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De aanval op Damloup

In Mars 1916 Grenadier Regiment 3 (G.R. 3) came to the vicinity of Verdun. Being for a long timeon the Eastern front the 1st Division to which the regiment belonged, had no experience on warfareon the Western front. To prepare the regiment for the front at Verdun they practiced a lot with forexample gas and throwing handgranates.

A cart of the First Battalion.

In the beginning of June being on the front at Verdun for some time the regiment faced a neworder. On the first of June (Ascension Day) the regiment now in the lines of the 50th Division gotthe following order that:during the night the First Division, that was on the right of the 50th Division, penetrated to thenorthern slope of Fumin wood and that further to the right the Tenth Reserve Corps penetrated asfar as the railroad in the Vaux valley and the Caillete wood. The 50th Division has the order toattack fort Vaux with the 100th Infantry Brigade. If the brigade succeeds, the regiment shouldprepare itself to attack and take the village of Damloup and if possible the Damloup ridge.

The regiment decided that the first Battalion would take the guidance of this attack supported bythe 12th Company of the same regiment and the fourth Company of the 105th Saxon regiment(I.R. 105).When it started to get dark that evening the battalion went to the trenches. In the early morning of2 June at for 4 am the 100th Brigade attacked fort Vaux. At 6.45 am the message came that thebrigade succeeded in taking the fort and that in the fort fighting was still going on. At 7.30 am theregiment passed on this message to the first Battalion with the message to attack Damloup at08.30 am. The attack was carried out by the 2nd, 3 rd and 4th Company (G.R. 3) and the 4thCompany (I.R. 105). The other two Companies stayed in the second line. The attack came to theFrench as a total surprise. Their machineguns started firing when the first wave of the attack wasalready in Damloup. The attack was supported by seven machineguns that prevented the Frenchfrom leaving the cellars of the houses of the former houses of Damloup. The attack was carried outin three waves.

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The attack on Damloup. The red line is the jump-off trenche and the blue line is the newfrontline after the attack.

The attack came for the French so surprisingly that the attackers went through the village andcould attack the ridge of Damloup. They were prevented from the attack on the ridge because of

own heavy friendly fire. In the village the cellars were cleared in which the French in some casesresisted heavily. The attack was a great success. The battalion started to prepare the village for its

defence immediately.

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Soldiers of the First Battalion with their French prisoners. Note the German on the rightwith the cap. He is wearing a primitive kind of gasmask tin. The German soldier on the

left wears a peaked helmet with the point removed. The model of 1915 made it possibleto screw the point of. The picture is taken by the medical company of the 50th Division.

The battalion took in total 18 officers and 502 men prisoner of which the most belonged to the

142nd Infantry regiment. The losses that day were 13 deaths and 67 wounded.