Unknown German Markings

[cooper]

About a year ago I attended an arms fair. I looked around and saw an unusual item available for sale.

The item was a relic pistol, when I inquired further the vendor informed me that he got it from a farmer whose farm was at Lesbeoufs.

I bought the pistol and took it home. further research was done to indentify what it was. The pistol turned out to be a Reichs Kommision Revolver M1889.

I checked out the obsolete calibre list and found it was legal to hold such a weapon.

The chamber was missing and the centre axis pin was pulled out. Could this have been a captured weapon, captured during the heat of battle Sept 25th 1916, the axis pin pulled and the pistol thrown one way, the chamber the other, to render it useless?

I was informed that these items were usually regimentally marked. I cleaned the areas carefully and found some markings as listed below:

The 1st set is in fact crossed out but reads: 78 - A - 2 - 33 (field artillery regiment?)

The 2nd set is clearer, it reads: 6 - G.A. - 2 - 20

There are one or two other markings, but cannot maked them out clearly.

Does the second set read 6th Guards Artillery 2nd Battery, 20th weapon issued?

I have not found any details of this regiment at all. I have also looked at the orders of battle for the Somme and cannot find the regiment mentioned.

Can anyone shed anymore light on the subject?

[Stuart Brown]

Hello Cooper,

You could have a look at at http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/utah/894...94/guardstr.htm which relates to Enlisted Man's Shoulder straps of the Guard Artillery Regiments 1915/18. The site is run by an American named Chip Minx you will find his email address there. He will no doubt be only too pleased to help you with your query. He helped me a great deal over identifying some German Shoulder Straps.

[AOK4]

Hello,

The 6. Garde-Feldartillerie-Regiment belonged to the 4. Garde-Infanterie-Division. This division was engaged on the Somme (July-August Estres sector and August-September Thiepval sector).

However, never take the markings very serious because the German equipment gor pretty mixed up due to shortages (soldiers using everything they could find). I've got an example of a belt marked with a Saxon regiment, that was never at the place the belt was found. Besides the buckle was a Bavarian one, so at some time a Bavarian soldier must have found this belt and used for himself (because his was lost, too small or too big...) or perhaps it was issued to him officially? The Germans recycled everything and didn't always put new markings on it...

Regards,

Jan

[cooper]

Thanks for the details. They certainly do shed more light on the matter.

I appreciate it,

Thanks,

James