Teofil Tobias Reiss - In the Line of Fire: A Soldiers Diary WWI 1914-1918

Teofil Tobias Reiss

In the Line of Fire

A Soldier's Diary WWI

1914-1918

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In the Line of Fire

Introduction

A soldiers diary WWI 1914-1918

During the war of 1914-1918, my father wrote this diary on By Teofil Tobias Reiss

loose pages. He copied them to a diary (as presented here) during the 1920s.

Translated from German by George Reiss, Melbourne, Australia One can see, in the way he expressed himself, that he was an Edited by Kammy Wood

Austrian patriot, but he never forgot his Jewish tradition, even in the trenches.

2016 Tuvia Erez

As there is no one in our family who can read the original tuviaerez@bezeqint.net

letters, my son Toby (named after my father) arranged to have the diary translated from German, so that our next generation will know what kind of person their great grandfather was.

Jitzchak Kurt Eres (Reiss).

Do not duplicate, copy, photograph, record, store in a database, transmit or merge via any electronic, optic, mechanical or other means - any part of the material from this book. Any type of commercial use of the material included in this book is absolutely forbidden without an explicit written permission.

Produced by

The diary of my late father was translated and printed at the Notssa www,notssa.com

request of our nephew Toby, and at his request, Ive also added the following. He thinks that it is important for the next generation:

Toby is the son of my brother, Kurt Reiss (Jitzchak Eres) and his wife Olga, and he is named after my father. Did Toby wish to have this diary printed in book form has a connection to his namesake? He has many of my fathers good qualities, which endears him to us all.

The parts in the book which do not belong to the diary were written according to my memories and understanding, and Preface

they were then translated into Hebrew and English..

In appreciation of this initiative.

Teofil Tobias Reiss was born on 1.6.1889 in Lemberg (Lwow), Hedi Rosner (Reiss)

Galizia, which in those days was part of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. He was born one of 16 children of Hanna and Meir Reiss. At my time, in between the two world wars, ten of them were still alive. The eldest lived in Germany, one of the sisters lived in Poland, and the rest lived in Vienna.

My father came to Vienna as a young man on his own. He managed to finish some courses at the trade school until he had to join the army. He served in the army a total of nine years until the end of the First World War.

Now, to his diary:

With Gods help

for the fatherland and emperor.

This diary was written 1st January 1915

by Officer Teofil Reiss

on the front, Sieniechow

artillery field battery 11

Division Commander Major Wielandfer Battery Commandant Heidrich

Officer Rosche

Officer Bulla

Officer Kruschka

Officer Weber

Friday, 1 January 1915 - SIENIECHOW

The artillery position is situated by a hill, next to the road leading to Gronog. Above us is infantry division 80.

I am staying on a farm, close to the position. There, I established the first aid clinic. Dr. Bauer, the doctor of the regiment, lives next to it. He does not dare to go out on to the road. He is a coward. All he wants is to eat all day and does not care about the sick. The officers also live close by, so we are all together.

It is a trench war. It is very cold and there is not enough food.

The provision officer supplied us with rum and food and we celebrated the new year. We were gay and happy the whole night. At midnight a soldier arrived with wine and meat. Most likely it was stolen from somewhere. He said he had lost his way and naturally he stayed and got drunk with us.

Tobia with Mother Hanna - 1914

Saturday, 2 January 1915 - SIENIECHOW

At about 4 AM, our position was attacked. I did not get enough sleep. It is very cold. It was a small skirmish but we were very busy the Russians just went crazy. Soldier Sperber was hit in his right foot. I bandaged him and sent him away for further treatment. At about 10 AM, as the doctor gave an injection to soldier Jurash, a grenade exploded near us. We were very lucky one meter closer and we would be dead.

Nearly recovered from this confusion, a soldier then arrived with the order that officer Bauer was wounded, and he needed my help immediately. As usual, medic Wiatr hid himself, the doctor had a panic attack and I decided do go by myself to the next trench in spite of the hellish artillery and canon fire.

In the trench was Corporal Gorgel, who helped the officer. The scene on the front line was terrible. Blood, pieces of flesh, heads, arms and legs and intestines all around an awful sight.

I bandaged Officer Bauer and then sent him to a field hospital.

In addition to Officer Bauer, those injured less seriously were Majors Villander, Heidrich, and two telephonists who were in the same trench. The Russians found out where our observation post was and kept the artillery fire going until 3 PM. I was very busy. Besides our unit, I attended to battalion 4 and many infantry soldiers. In all, 50 wounded, 2 dead.

The doctor is not here, and the medic is nowhere to be found.

I am surprised that major Willander accepts this situation.

Everything depends on me the battle, the kitchen, the supplies to the officers, the wounded and the sick of the whole division. I cannot do everything on my own. I have to ask for help. There are big battles at Tarnow. The Germans have been successful at Argonnes (France) and our army has been successful at Gorlice (Poland).

Sunday, 3 January 1915 - SIENICHOW

The Russians detected our position and fired at us the whole day. Officer Rosche was wounded. He managed to escape and was sent to the hospital.

Too bad for Officer Rosche He is a good and kind person. As officer, he looked after his soldiers in a just way.

Reinforcements arrived. (Tiroler Landesschtzen [infantry]

4.) They are loyal and brave and one can take them as an example. I talked with soldiers Jocher and Seehman. Jocher is from Schwaben (German). He is a kind and intelligent person.

Seehman is my friend. The regiment doctor fakes sickness.

Most likely he wants to be sent to the hinterlands.

Monday, 4 January 1915 - SIENIECHOW

In the house where my clinic is situated lives a farmer with his two daughters. One is slow. The other is 17 years old, a pretty girl, but very dirty. She is very helpful to me, and in return I give her my food ration and anything else I can spare, to help these people to forget their misery a little. The war has impoverished these people.