Poles in Kaisers Army On the Front of the First World War. Ryszard Kaczmarek

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СКАЧАТЬ In the first period of the First World War, it aroused the enthusiasm and hopes for a quick victory among the young people from the eastern Prussian districts and other German lands.⁷³

      The activities that were part of the training of the Polish recruits also resulted from the modernization efforts; that is, the desire to create a modern society capable of waging a future total war with modern technology and military tactics by all the reservists. Although such behavior resulted in general alienation and the abandonment of army’s social functions (Kriegergesellschaft) – today often called “the Prussian soldatesque” – it also contributed to major civilizational ←34 | 35→changes, not necessarily motivated by ideological Pan-Germanism. What was a derivative of these activities was the mutual trust between subordinates and officers typical for a civic army. While analyzing this phenomenon, we must conclude to our astonishment that, before 1914, neither side noticed any contradiction between the German nationalism of a Prussian officer and the Polish language of the Upper Silesian recruit.

The Recruit’s Training

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 СКАЧАТЬ