German soldiers launching an attack on 'Dead Man's Hill' during the Battle of Verdun, March 15-16, 1916. (Likely staged)
German soldiers launching an attack on 'Dead Man's Hill' during the Battle of Verdun, March 15-16, 1916. (Likely staged)
The following is excerpts of Danish-German Unteroffizier Friedrich Karl Dambeck's account of an attack on the Côte 304 at Verdun on June 29, 1916 - today 107 years ago. Translated by myself:
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"Following the long and thorough preparation, on June 29 we were again to attempt taking the corpse-covered hill with a storm.
Already on June 27 did Hauptmann Borchmann step forward to organise his storm units. Four units of 12 men each were necessary. The majority of these volunteered, the rest were drafted among the most experienced.
Everyone stood in their right place at the established timestamp. At 5:15 the last heavy German shells exploded on the enemy's position, and worse than ever before it rained with splinters and rocks by our ears, all due to our heavy artillery.
Suddenly the shells were subdued; the artillery fire had moved further back. We almost held our breaths completely, our heart raged on madly. Were we to suffer through this waiting any longer? No, we couldn't. There were two minutes left till zero-hour when an Unteroffizier shouted: "Forward!"
A flamethrower cleared that horrifying trench sap through which my unit were to traverse. With our rifles out we stormed towards the closest enemy line. It all succeeded quite well. Our dear Franz appeared from his holes and had to surrender to the Germans, whether he wanted to or not.
We advanced fiercely and reached the second line. Suddenly came a shot from our flank. My sideman fell into a crater, lethally hit. I looked to my left and felt a cruel fear in my limbs, for there the enemy still sat in his trench.
Quickly we jumped back to a better flanking position, a large shell crater seemed appropriate. We assembled some men and then unleashed the rapid fire.
Like madmen the flank-strucken enemy rushed back, of course in utter chaos, and we managed to take a couple of prisoners. By firing a flare gun we sent the message to our reserves, that the storm had succeeded in its entirety."
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