The Bavarian Gold Bravery Medal to Gefreiter Heinrich Grieshammer
Although
the “1st day of the Somme” (the 1st of July 1916) grabs the imagination of most
people visiting the Somme Region the battle itself continued until mid-November
1916.
On the 12th
of August 1916 the French advanced on the village of Maurepas after an intense
barrage. The Germans had fortified the village flanked by Machine Gun Posts and
a Blockhouse.
A new
attempt was made on the 19th of August following a bombardment on increased
intensity. On the 24th of August the village finally fell to a French assault.
“Maurepas” was one of the most heavily defended positions of the German 2nd
line and would become a bloody symbol for French sacrifice during the battle.
Above: Men of of the "Sturmtrupp" of the 9th Company, 7th Bavarian Reserve Infantry regiment in 1916
Jack
Sheldon’s essential work on the battle as seen by the Germans “The German Army
on the Somme” quotes a Bavarian officer from the b.R.I.R. 7 ….
Reserve
Leutnant Georg Will 3rd Company Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 7
(On the
17th and 18th) The enemy hammered us with all calibers up to 280mm. We were
effectively defenseless against it, but the 2nd Company got off lightly,
suffering only five killed and thirty wounded. It was a different story for the
3rd Company, which has been terribly badly. More than twenty men are lying dead
in the trench, many of whom had been buried alive by heavy shells and
suffocated. The walking wounded are happy with their lot. Only E., whose arm
has been torn off by a shell splinter, takes it badly: crying and moaning like
a little child. The destruction of the 3rd Battalion forward in Maurepas… seems
to be complete. Hundreds of guns of up to super heavy caliber have been
bringing a storm of steel, of hurricane proportions, down on the village for
twenty four hours now. The landscape is enveloped in one great cloud of dust.
Signal flares cannot be seen through it and it seems as though all signs of
life have ben snuffed out. We send patrols forward. It is now evening and the
order arrives for the companies at readiness to move up to Maurepas to
reinforce and support. It is extremely difficult to get the men out of the
trenches and to maintain an overview of proceedings, because shells keep
exploding all over the place. Heavy suppressive fire threatens to prevent us
from getting forward, but we succeed and extend the right flank of the 3rd
Battalion, until we make contact with out neighboring Regiment.
Left: A French Poilu and a Bavarian Soldier killed between combles and Maurepas in the August 1916 push
During the
19th and 20th of August we find ourselves in the front line. There are no
trenches, so we occupy shell holes, seeking shelter behind piled up banks of
earth.
Everyone
tries to edge forward, as close to the enemy as possible, to escape from the
shelling. During the hours of darkness we dig as hard as we can to link up the
craters. The whole place is a charnel house, defying description. The earth is
reduced to dust and ashes, the trees are uprooted and smashed, the houses have
been swept away, the air is poisoned by smoke, gas, and the reek of corpses.
Countless pieces of equipment, of all sorts, lie strewn everywhere and in
between them are the corpses of the fallen, blown up and distended. Some of
them had been hastily buried, but ploughed up once more by the shells. Here and
there limbs are sticking out of the ground or just lying around. The sunken
road of Maurepas! No worse place can exist! A doctor has taken a photograph of
it, which will show more than I can relate. We had laid the courageous Leutnant
Beckh in a shell crater, but he was hit by a 280 millimeter shell, which ripped
him apart and flung the pieces up in the air. During the afternoon I lay for
several hours on the back of a dead man without noticing. The corpse was
covered up, but the ground gave under the pressure of my knee, just as if I was
on boggy ground. When I sought the reason and scraped away some soil with my
hand, I came across the jacket of a dead man.
Above: In the background French Soldiers advance towards Maurepas
I assume
command of the 3rd Company… during the day the infantry suffers terribly from
the depredations of the aviators. Although doubt is sometimes cast on the
assertion that aircraft descend to twenty to thirty meters to attack the
infantry with grenades and machine guns, here we are experiencing it as the
bitter truth… the doctors work is endless. Leutnant Beckh was killed, shot
through the head. His helmet did not save him. The bullet pierced his forehead
and exited behind as a ricochet. Despite that, he lived for a short while. Oberleutnant
Erndl fell, shot through the stomach. Whilst he was being carried away, he was
wounded again by several splinters. Reserve Leutnant Löwel was also killed by a
rifle bullet. Reserve Leutnant Barnewitz, the little man from Saxony, was hit
by a shell in front of the command post in the Artillery Hollow. Reserve
Leutnant Vollrath was killed by a tiny splinter which pierced his helmet and
entered his brain. Reserve Leutnant Krauß is missing. That was not all. To our
front, very close to enemy lines, there was an intact dugout. I went inside and
found the body. An army of flies swarmed round the corpse, which had been lying
there for days…
The
surviving Bavarians were extremely grateful to be away from the pestilence of
Maurepas when they were finally relieved on the 23rd of August…”
Above: Ruins in the Maurepas area
Gefreiter Grieshammer was decorated with the Bavarian Gold Bravery Medal for his role as
messenger during the fighting which saw his Company destroyed at Maurepas. A
member of the III Batl., 10th Company he was one of the Lucky survivors of the
fighting. His citation read as follows…
Above: The Militärpass of Landsturmmann (later Gefreiter) Heinrich Grieshammer. The entry for the Bavarian Golden Bravery Medal is marked in green
"During the
time spent in the frontline at Maurepas during the battle of the Somme by the
Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment Nr. 7 ,
Private Grieshammer and Gefreiter Mütter (both of the 9th Company)
distinguished themselves with exemplary courage on the 18th of August 1916.
During the day they braved the heaviest bombardments of all calibers to bring
messages from the Battalion to Regimental command post. When the French
advanced after numerous attacks they once again made the perilous journey.
Thrown to the ground numerous times by exploding shells they reached the Le
Forest positions to relay a request for reinforcements and ammunition to the
commander of the reserve battalion. They then skillfully guided the
reinforcements through the enemy barrage using their knowledge of areas where
the fire was less heavy to arrive in the front line without loss. A few hours
later they volunteered again to search for the stretcher bearers. Due to fog
they were not able to find them but as dawn broke they found their way to the
regimental headquarters and relayed the need for stretcher bearers. They then
returned through the enemy barrage to transmit a message to the battalion."
Grieshammer
was promoted to Gefreiter on the 31st of August 1916 as a reward for bravery in
the face of the enemy. His Goldene Militär-Verdienst-Medaille (Golden Military
Service Medal,(Soon to be renamed Golden Bravery medal) was awarded on the 4th
of December 1916. He received the bayerische Militär Verdienst Kreuz 3. Klasse
on the 26th of September 1917 and the Iron Cross 2nd Class on the 25th of June
1918.
Reserve
Leutnant Georg Will 3rd Company Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 7
"During the
time spent in the frontline at Maurepas during the battle of the Somme by the
Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment Nr. 7 ,
Private Grieshammer and Gefreiter Mütter (both of the 9th Company)
distinguished themselves with exemplary courage on the 18th of August 1916.
During the day they braved the heaviest bombardments of all calibers to bring
messages from the Battalion to Regimental command post. When the French
advanced after numerous attacks they once again made the perilous journey.
Thrown to the ground numerous times by exploding shells they reached the Le
Forest positions to relay a request for reinforcements and ammunition to the
commander of the reserve battalion. They then skillfully guided the
reinforcements through the enemy barrage using their knowledge of areas where
the fire was less heavy to arrive in the front line without loss. A few hours
later they volunteered again to search for the stretcher bearers. Due to fog
they were not able to find them but as dawn broke they found their way to the
regimental headquarters and relayed the need for stretcher bearers. They then
returned through the enemy barrage to transmit a message to the battalion."
