Karl Euler

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Karl Euler
Major Karl Euler, Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment.jpg
Birth name Karl Ludwig Euler
Birth date 20 July 1867
Place of birth Würzburg, Kingdom of Bavaria
Death date ⚔ 12 August 1914 (aged 47)
Place of death Near Badonviller, Lorraine
Allegiance  German Empire
Service/branch Fahne der Bayerischen Armee.png Royal Bavarian Army
Iron Cross of the Luftstreitkräfte.png Imperial German Army
Years of service 1885–1914
Rank Major
Battles/wars World War I
Awards Iron Cross
Bavarian Military Merit Order
Relations ∞ Adelheid Grotjan

Karl Ludwig Euler (1867–1914) was a German officer of the Bavarian Army and the Imperial German Army, finally Major in World War I. He was originally buried just outside Badonviller. Around 1924, his and a number of other German fallen from dissolved small cemeteries around the region (among them Amenoncourt, Badonwiller, Baccarat, Blamont, Bionville and Leintrey) were reinterred in a mass grave (Kameradengrab) in the German part of the War Cemetery in Reillon in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.

Military career

Battle of Badonviller on 12 August 1914, among the many fallen was Major Karl Euler; The Badenweiler-Marsch was composed in honour of the Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment.

Karl Euler attended the Bavarian Cadet Corps (Fahnenkadett) and then joined the Royal Bavarian Infantry Guard Regiment (Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment) on 22 July 1885 He was commissioned in 1887 and was trained as a company officer in the 10th Company/3rd Battalion. Later, as 1st Lieutenant, he was named adjutant of the 3rd Battalion. On 26 January 1902, he became commander of the 11th Company. On 23 Febrary 1910, he was named adjutant of the 1. Division. On 7 March 1912, he became commander of the 3rd Battalion/Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment and would lead it to the Western Front in WWI.

Battles in Gerden and Badenweiler

From 10 August 1914, on the orders of the Supreme Army Command of the Imperial German Army, Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, took joint command of the 6th and 7th armies as well as the Higher Cavalry Command 3. One of the first major battles of the Bavarian army took place on the right flank of the 1st Bavarian Army Corps.

The Bavarian Cavalry Division, deployed as army cavalry, advanced on the Western Front in Lorraine at the beginning of August 1914 against the well-entrenched French border guards. The Bavarian Uhlan Brigade, consisting of the 1st Uhlan Regiment “Kaiser Wilhelm II, King of Prussia” and the 2nd Uhlan Regiment “König” as part of the Bavarian Cavalry Division, had to march between 6 and 10 August all over Lorraine without discovering a gap in the French lines. The horses were badly worn out due to the rock-hard roads. The French became active on 10 August 1914 and were able to take the German village of Gerden (Lagarde in Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen), which was close to the border in the German part of Lorraine. To counter this, the commander of the Bavarian Cavalry Division, Lieutenant General Otto von Stetten, and the leader of the 42nd Infantry Division, Lieutenant General Hasso von Bredow, decided to conduct a violent reconnaissance to liberate Gerden on 11 August 1914.

The attack was a great success: eleven guns, several machine guns, a standard eagle and 1,400 prisoners from the Marailler Brigade of the XV. French army corps were captured by the Germans. A two-day-old army order was found on a fallen French brigadier general, from which the French battle plan in Lorraine emerged. The Bavarian Uhlan Brigade lost 16 officers (among them Rittmeister Eduard von Kiliani), 219 men and 304 horses in dead and wounded that day. The Battle of Gerden showed that cavalry could still be used successfully with naked arms in a modern battle if the conditions were favorable. Nevertheless, it was a turning point. On the Western Front it was the last successful cavalry attack in a larger unit.

Now the Bavarians decided to counterattack, Blâmont and Cirey were conquered. On 12 August 1914, the village of Badonviller (Badenweiler) was inhabited by a strong French corps (Chasseurs à pied). Four Bavarian regiments were ordered to attack, but the French left the village early in the morning to attack themselves and met the Bavarian vanguard, the 2nd Battalion/Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment. The 1st Battalion and Major Euler's 3rd Battalion joined the comprehensive attack on the left flank. The 3rd Battalion got caught in a hidden ambush with French machine guns. Major Euler was ⚔,[1] with him 1st Lieutenant Franz Anton Kajetan Joseph Graf von Armansperg (1887-1914) and 1st Lieutenant of the Reserves Leo Freiherr von Mauchenheim genannt Bechtolsheim (1882-1914)[2] as well as many NCOs and enlisted men. 2nd Lieutenant Ernst Graf von Moy was severely wounded

In the forenoon of this day, the regiment, at first 2nd Battalion, entered Badonviller and conquered it after bloody house-to-house fighting and continued on to Fenneviller camping near Neuviller in the evening. 800 French soldiers were taken prisoner by the Germans; the captured equipment included cartridge and file carts as well as two war chests. Other known fallen officers were 2nd Lieutenant of the Reserves Heinrich Spegg, 2nd Lieutenant of the Reserves August Aull and Captain Friedrich Wilhelm Kajetan Joseph Freiherr von Feury auf Hilling (1877-1914), who tragically lost his brother the day before: Alfred Josef Xaver Kajetan Friedrich Freiherr von Feury auf Hilling (1874-1914) was a Rittmeister with the 1. Ulanen-Regiment „Kaiser Wilhelm II., König von Preußen“, commander of the 1st Squadron, and was KIA at Gerden (Lagarde) by a shot in the chest.[3]

Family

Karl was the son of Major (ret.) Ludwig Euler (d. 18 December 1886) and his wife Aline, née von Stadler (d. 6 May 1903). He was married to Adelheid, née Grotjan, with whom he had one daughter.

Promotions

  • 22 July 1885 Portepee-Fähnrich (Officer Cadet)[4]
  • 7 March 1887 Second-Lieutenant (2nd Lieutenant)
  • 24 March 1895 Premier-Lieutenant (1st Lieutenant)
  • 26 January 1902 Hauptmann (Captain) without Patent
    • Patent Nr. 10 received on 9 March 1902[5]
  • 20 September 1910 Major with Patent from 28 October 1909 (27 a)

Awards and decorations

References

  1. ↑ Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leibregiment (1. Weltkrieg)
  2. ↑ Bernd F. Schulte: Neue Dokumente zu Kriegsausbruch und Kriegsverlauf 1914, p. 148
  3. ↑ Verlustliste Kgl. Bayer. 1. Ulanen-Regiment „Kaiser Wilhelm II., König von Preußen“
  4. ↑ Verordnungs-Blatt des Königlich Bayerischen Kriegsministeriums, 1895, p. 273
  5. ↑ Verordnungs-Blatt des Königlich Bayerischen Kriegsministeriums, 1902, Beilage 2, p. 57
  6. ↑ Militär-Handbuch des Königreiches Bayern, 1895, p. 49
  7. ↑ Verordnungs-Blatt des Königlich Bayerischen Kriegsministeriums, 1909, p. 254
  8. ↑ Militär-Handbuch des Königreiches Bayern, 1914, p. 34
  9. ↑ Verordnungs-Blatt des Königlich Bayerischen Kriegsministeriums, 1914, p. 16
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