Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 70

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The Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 70 was an artillery regiment of the Prussian Army .

history

The regiment was composed of battle-tested levies from the field artillery regiments 5 , 41 , 56 , 57 on January 3, 1915 in the garrisons of Neisse and Grottkau. It was incorporated into the association of the also newly formed 82nd Reserve Division , which in turn was part of the XXXXI. Reserve Corps was.

First World War

The regiment belongs to the so-called second rate of realignments (RFAR No. 55–70). In contrast to the line regiments, it had not six, but only four guns per battery. But the number of field cannons and light field howitzers in the reserve field artillery brigades set up at that time was the same. In the regular field artillery brigades, in which only one of two field artillery regiments was equipped with a division of light field howitzers, the ratio was 1: 3. The change was due to the fact that field fortifications were very easy to combat with the steep fire of the light field howitzer. Field cannons that fired shrapnel as the main projectile , on the other hand, were very suitable for fighting living targets. Due to their balanced ratio of guns, the regiments of the second installment were therefore very well suited to, on the one hand, supporting the breakthrough through enemy lines and, on the other hand, immediately afterwards switching into pursuit, i.e. war of movement. Four gun batteries were also more maneuverable. All regiments of the second installment of the realignments were deployed mainly on the Eastern Front until the end of 1917. In May 1917 the regiment received a III. Department, which was only used for the regiment from December 1917. In return, the regiment remained after the assignment of the sister regiment, Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 69, and the associated dissolution of the 82nd Reserve Field Artillery Brigade as the only field artillery regiment in the association of the 82nd Reserve Division. The higher-level unit was now Artillery Commander No. 82 .

The regiment was initially used from January 27 to March 26, 1915 in trench warfare west of the Somme. After brief training for other uses (March 27 to April 22, 1915) it was sent to the Eastern Front at the end of April 1915. There it took part in the so-called breakthrough battle of Gorlice-Tarnów from May 2, 1915 . Within the 33 km wide attack front of the 11th Army, the regiment was assigned to the city of Gorlice itself. After his batteries had made it possible to capture them, they followed the infantry shortly after the breakthrough to the heights northeast of the city and from there were able to nip a planned Russian counter-attack in the bud. After the fortresses of Przemysl and Lemberg had been recaptured , the regiment joined the newly formed Bug Army on July 18, 1915 . In their association, it advanced via Hrubieszów , Chełm , Włodawa , Kobryn to Pinsk (today's Belarus ).

From September 1915 it was engaged in trench warfare on the Wesselucha and Stochod until it was finally relocated to the Western Front in December 1917 , where it took part in the defensive battles of 1918.

On January 29, 1919 it was dissolved in Neustadt.

Commanders

Rank Surname date
major Hoffmann-Scholz until January 24, 1915
major Warnecke January 24, 1915 to March 22, 1915
major Schmidt April 5, 1915 to June 19, 1915
Lieutenant colonel Vial June 19, 1915 to July 19, 1916
major Lindenberg August 4, 1916 to January 29, 1919

Armament

The RFAReg. No. 70 consisted of a field cannon and a howitzer division, each with three batteries and four guns.

7.7 cm field cannon 96 n.A.

10.5 cm light field howitzer 98/09

The howitzer batteries were equipped with the so-called 10.5 cm light field howitzer 98/09. This 10.5 cm gun was a further development of the light field howitzer 98. Here, too, the essential change was the equipment with a barrel return system. The 10.5 cm light field howitzer had a tube length of 1625 mm, a marching weight of 2260 kg and a combat weight of 1225 kg. 15.7 to 15.8 kg HE shells and 12.8 kg shrapnel were fired. The maximum firing range for grenades with impact fuses was 6,300 m and for grenades with time fuses 5,300 m. The rate of fire was 4 rounds / min.

7.7 cm field cannon 16

In October 1917, the regiment was equipped with the 7.7 cm field cannon 16.

literature

  • Scheel: The Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 70. Memoirs of German Regiments Volume 86, Oldenburg iO / Berlin 1923 ( online ).
  • Balk: Formal tactics of cavalry and field artillery. Berlin 1903.
  • Oskar Tile von Kalm: Gorlice. Berlin 1930.
  • Wolfgang Fleischer: German Artillery 1914–1918. Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-613-03545-4 .
  • Ian Hogg: 20th Century Artillery. Gondrom, Bindlach 2001, ISBN 3-8112-1878-6 .
  • Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in the World War 1914–1918. Berlin 1937.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Scheel 1923, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Cron, p. 145 f.
  3. ↑ Balk, p. 181
  4. ↑ Cron, p. 138
  5. ↑ Scheel 1923, page 15 f.
  6. ↑ Scheel 1923, p. 16 ff.
  7. ↑ Kalm, p. 84 f.
  8. ↑ Scheel 1923, p. 262.
  9. ^ Cron, p. 145.
  10. ↑ Butcher p. 20.
  11. ↑ Scheel 1923, p. 141