I a 575 secret) on 3 July, forbidding voluntary withdrawals, after Falkenhayn sacked the Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army, Paul Grünert and Günther von Pannewitz the XVII Corps commander, after Grünert had allowed Pannewitz to withdraw to the third position south of the Somme to shorten the corps front; Grünert was replaced by Colonel Fritz von Loßberg. First-class German reinforcements reaching the Somme front were thrown into the battle piecemeal, which caused them higher casualties. German attacks were poorly organised, insufficient time was allowed for reconnaissance and the infantry was inadequately supported by the artillery, which sometimes fired on German troops. German counter-attacks were even less well-organised than their British equivalents and most failed. Prelude German preparations The Germans defending the (second position), which had few deep dugouts, suffered many casualties on 7 July. British artillery was directed by artillery-observation aircraft and a battalion of Reserve Infantry Regiment 122 (RIR 122) suffered British artillery-fire cut communications and the XIV Reserve Corps ( Hermann von Stein) lost touch with the front line, not knowing if it still existed from Contalmaison to Pozières. A counter-attack by RIR 122 and Infantry Regiment 183 (IR 183) was postponed and lack of information led to the attack being cancelled next day. The commander of the 185th Division, which contained a motley of units from four divisions, was put in charge of the line from the south of Mametz Wood to Ovillers, to fill the gap from Contalmaison to Pozières by dawn on 9 July. I Battalion, RIR 122 relieved I Battalion, Regiment, which had suffered in Contalmaison from the constant British artillery-fire, its troops having had to lie in mud, among the sick, wounded and dead. The battalions in the area received about each as reinforcements and RIR 77 arrived from the 2nd Guard Reserve Division. The IV Corps (General Friedrich Sixt von Armin) with the 7th Division (Major-General Friedrich von Bernhardi) and 8th Division (Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg) was en route for the Somme. From 6 to 13 July, artillery batteries, three artillery flights, two reconnaissance flights and a bombing flight of (Imperial German Air Service) arrived and Below asked for more machine-gun units, on which the defence was being based. On 12 July, Falkenhayn ordered the 5th Army at Verdun to assume a "strict defensive", ordered artillery to the Somme and urged Below to hold on to the area of