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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

German Uniform Photos


4thGordons

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A postcard sent by a member of the 2nd Company of Landwehr Infanterie Regt Nr 68, and shows a very comfortable looking dug-out, complete with book cases and bunk beds with carved bed plates.

Lots of military hardware on display too -stacked ammo pouches, gummimaskes in cloth carriers and a few thousand quids worth of pickelhaubes on the top shelf:

dugout.jpg

dugoutcloseup.jpg

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This and the following images are the only scans I have left from these photos -apologies for the watermarking and variable quality.  A really nice shot of a young infantryman in Reserve Infantry Regiment Nr 262, a war-raised unit, giving a really clear look at the "R" over "262" on the helmet cover:

r262.jpg

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Or how about this shot of two soldiers wearing ersatz pickelhauben, in this case what appears to be the pressed steel version painted grey/green:

ersatzhaube.jpg

ersatzhaube1.jpg

ersatzhaube2.jpg

Reserve Jager Battalion Nr 7:

jagerpic.jpg

jagerclose.jpg

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Bavarian cavalry wearing their distinctive tunic:

 

bavcav.jpg

bavcavclose.jpg

Edited by P.B.
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Not all German soldiers wore the pickelhaube of course, like these guys from a Saxon Jager regiment:

saxons.jpg

saxonsclose.jpg

Artilleryman wearing a covered ball-topped kugelhelme and some interesting personal equipment:

arty.jpg

artyclose.jpg

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A young soldier wearing a M1915 haube with the spike removed, together with the helmet portion of the two-piece cover, also note the crescent shaped openings in the cover that allow the chinstrap to be worn outside it:

soldier1.jpg

soldier1close.jpg

Bavarian dragoon in distinctive tunic and spiked helmet:

bavdrag.jpg

bavdragclose.jpg

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.Russia 1918, an NCO modelling a minty looking M1916 helmet....

helmpic.jpg

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I have it on good authority that this photo appears in one of the WWI Schiffer helmets books. I used to own the original, and it shows these soldiers from Reserve Infantry Regiment Nr 240  wearing early square-dip helmets:

squaredip.jpg

squaredipclose.jpg

Edited by P.B.
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Typical later-war studies with steel helmets and gas masks in evidence.  The second photo subsequently appeared in the 1917 volume of Michael Baldwin's excellent Feldzug series:

helm3.jpg

helm4.jpg

This photo was taken in 1918, but still shows the pickelhaube and cover being worn by this young recruit into Wurttemberg Grenadier Regiment Nr 123. In close up the cover looks like the one piece variety where the spike and shell cover anre actually part of the same material, rather than the spike being connected by small strips in the more conventional way. The photo does appear to have been touched up by the photographer a little, especially around the "3" on the cover.

wurtt.jpg

wurttclose.jpg

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A photo of a trench raiding party from 2 Company of Bavarian Infantry Regiment 6 posing with a captured French armoured loophole, removed by Gefreiter Beck and Infanterists Merthens and Hofmeister during a raid on the night of September 11/12 1915. Clearly the entrenching tool is being displayed as one of the tools of the trench raider's trade:

raidphoto.jpg

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5 hours ago, Grausig13 said:

 

This one s marked to the Bavarian III Armee Korps clothing supply--Bekleidungsdepot III

Yes. The number indicates the items.

Here is a list (in german) which items are numbered (probably not complete!)

78 B.D.III - 1915 Pickelhaube
102 B.D.III - 1917 Tornister
143 B.D.III - 1917 Tornister Schulterriemen
147 B.D.III - 1916 Pickelhaube
149 B.D.III - 1915 Pistoletasche M-08
149 B.D.III - 1915 Patronentasche M-09
154 B.D.III - 1915 Patronentasche M-09
200 B.D.III - 1917 Tarnband
201 B.D.III - 1917 Tarnband
201 B.D.III - 1915 Halsbinde
249 B.D.III - 1916 Mantel M-16
262 B.D.III - 1916 Brotbeutel
265 B.D.III - 1916 Tarnband
275 B.D.III - 1915 Unterhosen, Trikot (11.J.R.)
292/37 B.D.III - 1916 Bluse
301 B.D.III - 1918 Brotbeutel
331 B.D.III - 1916 Tornister
349 B.D.III - 1917 Mantel M-16

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6 hours ago, P.B. said:

Some scans from my (sadly) long-gone photo collection... the fernglas 08 binocular case on the belt

 

 

That is sad to hear about  dispersed collection...

 

The Fernglassfutteral is interesting to see! Never realised until checking just now that there was no official  issue model!

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6 hours ago, P.B. said:

Two soldiers wearing the M1915 bluse, both decorated with the EKII.  One wears the MGSS qualification badge for MG-marksmen, and the other the special belt buckle designed for Telegraph troops:

 

Seen the MGSS badge before but never seen a photograph of one of telegraph buckles before!

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6 hours ago, P.B. said:

A postcard sent by a member of the 2nd Company of Landwehr Infanterie Regt Nr 68, and shows a very comfortable looking dug-out, complete with book cases and bunk beds with carved bed plates.

dugout.jpg

 

 

Can you read any of the names?

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6 hours ago, P.B. said:

A photo of a trench raiding party from 2 Company of Bavarian Infantry Regiment 6 posing with a captured French armoured loophole, removed by Gefreiter Beck and Infanterists Merthens and Hofmeister during a raid on the night of September 11/12 1915. Clearly the entrenching tool is being displayed as one of the tools of the trench raider's trade:

raidphoto.jpg

 

That is a nice one! And a musician in feldgrau as well! Plus the highly distinctive big Bavarian state cockades...

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6 hours ago, P.B. said:

I have it on good authority that this photo appears in one of the WWI Schiffer helmets books. I used to own the original, and it shows these soldiers from Reserve Infantry Regiment Nr 240  wearing early square-dip helmets:

squaredip.jpg

 

Handy looking trench dagger and short bayonet - must have been a boy scout!

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Hi Julian

 

I do regret selling off my photo collection -I had around 200 postcards, mainly chosen for their uniform detail and acquired individually.  I sold off my WWI militaria collection en masse in 2006 and it seemed natural to sell the photos as well.  I started collecting again in 2010 and whilst I've replaced most of my militaria collection with upgraded examples of what I once had, I haven't begun to re-collect photos.....ironically, the militaria (no matter how hard to acquire) is obtainable in the form of another example, but the photos were genuinely unique.

 

The only image I have of the Landwehr dug-out is in the form of that scan, which is too indistinct to make out the names on the wooden bed-plates.  There really is some great detail when you study these old images closely -the Bavarian musician also has a signaller's qualification badge on his arm (one from my collection posted below, together with an original MGSS arm badge I have, this one by a Coblenz maker) and the square-dip wearing soldiers also have gummimasken in cloth carrying bags as well as the nice assortment of edged weapons you noticed.

 

All the best

 

Paul

signals.jpg

mgss.jpg

mgssrear.jpg

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Andy,

 

Bavarian  Army Corps III was the only unit to use this kind of method. In the number for the Bekleidungsdepot you have a list of different items. Each item has a separate number. I can confirm the two pickle numbers, but do you think this is a function of the company? In other words is the number of the company number of the Bekleidungsdepot?

 

On a separate note, may I copy your listing and place it on my listing of marks online?

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Hello Joe!

Unfortunately i don´t know anything about those numbers. This list is made by Chip a few years ago. I think you can use it. It´s not a secret...;)

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7 hours ago, The Prussian said:

Hello Joe!

Unfortunately i don´t know anything about those numbers. This list is made by Chip a few years ago. I think you can use it. It´s not a secret...;)

 

The list has grown quite a bit, with Chip at the forefront of documenting, but mostly a consensus by various people sharing their findings in some other forums. I have added 3-4 new number finds on gear I own. It seems to be an Hersteller code. You find a few related items with similar code on them--bayonet frog, belt, ammo pouch with #149. Caps and Pickelhauben with 147, usw.

 

 

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On 9/28/2016 at 11:56, trajan said:

 

 So, first up, this one, and nothing at all on the reverse...And very few give-aways, except that those Ersatz bayonets have single piece crossguards and so belong to the EB 09-14 group, and they have fullers and different pommels, which suggests the one at the rear with its hooked pommel is probably an EB 09, (edit - see PS) the one at the front with a straight pommel looks to be an EB 11/12. Happy to be corrected though! Either way, the Ersatz bayonets show that the photograph cannot be before Autumn 1914... (Yes, really helpful. I know!)

scan0002.jpg

 

 

The one chap has boots, the other sandals(!), and they have their pipes in front of their crossed bayonets. The man on the right seems to be a NCO - well, he has what looks like a button on his collar, but I would not swear to it. 

 

Possibly wearing the M.1908 Dienstmutze? Looks to be they are wearing the M.1910 Waffenrock? - with Swedish cuffs! The cockades beneath the national (Reich) one are indistinct, but the 'white' outer ring limits these (I think!) to Bavaria  (but they are too small); Saxony (but Swedish cuffs?), Schaumburg-Lippe, or Sonderhausen... But whatever, it looks to be a filled-in centre, so Landsturm? Again, I will be very happy to be corrected on any of these points!

 

One possible extra clue are the epaulettes of the man on the right... I wouldn't press it but there might just be an '11' or an 'M' there?

 

Julian

 

PS: Maybe not a hooked pommel in that one? 

 

I know this post is old, but I maybe missed a reply covering my opinion. 

If my eyes see Bavarian lion buttons, which I am uncertain, then the Vereinfachte Waffenrock with Bavarian style simplified cuff is easily identified. Sort of like the Technical Waffenrock cuff, without  the button adornment. 


Fritz.

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On 6/6/2017 at 02:04, 4thGordons said:

ahhh who needs sleep when there are new pics to examine.....

Nothing on the back of any of these.

German-6-17-9w.jpg.636b6c3c49426dcdddf88c4e9192db4a.jpg

 

 

He sorts an unofficial KUK Kragenabzeichen/Kappenabzeichen, this from my collection :

1.jpg

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11 hours ago, trajan said:

 

Can you read any of the names?

 

I would really need a much higher res scan--this only comes at 55 pixels wide.  FANTASTIC image. Will have to post my few bunks pictures soon. Waiting on a couple more....

Fritz.

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Hello!

Here is another one with 21.Korps. He also wears: b.10.Inf.Div., Böhm-Ermolli, Erzherzog Carl

b. Feldart.Rgt. 19 oder 20  Verbandsabzeichen, 21.Korps, b.10.Inf.Div., Böhm-Ermolli, Erzherzog Carl) .JPG

b. Feldart.Rgt. 19 oder 20  Verbandsabzeichen, 21.Korps, b.10.Inf.Div., Böhm-Ermolli, Erzherzog Carl) .JPG

Edited by The Prussian
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