4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72
The fourth Thuringian Infantry Regiment. 72 was an infantry joined the Prussian army .
history
The association goes back to the 32nd Landwehr Regiment of the Prussian Army. In the course of the reorganization of the army, the 32nd Combined Infantry Regiment emerged from this, which was given the name 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72 by AOK on July 4, 1860. The garrison was in Torgau . The III. Battalion was later stationed in Eilenburg .
First World War
At the beginning of the First World War , the regiment was mobile on August 2, 1914. Together with the 16th Infantry Brigade, it advanced into neutral Belgium and took part in the battle of the Gete .
Battle of Le Cateau
At the battle of Le Cateau on August 26, 1914, the regiment, under the command of Colonel Fritz von Zehmen, took Le Cateau against an English brigade. The peculiarity of this was, “Cut off from any connection with its own troops, the regiment had stormed Le Cateau in the early morning after the exhausting, hot days of combat and marching that had preceded it, according to captured English officers, with more than one mixed brigade and it not only held it against significant superiority and gained ground, but also substantially supported the attack of our own troops, which were brought forward to the west of the place. ”Furthermore, it is the III. Half battalion under Captain Huber and the 2nd Battalion under Captain Rogge managed to reach the heights east of St. Benin. You were now behind the enemy battle line. The 1st battery of Field Artillery Regiment No. 74, under the command of Captain Funke, had made a significant contribution to this success.
The regiment marched on August 25, 1914 at the beginning of the bulk of the 8th Division and reached Valenciennes . Around noon the order was given by the leader of the Gros, Major General Reichenau, to turn off to Verchain, together with the 1st battery of the 74th Field Artillery Regiment.Then we went to Saulzoir, Montrécourt, Haussy, St. Python-Solesmes, on 26 August 1914 to Neuvilly and Montay, later to Le Cateau and St. Benin. During the march route, the detachment's location remained unclear and uncertain. Nothing could be learned about the whereabouts of the 8th Division and the entire IV Army Corps . The surprise capture of Le Cateau almost captured General John French, 1st Earl of Ypres . However, he was able to leave the combat zone with the last train a few minutes before (information from captured soldiers). The 2nd battalion was fired at around 9 o'clock by its own troops around Le Cateau. The regimental adjutant, Leutnant Rauch, succeeded in using a captured enemy car to establish contact with the 7th Division , then with the 8th Division and the General Command of the IV Army Corps. A general staff officer commented on the situation of the regiment on August 26, 1914: “There is no such tactical situation again. The regiment should not have come out of the mousetrap by legal means. ”According to Zehmen, the captains, but also the other officers and men, deserved great credit for surviving this difficult situation, which ended with a brilliant victory.
Third Battle of Flanders
After a long train journey, the regiment arrived in Flanders from Champagne on September 30, 1917 to take part in the Third Battle there . The enemy tried to overrun the positions with barrage of artillery and the use of tanks and to achieve a breakthrough in the Ypres area . The detachment "Gruson", consisting of the infantry regiment No. 72, a shock battery (5th battery / field artillery regiment No. 72 and some hussars, was ordered north of Menin to the villages of Kezelberg, Klephoek and Zuidhoek. In The people built shell holes, trenches and hollows and endured the heavy bombardment.On October 3, 1917, the 2nd battalion under Oberleutnant König, consisting of the 5th Company (Leutnant Lüer) and 8th Company (Leutnant Lüderitz), was relieved 92 of the Braunschweig Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 92 in the section of the Polderhoek Castle, while the other two battalions (I., III.) stayed at Menin. Heavy barrage started around 5:00 am Despite massive losses, the battalion was able to II. the height at Castle Polderhoek hold. against 5:00 in the afternoon, the first support arrived. Important for this success, the machine gun was MG 08/15 , a variant of the machine gun MG 08 and that di e tanks got stuck in the mud. There was also heavy fighting for the 1st Battalion (Major Paulus) and the III. Battalion (Captain of the Reserve Mühlenpfordt) between Reutel, Zwaanhoek and Becelaere. During these days the two battalions lost ten officers and 538 men. The opponent's Flanders offensive was halted at two crucial points. The breakthrough did not succeed and the land gains were, as is usual on the western front , very small and were won with enormous losses of soldiers and war material. That is why the Flanders Offensive stands today for the brutality and senselessness of war.
Whereabouts
After the armistice of Compiègne , the remnants of the association returned home. From December 24, 1918 in Torgau, the III. Battalion in Eilenburg, the demobilization until the regiment was finally disbanded on March 30, 1919. Some of them were transferred to the “Pavel” volunteer detachment in Werne at the beginning of December 1918 before the demobilization and were deployed in the Eastern Border Guard .
The tradition in the Reichswehr was adopted by the 8th Company of the 12th Infantry Regiment by decree of the Chief of Army Command, General of Infantry Hans von Seeckt , on August 24, 1921 .
Regiment chief
The only head of the regiment was the Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I from June 7, 1912 until the association was dissolved.
Commanders
Rank | Surname | date |
---|---|---|
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel | Ludwig von Januschowski | July 1, 1860 to October 16, 1864 |
Colonel | Bruno Neidhardt from Gneisenau | December 25, 1864 to March 21, 1868 |
Colonel | Karl von Helldorff | March 22, 1868 to August 16, 1870 |
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel | Adalbert Löwenberger von Schönholz | 23 August to 28 March 1871 (entrusted with the tour) |
Colonel | Adalbert Löwenberger von Schönholz | March 29, 1871 to May 10, 1872 |
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel | Karl von Wienskowski | May 23, 1872 to March 11, 1878 |
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel | Maximilian von Eberstein | March 12, 1878 to October 16, 1883 |
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel | Moritz von Kunowski | October 17 to December 5, 1883 (in charge of the tour) |
Colonel | Moritz von Kunowski | December 6, 1883 to June 9, 1888 |
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel | Friedrich Gericke | July 18, 1888 to November 18, 1889 |
Colonel | Egbert von Frankenberg and Proschlitz | November 19, 1889 to January 26, 1890 |
Lieutenant colonel | Richard Goebel | January 27 to March 23, 1890 (in charge of the tour) |
Colonel | Richard Goebel | March 24, 1890 to May 19, 1893 |
Colonel | Max Giesche | May 20, 1893 to June 15, 1894 |
Lieutenant colonel | Heinrich von Bünau | June 16 to September 11, 1894 (in charge of the tour) |
Colonel | Heinrich von Bünau | September 12, 1894 to March 18, 1896 |
Colonel | Ludwig Moeller | March 19, 1896 to September 9, 1897 |
Colonel | Curt von Grawert | September 11, 1897 to March 21, 1900 |
Colonel | Ferdinand of Ledebur | March 22 to July 8, 1900 |
Colonel | Friedrich Bode | July 22, 1900 to April 23, 1904 |
Colonel | Ernst Heinrich von der Becke | April 24, 1904 to April 24, 1908 |
Colonel | Bruno Albert Lölhöffel from Löwensprung | April 25, 1908 to May 29, 1911 |
Colonel | Gustav von Arnim | May 30, 1911 to September 30, 1913 |
Colonel | Fritz von Zehmen | October 1, 1913 to November 24, 1914 |
Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel | Hermann von Doetinchem de Rande | November 25, 1914 to March 29, 1917 |
major | Ernst Gruson | March 30, 1917 to January 9, 1919 |
literature
- Paul von Seebach: History of the 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72. 1860-1910. Uhlandsche Buchdruckerei, Stuttgart 1910.
- Paul von Seebach: List of officers of the Royal Prussian 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72. 1860–1910. Uhlandsche Buchdruckerei, Stuttgart 1910.
- Fritz von Zehmen: Le Cateau, a day of honor for the Inf. Regiment 72nd contributions to the history of the regiment, association of officers of the former Königl. 4. Thuringia. Infantry Regiment No. 72 (eV), Torgau 1921.
- Ernst Gruson: The 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72 in the Battle of Flanders. October 1917. Contributions to the history of the regiment, Association of Officers of the former Royal. 4. Thuringia. Infantry Regiment No. 72 (eV), Torgau 1922.
- Jürgen Kraus : Handbook of the associations and troops of the German army 1914-1918. Part VI: Infantry. Volume 1: Infantry Regiments. Verlag Militaria, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902526-14-4 , pp. 131-132.
- Fabricius: History of the 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72 in the years 1869 to 1878 , 1879.
- Friedrich von Mülmann: A short history of the 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72 . Schultze, Torgau 1896.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Günter Wegmann (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Formation history and staffing of the German armed forces 1815-1990. Part 1: Occupation of the German armies 1815–1939. Volume 2: The staffing of the active infantry regiments as well as the hunter and machine gun battalions, military district commands and training managers from the foundation or list until 1939. Biblio Verlag. Osnabrück 1992. ISBN 3-7648-1782-8 . P. 192f.