Читать книгу Poles in Kaisers Army On the Front of the First World War - Ryszard Kaczmarek - Страница 13

Regular training of Polish recruits in the Prussian army was not easy, especially during the period of accelerated preparation of soldiers for the war of 1914–1918. Back then, there was no time left for anything, hence only basic military training was conducted. Thanks to the written memoirs of conscripts, we have an excellent insight into the process of such training. We find out how it looked from the letters of Kazimierz Wallis, trained in 1915–1916 in Ścinawa. Wallis arrived there from his hometown of Rozbark in Bytom, after all the medical examinations conducted during the annual review of conscripts (Musterung). A journey to the regiment usually began on a regular train, although during the war, the soldiers usually traveled in wagons specifically adapted to transport the army, which included additional benches.⁷⁴ The first days at the unit were always difficult. It was necessary to adapt to the new place. For many recruits, the primitive conditions were shocking:

We arrived at Steinau [Ścinawa] yesterday at eight in the morning. Music accompanied us on our way to the barracks (the Old Factory). The town is very small with 5000 inhabitants. We slept on straw mattresses on the ground. It is a bit cold here, but they stoked the furnace in the morning…. We got up at five in the morning and, after dressing up, went with the bowls for coffee (the day before, each of us received a straw mattress, three blankets, and a bowl). Bitter black coffee, we ate our bread with sausage.⁷⁵

They could move from the floor to beds only after three months: “Tomorrow we will sleep in beds (until now, we slept on straw mattresses under four blankets. What a pleasure.)”⁷⁶ On their first day, the recruits also received uniforms and all the necessary equipment. Since the end of the nineteenth century, German conscripts were very well equipped. They could not complain about weapons ←35 | 36→or the uniform after the general change of its color from blue to feldgrau. The conscripts only complained about the unwieldy sapper equipment.⁷⁷

Proper duty started on the second day at the unit. The conscripts initially learned about the daily routine, then concentrated on the daily activities of personal and subunit hygiene and the proper behavior toward superiors (drill). Depending on their personal characteristics, the non-commissioned officers could either truly facilitate the process of adaptation of the young recruits or quickly turn their everyday life into hell on earth. Wallis’ immediate supervisor turned out to be his countryman: “the non-commissioned officer is a very good man … from Katowice.”⁷⁸ The officer evidently differed in his behavior, both from other non-commissioned officers and, above all, from the officers, because the Polish recruit maintained this positive judgment of his German supervisor throughout the entire period of duty in the army, and Wallis always spoke about the officer with many compliments:

Then, I ended up with my friends in one room, and at last I got a good non-commissioned officer, a man called Reiche from Katowice. He is a short man with a short-trimmed moustache. Intelligent, good-natured, not cocksure and full of pride like others here but quiet and good-hearted to all.⁷⁹

There was a huge gap between the world of officers and an ordinary soldier. This very strong caste-like system was not only the result of a carefully cultivated ethos of the professional officer but also a number of privileges. These were executed in the daily service and on the frontline, which resulted in the effective separation of the officer from their subordinates. They traveled by train at least in the second class, while soldiers traveled in the fourth class or even in the livestock cars. The officers had separate quarters at the stops and frequently demanded the quarters for their exclusive use. The batmen assigned to the officers conducted simple work for them, such as cleaning shoes and uniforms, errands, and cleaning of the company apartments. The officers received better meals from the field kitchen and much more cigarettes and alcohol. The same differences applied to pensions in the event of injury or death.⁸⁰

Of course, the biggest disproportions applied to wages. Before the outbreak of the First World War, a younger officer (lieutenant) received up to 300 marks of ←36 | 37→salary per month, along with a food supplement. A regular soldier received only fifteen marks. It is true that in peacetime an officer allocated part of his pay to the savings account, the library account, fencing, and horse-riding, but the pay gap between his income and the incomes of non-commissioned officers and soldiers remained huge.⁸¹

The conscript’s days in the first period of his stay in the unit were practically the same:

We have to sweep and keep order all day long: in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Everyone lies under the bedcovers, five minutes before nine in the evening. The only exception was the soldier on duty [Stubendiensthabender]. He waits for when the non-commissioned officer in a helmet comes at nine to receive report about the unit [Korporalschaft], its count, whether everything is on place, etc. Later, the soldier on duty turns off the light and goes to bed. We get up at five in the morning and I got used to it. Now it’s six o’clock. I’ve already put my clothes on, said my prayer, washed myself after breakfast and I’ve cleaned my shoes and canteen.⁸²

During the first days, the conscripts spent a lot of time on gymnastics that aimed at preparing the infantrymen for the big physical effort in the field duty and during marches. Wallis even praised it despite winter, “because after a whole day, gymnastics in the snow can only be good for your health.”⁸³ It was very difficult to prepare for a strenuous march with a full load that weighed over thirty kilograms. The load was gradually increased. Before entering the regiments, conscripts received instruction to only take military shoes made from stiff material, always a little too big to avoid abrasions that later caused deep wounds. The weather did not matter. During one of such exercises, Wallis, who joined the training unit in the winter, waded through “the knee-high snow in the meadows by the Oder River.”⁸⁴ After a month, they marched distances that were considered elementary for a trained infantryman, that is, for about thirty kilometers. They covered such distance at a speed of about four to five kilometers per hour.⁸⁵ It was an extreme physical effort supplemented with tactical exercises:

As usual, we headed for the march exercise at 7.15 am. Feldmarschmäßig [in full marching order] with military bags and boots, with drill clothes and cleaning brushes. Everyone received ten blind cartridges. We marched with the 1st Company, there were ←37 | 38→two trumpeters, three drums, and three flutes at the front. We walked through various villages. After almost four hours of marching, we came to the manor Buhl. Here we did Gefecht in offenenen Gelände [battle engagement in open terrain]. The 1st Company marked the enemy. We reached the distance of one hundred meters and started shooting. It was difficult to see the enemy through the fog. After shooting, we carried out an assault on enemy positions. Then we stopped in the forest for half an hour. Then we marched once again. At three o’clock, we headed via Danitsch to Steinau. We were very tired after the long march, so there was lunch.⁸⁶

The first month of training also conveyed shooting exercises were. The issuing of weapons was always a major event. Already since the beginning of the twentieth century, Gewehr 98 was the basic weapon of a German infantry regiment. The Upper Silesian regiments received it in 1902–1903.⁸⁷ It took several days to get to know this rather complicated gun. The conscripts learned by heart the names of all its elements, practiced folding and unfolding it, cleaning, and troubleshooting.

Wallis got his own rifle already after five days at the unit. Under the supervision of an officer, the head of the company, and all non-commissioned officers, the whole company learned to hold, load, and unload their Gewehr 98.⁸⁸ Afterward, they learned how to shoot and, interestingly, still in 1915 in a file, often in standing position, despite the experiences of trench warfare in the West.⁸⁹ They did these exercises even when the troop was on the frontline:

I have just returned with a few of my shooting companions from Schiesstadt [the shooting range], which was temporarily set up here. A thick wall, a heap of ground in front of it to catch bullets at a distance of thirty meters, and a machine gun with auxiliary gun carriage that made the shooting hard because you have to use your bare hands to hold all the pressure and control it, but it is easier to carry than the heavy machine guns. And we had to shoot at a twelve-centimeter-high target with figures four centimeters high and wide. You had to aim precisely to shoot something. We shoot away 1000 bullets…. After that, we clean the rifles, which means completely disassembling them. Then, we are free.⁹⁰

The conscripts also spent much time on bayonet fighting exercises. This skill was very important in the two previous centuries, but decreasingly useful on the frontlines of the First World War. However, the training system still considered ←38 | 39→it decisive in infantry’s frontal attack. The trainers wanted to accustom soldiers to attack at full strength, without any rules. As a result, there quite often occurred injuries, even serious ones:

Once the downpour stopped, there continued bayonet combat training with masks and without masks; everyone received a wire mask to protect their face from thrusts. In addition, everyone received a thick armor filled with hemp to protect the breasts and abdomen from stabbing. A thick glove for the left hand. Then, the stabbing begins. One thrusts while the other avoids it, then the other way around, and so on. It is up to dexterity to push a thrust away and quickly thrust the opponent before he lifts the rifle in defense. There are no rules during the fight, but everyone aims at making the opponent incapable of fighting. If one has no more strength to thrust or defend, he catches the rifle in both hands, the barrel in the left and the breech in the right and strongly throws it in the opponent’s face, so that the opponent falls or quickly jumps towards the opponent, throws the rifle aside, and they start to fist fight and wrestle.⁹¹

After a short time, the military training also included tactical exercises. Until 1914, despite some need to hide the shooter, trenching was still usually absent from training. The emphasis was on attack as the only type of maneuver. Both officers and soldiers were reluctant even to think about any tiresome “digging,” while the creation of complex positions on the trench line, during tactical exercises, was completely absent from the tactical training instructions.⁹² However, when Wallis was in Ścinawa, the situation started to change. As he wrote after two months: “At the moment, we are only marching, practicing bayonet combat, digging trenches, and throwing hand grenades.”⁹³

Over time, all the acquired skills were combined – including long marches, shooting at the target, and combat training – into a full-day training with all the elements. It was very tiresome, which made the soldiers complain:

Yesterday, we had marching exercises. We left Steinau at 7.15 in the morning…. Then, we did the Gefecht im Felde [field fight] exercise. We shot with the blank bullets. Then, we attacked. After the exercises, we retreated. At three in the afternoon, we were back in Steinau. One could only imagine, how tired we were after seven hours of marching. We ate dinner, there was sea fish and mashed potatos. And it tasted very good after the march. For supper, coffee and sausage. At nine, we go to bed.⁹⁴

They also often imitated the real battlefield by shooting right over soldiers’ heads to make the conditions resemble real war:

←39 | 40→

Yesterday afternoon, we marched. We left at two in the afternoon. Then, we rested from four to quarter to five. The sun shined nicely. Lieutenant Walter came after us. We kept on marching. Here in the forest, we had exercises in setting up outposts. We split into two units. One unit quartered in the forest at a distance of 600 meters from us. We performed Feldwach [field guard], unteroficierposten [non-commissioned officer post] and, hidden in the forest, we headed forward. It was getting darker, we could not see the enemy when suddenly dark enemy figures started to crawl out of ditches from all sides. We violently fired blank cartridges and after a while the enemy retreated. We called back the patrols that were sent out, and we marched with singing to Steinau. We reached home at eight in the evening. We had seasoned herring and coffee for supper.⁹⁵

Such exercises often happened at the nearby training ground in Nowa Kuźnia near Żagań. Even before 1914, it was one of the traditional training grounds for the Upper Silesian regiments, next to the nearby Łambinowice.⁹⁶

Nevertheless, the training was conducted both at the unit and on the military grounds in conditions that were not bad enough to complain. Interestingly, the conscripts themselves and Kazimierz Wallis himself admitted in the wartime that such tiresome exercises are necessary to have a chance of survival on the frontline:

I’ve been doing well so far, of course that the service is unpleasant, but still bearable. We thought that now, after Neuhammer [Nowa Kuźnia], we would rest more, but it is not the case. Now, we will have General’s inspection in three weeks. So they goad us to work more than before. Sometimes, I get tired of everything, when I feel like it is too much, but the thought that it will all pass and will not always be like that returns balance to my mind.⁹⁷

Since Wallis was an eternal optimist, as he wrote many times in his letters from war, he even found the positive sides of his stay in the Prussian regiment and accepted the Prussian drill:

Military duty is difficult but only occasionally, for example some exercises and drills with guns. But free exercises, shooting, etc. are interesting and easy. Even though the duty is sometimes difficult, everything comes with joy, singing, and cheerfulness, and it will come easily. One has to always try to do his best and the stay at the army will be alright.⁹⁸

They were getting accustomed to have the day filled with any possible activities so that there was no time left for leisure:

←40 | 41→

In the morning, duty begins at seven in the morning with theory until eight, we march out around eight to practice until noon. Dinner is at noon. Until 1.30 pm we have to clean our shoes and uniforms, which often are more grey than blue, after many hours in the mud. We exercise again from 1.45 till 4.30 pm. We clean our rifles from 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm, clean the uniforms from 5.30 pm till 7 pm, etc. And then the Gewehrgriffe [weapon drill] exercises. After that, we have a lesson of singing and passwords. At 7.30 pm, there is supper. Then, we sweep the floors and get ready to sleep. At nine in the evening, we turn off the lights and no one dares to move.⁹⁹

The food was very modest, unvaried, and rarely sufficient to feed soldiers after increased physical strain so that they would not feel hungry. For breakfast, everyone received flat black coffee without sugar and one kilogram of bread with an increasing amount of rye and potato flour, later also bran (Kommissbrot). It was collected in advance for four days. Sometimes, there also was a bonus like fat, cured meat, and marmalade. Lunches were usually filling. Suppers were just like breakfasts, although usually with something warm like groats, cooked vegetables, or cured meat.¹⁰⁰ Therefore, the correspondence in the first months in training mostly unsurprisingly concentrated on food, the senders requested provisions from home, properly packed so that they will reach them edible. Even when Wallis was well adapted in Ścinawa, he still complained:

We receive the amount of bread that is barely enough. But there also are those who eat their bread quickly and then have to go on without bread for the next two days; sometimes they have money so they buy something to eat or receive some from others; otherwise they must starve. Thank God, I have not suffered hunger yet.¹⁰¹

But Wallis constantly misses diversity in food, so as he may avoid eating only bread all mornings and evenings: “Send me just a box of butter, three-quarters of lard can is too big to carry in the backpack;”¹⁰² “Don’t send me sausages, I still have fat and honey, and that’s enough for me.”¹⁰³ Sometimes, he sent an entire list:

Send me lard, but wrap it in parchment, because I already found a suitable box, and there is not enough space for the second can; also one notebook, one pair of footwraps, writing paper (a few copies may be with the header of The Catholic), a tiny bottle of cherry juice, salt in paper, one pair of thick stockings with for change, ten Patenknöpfe [press studs], a few (5) newspapers because paper is useful, a little bread, not much, because I can’t find white bread anywhere without money, don’t send me sugar nor ←41 | 42→Eucaleptuz [eucalyptus sweets] because I still have some. Include a little bit of rubber plaster (Kautschukpflaster).¹⁰⁴

In this first period of duty, free time was an exceptional luxury for soldiers. Wallis mainly spent his free time writing letters and organizing his wardrobe. Exceptions were Sundays and holidays, if he was not on guard duty, when he could use his time on his own. These days the main attraction were more abundant and more varied meals. In the morning, the conscripts went for mass to a nearby church, divided by the confession Catholic and Evangelical confession.¹⁰⁵ After returning to the barracks, all had time off. Since the soldiers initially could go to the city, Wallis spent his free time on what he liked the most, namely reading. Everyone waited for the festive dinner: “For dinner was goulash, dried fruits, and unpeeled potatoes. It tasted great,”¹⁰⁶ he wrote on a Sunday in January. There was an exceptionally attractive meal on the occassion the Emperor’s birthday: “For dinner 3 noodles with sauce, pork, and apricots compote. It all tasted great. After dinner, each of us received a small bottle of beer…. We had sausage and coffee with bread for the supper.”¹⁰⁷

Karol Małłek, who resided in Ostróda, was much more critical when it came to the relationships in the training units. The Mazurs who trained there suddenly found themselves at the very center of the centuries-old Prussian drill, in which non-commissioned officers and officers treated them as second-class people, while the training almost resembled the eighteenth-century Frederician system. It only lacked corporal punishments, abolished long ago. Małłek describes his first day of duty in the field artillery regiment as follows:

A wake-up call at 5.45 am…. Punctually, we heard the sound of trumpet. There was murmur and rumble in the barracks. We ran toward the stable…. The first stable initiation happened there, allegedly because we were late, even though it was five to six. Lance Corporal Hesse beat those unlucky, and he soon was to concentrate on our group. Hesse was a forty-year-old Alsatian of outstanding merit, because he wore the Iron Cross of the second class…. Our Lance Corporal was called Bäckle…. He arranged us in line according to height and began to tell us about our duties. “Everything here must be in order, understood?”, he started, “The guy, who arrives at the stable after me, will be beaten,” he threatened. Bäckle assigned horses to us…. Then Hesse gave each of us a currycomb and a brush and yelled: “Putz! Putz!” We started to clean the horses as good as we could. Farmers knew how, so they began from the horse’s head to the hind ←42 | 43→legs. Moreover, they used the cloth. They put the horse’s dirt through the brushes to the currycomb and with the currycomb to the porch. But those with no rural background were in a bad position! They brushed the horses here and there without any order. The two Lance Corporals strolled around the stable in a porch and closely watched their subordinates. Suddenly, they started whipping the our backs: “You wayward lices!” … After such a morning “warm-up,” we quickly washed manure off of our hands and sweat of our foreheads with stable tap water, then we ran to the barracks to wash ourselves more thoroughly, put on clean uniforms and long shoes, and breakfast…. At eight…. we started to trained the drill and listened to commands “Attention!” and “At ease!” The Corporal first showed us the basic movements and then told us to repeat them. We did everything excellently. He particularly liked my movements. I learned them already from Wendt during gymnastics classes at the Brody school. After two hours of exercises, we mastered this introductory lesson. It was time for break. We ran to the stable…. Everyone stood by their “assigned” horse, facing the porch. “The horses and harnesses that hang on the poles belong to you. All this must be kept clean and tidy! Understood?” shouted groom Breisack. Then, Breisack gathered us by my Quatern and described this horse, the saddle, and the individual parts of the harness. Next, he showed us how to fold and unfold the felt, put it on the horse’s back, and how to fit the girth, tie and untie it, and bridle the horse…. Finally, the sergeant began to teach us how to get on the horse and ride bareback…. Finally, after an hour of that torture, we heard the command yelled by the two Lance Corporals, “Go to the stable! Putz! Putz!” … It was only after feeding and watering the horses that we washed our hands and ran to eat lunch. It was already half past noon. They cheated half an hour from us again. For dinner we had pea soup with potatoes and some canned food. We ate it all and went home. Almost an hour. We went to beds and immediately started snoring. In half an hour, we heard: “Aufstehen!” Oh, how unwilling we were to get up! Some of us cried that we had to go to the square again and be ready for further activities. We marched off to the lecture hall to listen to the sergeant who told us about field artillery and batteries. We listened to him without any clue what was going on, because he spoke in a very difficult manner for a long time, while we were all tired and sleepy…. After the lecture, we quickly put on our drill uniforms and again ran down to the stable. Here, both Lance Corporals shouted: “Putz! Putz!” … During the assembly, the Head of the Battery introduced us to tomorrow’s schedule, which did not differ from today’s … The only difference was that three of our friends were assigned to twenty-four-hour stable duty. We performed it every sixth day. For dinner, we received half of mess tin of tea, ninety g[rams] of liver sausage, and one kilogram of bread for two days…. We barely ate and rested a little when it was already eight o’clock, time for cleaning. We started to clean our uniforms, shoes, leather, and other things. After an hour, everything was squeaky clean. Shortly before ten in the evening, we were in beds, waiting for the sound of the trumpet, and for the lights to go out.¹⁰⁸

←43 | 44→

Interestingly, this kind of rigorous training did not differ much from the training of one-year volunteers; the only difference was that the superiors did not use violence toward their subordinates in the latter case. However, all the emphasis was on the implementation of thoughtless automaticity of behavior on the battlefield, and this was achieved by repeating the same actions in constantly induced stress; through haste, screaming, and physical effort at the verge of human capability:

Duty was very hard in the first half of the year. At least three hours every day were devoted to learning stunts with rifles. Excellent precision was attained by a huge amount of energy and effort and a complete stupefaction of recruits who started to move like automatons. Blisters appeared on their hands, knees stiffened, muscles contracted. We exercised on empty stomachs from five to six in the morning, then one hour after breakfast, and again one hour in the evening. After a few weeks, field duty started. The non-commission officers had here the opportunity to go hard on those intelligentsia-students! We were hurried until we passed out in the midst of sharp insults, screams, and rants. We listened to juicy vulgar vocabulary and amazing associations of concepts, for example, “You stand like a pregnant canary,” “Quicker! Curl up like an oiled lightning!”, “You walk like a lice on stomach!” And if someone made a mistake in a stunt or a phrase, he heard the terrible sentence: “Eine Stunde nachexerzieren!”, an hour of disciplinary punishment. Let’s add to that those disciplinary exercises – an opportunity for the corporal for extraordinary abuse – always occurred during the time devoted to a two-hour lunch break. “The theory” taught by non-commissioned officers had a specific meaning. It consisted of learning by heart the names and addresses of all the superiors from the corporal to the lieutenant; and from captain through the commander of the company and the general to the admiral. Rifle cleaning was a separate ceremony. It lasted an hour a day. Despite our greatest efforts, we could never please the corporal, who was always dissatisfied with what he controlled.¹⁰⁹

However, the duty of officer candidates changed over time. The breakthrough moment was when they left the barracks and started living in the quarters:

Only after four-five months of elementary training, when we could properly salute, make stunts with rifle, even march “like at parade,” change guards, clean rifles, polish shoes until they shine, and polish the room till it looked like a marchioness’ chamber, we could finally move out and rent a room in the city (for fifteen marks a month). At that time, each of us was assigned a cleaner from an older year group (third year of duty), who was a jester, an old hand, who cut his teeth on the duty and knew all the secrets, and he knew the ways to trick the corporal, and even the sergeant.¹¹⁰

Only then, the commander of the subunit assumed command and conducted field training. The period of duty in the military training area sometimes lacked ←44 | 45→the disparaging harrasment of non-commissioned officers, and some of the young Poles even recalled it as a useful time of great adventure of youth:

The culminating moment of the one-year military duty was the concentration of troops in one infantry division with artillery and auxiliary units, and two battalions of naval infantry…. Compared to the drill and training yard in Kiel, this service was light and even interesting. Marches, exercises in beautiful plein-air, in vast heathlands, in the heat of the summer, mock skirmishes and battles, none of it was arduous and it offered sport-like satisfaction. Besides, military duty attracted me with physical training, light-heartedness, and the cheerful life outside of the classroom. We attended interesting lectures, particularly conducted by some captain of the general staff who acquainted us, “one-year volunteers” and aspirants for reserve officers, with secrets of tactics at the lowest levels of chain of command of platoon and company./I listened carefully to use my experience as an instructor in the Rifle Squads, so as to effectively beat the Germans in the future. I used my skills soon, in 1918, in Poznań and in Poznań Region.¹¹¹

Despite the arduousness, the duty at the training unit was one of the best periods in the soldier’s life during the war. The tragedy began once the mobilization started, and they went to the front, not only because of the nightmare that the trench warfare turned out to be but also the necessity to face the enemy units, which also consisted of Poles. Before the war, about 300 thousand Poles served in the armies of the Partition armies: in the Russian Army 165–200 thousand; in the Austro-Hungarian Army 55–60 thousand; and about 40 thousand in the German Army. After the general mobilization in August 1914, the number of the mobilized soldiers increased to about 3.3 million Polish soldiers who fought against each other during the four years of the war.¹¹² The Russian Army numbered 1.196 million Poles, the Austro-Hungarian Army 1 million Poles, and the German Army 780,000 Poles.¹¹³

←45 | 46→

1 O. Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, in: Das Infanterie-Regiment Keith 1. Oberschlesisches Nr. 22, Kattowitz 1913, p. 170.

2 G. Ciupek, Aus der Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments, in: Ratiborer Heimatbrief aus der Patenstadt Leverkusen, Weihnachten 1952, pp. 7–8.

3 W. Wette, Militarismus in Deutschland. Geschichte einer kriegerischen Kultur, Frankfurt am Main 2011, pp. 50–51.

4 Ibid., pp. 60–61.

5 B. Hulewicz, Wielkie wczoraj w małym kręgu, Warszawa 1973, pp. 13–14.

6 W. Skorupka, Moje morgi i katorgi 1914–1967, Warszawa 1975, p. 59.

7 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, p. 135.

8 Ibid., p. 141.

9 Ibid., p. 135.

10 Ibid., pp. 144–145.

11 Ibid., pp. 146–147.

12 G. W. F. Hallgarten, J. Radkau, Deutsche Industrie und Politik von Bismarck bis in die Gegenwart, Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 28.

13 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 146–147.

14 Ibid., pp. 147–148.

15 Ibid.

16 W. Rezmer, Polacy w korpusie oficerskim armii niemieckiej w I wojnie światowej (1914–1918), in: Społeczeństwo polskie na ziemiach pod panowaniem pruskim w okresie I wojny światowej (1914–1918), ed. M. Wojciechowski, Toruń 1996, p. 138.

17 J. Dülffer, Deutschland als Kaiserreich (1871–1918), in: Deutsche Geschichte. Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, ed. M. Vogt, Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 548.

18 M. Howard, Wojna w dziejach Europy, Wrocław 2007, pp. 111–112.

19 B. Gebhardt, Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte, Vol. 2, Stuttgart 1931, p. 547.

20 Ibid., pp. 686–687.

21 Rezmer, Polacy w korpusie oficerskim, p. 138.

22 Wette, Militarismus in Deutschland, pp. 70–71.

23 Rezmer, Polacy w korpusie oficerskim, p. 138.

24 J. Keegan, Die Kultur des Krieges, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1997, p. 47.

25 VI. Armee-Korps (Deutsches Reich). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VI._Armee-Korps_(Deutsches_Kaiserreich) (10.01.2013).

26 Suhr, Das 4. Schlesische Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 157 im Frieden und im Kriege 1897–1919, Zeulenroda 1934, p. 3.

27 12. Division (Deutsches Kaiserreich). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Division_(Deutsches_Kaiserreich) (10.01.2013).

28 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 17–19.

29 Ciupek, Aus der Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments. pp. 7–8.

30 F. Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 63 (4. Oberschlesisches), Berlin 1940, p. 15.

31 Ibid., p. 17.

32 Ibid., p. 187.

33 Suhr, Das 4. Schlesische Infanterie-Regiment, pp. 1–8.

34 H. Jancke, Das Kgl. Preußische Feldartillerie-Regiment v. Clausewitz (1. Oberschles.) Nr. 21, Breslau 1923, p. 1.

35 Ibid., p. 7.

36 Ibid., pp. 8–9.

37 VI. Reserve-Korps (Deutsches Kaiserreich), de.wikipedia.org (15.01.2013).

38 K. v. Hasselbach, E. Strodzki, Das Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 38, Zeulenroda 1934, pp. 3–4.

39 VI. Reserve-Korps (Deutsches Kaiserreich), de.wikipedia.org (15.01.2013).

40 Sohrauer Stadtblatt 80, 7.10.1914.

41 Das 2. Oberschlesische Feldart. Regiment Nr. 57, ed. F. Uebe, Berlin 1923, p. 5.

42 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 15.

43 Geschichte des Schlesischen Pionierbataillions Nr. 6, ed. A. Tiersch, Leipzig 1906, p. 56.

44 M. Rezler, Uwagi na temat historiografii Wojska Polskiego lat 1914–1922, in: Wojsko Polskie 1914–1922, Vol. 2, ed. B. Nowak, Koszalin 1986, p. 204.

45 Skorupka, Moje morgi i katorgii, p. 34.

46 A. Fiedler, Mój ojciec i dęby, Poznań 2006, p. 149.

47 R. Kaczmarek, Polacy w Wehrmachcie, Kraków 2010, p. 186.

48 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 21.

49 Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments von Winterfeldt (2. Oberschlesisches) Nr. 23, eds. Tronchin, Naumann, Berlin 1913, p. 184.

50 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 21.

51 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 150–151.

52 Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments., pp. 189–190.

53 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 157–158.

54 Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments., p. 197.

55 Ibid., p. 197.

56 Ibid., p. 197.

57 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 159–163.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid.

60 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 15.

61 Ibid., pp. 208–209.

62 Ciupek, Aus der Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments, pp. 7–8.

63 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 15.

64 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 175–177.

65 Kurze Darstellung der Geschichte des 3. Oberschlesischen Infanterie-Regiments Nr. 62, ed. Oberleutnant Petri, Berlin, pp. 28–29.

66 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 175–177.

67 R. Stergar, Die Bevölkerung der slowenischen Länder und die Allgemeine Wehrpflicht, in: Glanz-Gewalt-Gehorsam. Militär und Gesellschaft in der Habsburgermonarchie (1800 bis 1918), eds. L. Col, Ch. Hämmerle, M. Scheutz, Essen 2011, p. 144.

68 Kranz, Erich Haffenstein und andere, pp. 144–145.

69 Ibid.

70 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 21.

71 Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments., p. 187.

72 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 21.

73 Teresa Kulak writes about this change of attitudes in 1913 on the basis of the printed version of Arka Bożek’s memoirs (Pamiętniki, Katowice 1967) in her Postawy społeczeństwa polskiego na Górnym Śląsku w okresie I wojny światowej “1914–1918’, in: Społeczeństwo polskie, ed. M. Wojciechowski, Toruń 1996, pp. 10–11.

74 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 25.11.1915, Zbiory Specjalne Biblioteki Śląskiej w Katowicach.

75 Ibid.

76 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 12.02.1916.

77 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 26.

78 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 25.11.1915.

79 Ibid.

80 B. Hamann, Der Erste Weltkrieg, Wahrheit und Lüge in Bildern und Texten, München–Zürich 2009, p. 214.

81 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 26.

82 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 26.11.1915.

83 Ibid.

84 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 12.02.1916.

85 On January 27, 1916, Wallis covered a distance of thirty-six kilometers in eight hours (The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 27.01.1916).

86 Diary of Kazimierz Wallis, 28.01.1916.

87 Ciupek, Aus der Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments, pp. 7–8.

88 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 30.11.1915.

89 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 7.03.1916.

90 The letters of K. Wallis to his brother Stanisław Wallis, Saarburg 22.02.1917.

91 Diary of Kazimierz Wallis, 5.01.1916.

92 Suhr, Das 4. Schlesische Infanterie-Regiment, p. 31.

93 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 21.01.1916.

94 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 29.01.1916.

95 Ibid.

96 Ciupek, Aus der Geschichte des Infanterie-Regiments, pp. 7–8.

97 The letters of K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 20.01.1916.

98 The letters of K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 16.01.1916.

99 The letters of K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 18.11.1915.

100 Kaiser, Das Königl. Preuß. Infanterie-Regiment, p. 25–26.

101 The letters of K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 20.01.1916.

102 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 3.01.1916.

103 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 6.01.1916.

104 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 21.01.1916.

105 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 22.01.1916.

106 Ibid.

107 The letters from K. Wallis to his father Łukasz Wallis, Ścinawa 27.01.1916.

108 K. Małłek, Z Mazur do Verdun. Wspomnienia 1890–1919, Warszawa 1967, pp. 212–219.

109 Hulewicz, Wielkie wczoraj w małym kręgu, pp. 14–17.

110 Ibid.

111 Ibid., pp. 14–17.

112 Rezmer, Polacy w korpusie oficerskim, pp. 138–139.

113 M. Leczyk, Sytuacja polityczno-militarna Polski w pierwszej i drugiej wojnie światowej – podobieństwa i różnice, in: Pamiętnik XV Powszechnego Zjazdu Historyków Polskich, Vol. 1, Part 2, ed. J. Staszewski, Gdańsk 1995, p. 120, bases his numbers on the calculations prepared by Kazimierz Rosen Zawadzki, Historia Polski, Vol. 3, Warszawa 1974, pp. 23–25.