever not?”
“Because there is no water in the sleeve and because the steam relief hose is missing.”
“Then we will have to pour soda-water in it,” opined Kettner.
Someone came bolting down the steps.
“Why is no one on watch here!?” screamed Lamm. “The French on White Mountain are preparing to attack. Where is Sergeant Schatz?”
“Wolf, give the alarm to the left, Israel to the right!” I yelled.
“Stay here!” yelled Lamm. “Why should everyone show themselves? Only the heavy machine guns!”
He ran outside, me behind him.
“Where is Schatz?”
“Here, Herr Leutnant!”
He ran inside. I could hear harsh language down below. Schatz and his whole gang came running out with the second heavy machine gun.
“There!” called Lamm. “Do you not see that? There on the right slope of the mountain above the right peak!”
They peered across.
“What’s the sight setting?” screamed Lamm at Schatz.
“Four hundred?” he stuttered.
“Nine hundred!” bellowed Lamm. “Are the machine guns ready?”
“M. G. One ready!”
“Take charge!” screamed Lamm.
“A strip of low fire!” said Schatz.
The right machine gun began to rattle. Lamm looked through the field glasses. The left machine gun first had to create a position.
“Stop!” bellowed Lamm. The rattling ceased. “Just what are you shooting at? Have none of you got eyes? Now they have naturally all disappeared!”
He glared at me with a furious look. “Come with me, Unteroffizier Renn and Sergeant Schatz! The unnecessary people here can disappear!”
He walked silently out of the artillery emplacement and stopped by the howitzer with the dead horses. We stood at attention.
“Why is no one on the alert here?” He paused and looked at us. “What is the reason, Sergeant Schatz, that you did not prepare a position for your second machine gun? Did you have someone estimate range? How is it then that I know the range?—You will immediately estimate the range! In the morning I will question your sentries, moreover I will inform your company that you are useless here. You can go!”