The Note-Book of an Attaché: Seven Months in the War ZoneWood, Eric Fisher
History
The Note-Book of an Attaché: Seven Months in the War Zone
Wood, Eric Fisher
World War, 1914-1918 -- France -- Paris; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
This evening I looked over the casualty lists posted on the walls of
an official building. These lists are published on numerous very large
sheets of white paper. Each sheet has three columns in fine print. The
names are grouped by regiments and companies, so that all the
casualties of one company appear together; each name is given in full,
is prefixed by the rank, and followed by the nature of the casualty,
which is one of five things: Gefallen (fallen, killed); schwer
verwundet (badly wounded); verwundet (wounded); leicht verwundet
(lightly wounded); vermisst (missing). A casualty list is published
every day, comprising from forty to fifty of the above-mentioned
sheets, each sheet containing nearly three hundred names.
The last seven sheets were as follows:
No. 90 published Dec. 1--40 sheets
91 " " 2--50 "
92 " " 3--52 "
93 " " 4--44 "
94 " " 5--52 "
95 " " 6--48 "
96 " " 8--48 "
This gives a rate of more than 12,000 casualties a day. The lists are
complete up to October 30th. Only the last ten lists are kept posted
and thus tonight there were numbers 87-96. The sheets of these ten
lists were posted in a double row on the outside wall of the building
along the sidewalk. They extended the length of a block and then
around the corner another block. As the columns of one regiment
finished, those of the next commenced. I copied the record of a
battalion chosen at random.
Eighty-second Bavarian Casualty List
11th Infantry Regiment of Regensburg
Third Battalion
(Here followed a list of places and dates of actions in which the
Regiment had taken part):
Faxe, August 20th; Manhouè, August 23d; Maize and Drouville,
August 25th; Tourbeffeaus, Sept. 7th to 9th; Spada, Sept.
24th; St. Mihiel, Sept. 28th and Oct. 7th to 24th; Ailly,
Oct. 1st and 2d; Han-sur-Meuse (date illegible).
(Then followed a detailed list of casualties suffered by the four
companies of the battalion):
Company 9 had a list of 148 casualties, of which 18 were
killed, 35 missing, 42 wounded, and badly wounded, and 43
slightly wounded;
Company 10 followed with a list of 146 names, of which 19
were killed, 51 missing, 66 wounded and badly wounded, and 46
slightly wounded;
The Eleventh Company with a list of 188 names.
The Twelfth Company with a list of 143 names;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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