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German Corporal posing for a photograph in his uniform and equipment, February 1915.

 German Corporal posing for a photograph in his uniform and equipment, February 1915.


The following is excerpts of 22-year-old Danish-German soldier Hemming Skov's account of his participation in the Battle of Tannenberg on August 30, 1914, today 109 years ago. 

The day prior, he had been billeted in the town or Ortelsburg - Szczytno. Translated by myself:

"The following morning, after we had entered the streets, the bullets began hissing; the Russians lay right outside of town, and in the space of a few minutes, the German rifles began thundering outwards from all the upper windows of the houses. 

But soon, the Russian artillery began bombarding the town, thereby making August 30 an unforgettable day.

The shells initially came one by one, but eventually it turned into an incessant whistling and hissing. 

During this shelling, which lasted from morning till afternoon, and during which Ortelsburg was left in ruins, I was in the town at all times. 

And in the midst of this terrible horror, I was ordered to run through town with ammunition to supply the foremost infantry with cartridges.

In full swing I hurried through the streets, where the one house after the other turned to smithereens. 

Fire and smoke and dust were my surroundings, trees and rocks were hurled up in the air, glowing shell fragments whistled past my ears, and the heavy booms from the explosions fesgened everything. I somehow made it to the outskirts of town without unscathed, where my ammunition was picked up.

At noon, our heavy guns began spewing their fat 'growls'. Before then, we had been without artillery. 

One round after the other howled above town, and it wasn't long before the Russian artillery was silenced. 

The town was now more calm, but above the entire town the German shells howled incessantly.

Ortelsburg was annihilated that day. But the Russian Army's fate was determined too. 

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