Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Two Brothers Went To War


 My Grandmother, Gertrude Ohnmacht had two half brothers that were involved in World War I. They fought for the Kaiser in the Prussian Royal Army. Both of the brothers were single and living at home in Neuhaeusel where their parents Jean Grossholtz and Katharine Phillips lived.  Aloyse was born on August 16 or 19, 1892 and his brother George’s was born March 22, 1895 both births took place in Neuhaeusel where they were Baptized at St. Luc’s.
Aloyse was a civil engineer student before the war. During the war he was sapper of the second company in the first Royal Prussian Engineering Battalion established in Hanover (number 10). “He died on January 4th according to the register or on January 5th according to the same monument, of the year 1915. According to the death certificate, he died in Berry-au-Bac, a small village which is today in Aisne (Picardy) which was at the heart of the fighting during the First World War. Indeed, the Front, from the Somme to Switzerland, crossed the small town. It is also in the area that we began digging the first trenches. On the 5th of January, 1915, at Berry-au-Bac, the seventh German army with the twelfth army corps fought the fifth and sixth infantry divisions of the French army in stationary battles in trachea. The time of death could not be determined. He was twenty-two years old at the time of his death.” http://www.memorialgenweb.org/memorial3/html/fr/complementter.php?id=1658388

A Sapper, also called pioneer or combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties such as breaching, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, field defenses as well as building, road and airfield construction and repair. They are also trained to serve as infantry personnel in defensive and offensive operations. A sapper's duties are devoted to tasks involving facilitating movement, defence and survival of allied forces and impeding those of enemies. To the right is a photograph of a Sapper soldier with the Prussian Army.

At that time in the history of the German Army, males were required to serve in the army for three years. Up until 1919 there was no German Army other then the Royal Prussian Army. 

Georges Grossholtz was Aloyse’s younger brother. Before the war he lived in Neuhaeusel and worked as an assistant to a farmer. He was a rifleman in the Prussian Royal Regiment of Rifle Guards. This regiment based in Berlin was composed of soldiers from all over the Empire. E died on July 6, 1916 during the battle of Somme five days after the start from fighting between the French and English against the Germans. The battle left a death toll off 500,000 people. According to a letter received from his captain Georges died in a small town known as Ovillers-La-Boisselle.
This is a memorial found in the center of Neuhaeusel dedicated to the memory of the men who perished during WWI and WWII from the town.

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