Features

This is the central repository of articles by our authors, including supplementary material for our books. It includes pieces written elsewhere online (which may now require Facebook login) as well as exclusives for this website.

My six-part series on my Saxon Great-Grandfather's war is complete and available here as downloadable PDFs.

My series on Saxon Landsturm infantry battalions is complete and indexed here.

The remainder of my weekly WW1 Saxon articles for Colonel Joe Robinson's WW1 German history group are complete and indexed here.

Roland Garros in German captivity

This is the third in my blog series for Colonel Joe Robinson's Facebook group WW1 German History. He is continuing to archive them on his website here.

This time I'm drawing on the writings of the highest-ranking diarist to be featured in Fighting the Kaiser's War, namely Generalmajor Richard Kaden of 116. Infanterie-Brigade.

Upon the prudent advice of my lovely wife Diana I'm changing the format a little, so we will now BEGIN with the diary excerpt. Keener readers can then keep reading for additional detail on the events described and full biographical notes on the diarist! :)

This is the second in my blog series for Colonel Joe Robinson's Facebook group WW1 German History. He is also archiving them on his website here.

Herein we introduce the most prominent of our featured diarists from For King and Kaiser, Major (later Oberstleutnant) Alfred von Heygendorff, revered commander of RIR 245.

The book draws extensively on von Heygendorff's diary entries from both the First and Second Battles of Ypres. In this article we look at the critical situation in which he found himself upon taking command of the regiment at the height of the fighting in October 1914.

Oberleutnant der Reserve Alfred (or Alexander) Pache

This is the first in a series of weekly blog posts for Colonel Joe Robinson's Facebook group WW1 German History to promote our upcoming book For King and Kaiser. I will be archiving them all on here as and when I find the time to catch up.

The new book includes new personal accounts, from one of which I have taken today's extract. Herein we introduce our featured diarist, Oberleutnant der Reserve Alfred (or Alexander) Pache of IR 182. Freed from the pressure of space, I've expanded the biographical information to enlarge on Pache's later career and added some newly discovered biographical details. I am indebted to my wife Diana Zachau for discovering the shocking circumstances of his death!

My choice of subject was inspired by the crowdfunded excavations at Hill 80 in Wytschaete, which lay inside the regimental sector described in today's extract. The same archaeological team has recently unearthed evidence of the Kortestollen, a huge accommodation gallery constructed by the Prussians who took over Wytschaete from the Saxons in 1916.

Since the publication of Fighting the Kaiser's War we have inevitably discovered some errors. We were also frequently obliged to write more concisely than we would have liked due to pressure of space.

NB: This list of addenda and corrigenda applies primarily to the original 2015 hardback edition. Nearly all of the corrections and some of the additional information has been incorporated into the 2022 paperback edition (so far as the available space permitted). The list here will be updated irregularly as and when we feel the need to correct or expand on points in the book.

This is a snapshot of the final peacetime dispositions of the Kgl. Sächs. Armee which I drew up for Fighting the Kaiser's War.