kar 88

[Khaki]

Manufact; C J haenel

Suhl

1890

Unit markings, 17. 1. D.10 on muzzle cap, plus similar one on barrel band lined out 17.D.1. ?? I think this was a mistake and was lined out

[Khaki]

I am not a big fan of carbines, I have about four, three German and one British. just sort of 'came my way' impulsive by nature I guess. However this one I find interesting, I don't know why, but for some reason I associate it with German East Africa.

khaki

[trajan]

Interesting marking that... The 17. 1. D.10 doesn't look to be anything at all that it should be! But the other one is regular, and 17.D.1. should be 17th Dragoons, 1 Eskadron. I guess somebody bu**ered the one marking up, and it should have been 17.D.1.10. So, the 1. Großherzoglich Mecklenburgisches Dragoner-Regiment Nr.17, at: http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/DR_17

I am pretty certain that the Schutztruppen did use these but at the back of my mind is the nagging thought that the ones they had were provided with regular bolt levers, not the turned down type as here, although that is the proper (i.e., manufactured) form. I'll try and track down more on this tomorrow - can't do it now as it will take a while and there are guests in the house...

[Khaki]

Thanks Julian,

Very interesting material.

khaki

[bierast]

Wow! I would love to own one of these, as my GGF (the gefreiter kneeling with blanket roll here) was seemingly armed with one when he left for the front in autumn 1914. The standard personal weapon in the Feldartillerie was a handgun, so when rifles / carbines began to be issued during the war it was inevitable that these would be obsolete (or possibly captured) patterns. The Kar 88 carbines would have been 'hand-me-downs' from other arms of service - cavalry, Train or (most probably) Fussartillerie.

[Khaki]

That's a nice family related military photograph to have, worth in sentimental terms, more than the carbine, Can you tell us more about him? Thanks for posting.

khaki

[bierast]

My plans for this year include writing a proper article about my great-grandfather Arno Bierast for our website (www.royalsaxonarmy.co.uk). He was born in Zwickau in 1889 and worked pre-war in a variety of clerical roles - most interestingly for C. Woermann of Hamburg in the German colony of Kamerun (Cameroon) from March 1912 to February 1914, where he ultimately ran a trading post in the interior. He was working in Helsinki when the July Crisis broke out, and hurriedly handed in his notice before hurrying back to Saxony (evading the threat of Russian internment in the process). He signed up as a Kriegsfreiwilliger with Kgl. Sächs. 4. Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 48 in Dresden on 24th August rather than waiting for his call-up as an Ersatz-Reservist (like around half the able-bodied male population he had not served in peacetime, so would be on the untrained reserve list). As I understand it, volunteering for the artillery was considered the most honourable way to avoid the possibility of being conscripted into the infantry!

As this photo shows, Arno had already been promoted to Gefreiter (lance-corporal) before he left Dresden. It was taken at the railway station in Dresden-Neustadt in autumn 1914 - my mother cleverly identified the time of year from the flowers, which also indicate that this group is about to leave for the front. Four of the men (including the Unteroffizier on the right) are Einjährig-Freiwillige, while some or all of the others are very likely Kriegsfreiwillige like Arno - the civilian well-wishers look decidedly middle-class / professional, a typical background for volunteers (especially the Einjährige, who paid for their own kit - see this article by Colonel Robinson for a detailed explanation, but note that 'one year' naturally became 'for the duration' in wartime).

We have a lot of photos of Arno with FAR 48 / 23. Inf. Div. at the front in the La Ville-aux-Bois-lès-Pontavert sector (in the Aisne valley northwest of Reims) in Spring 1915. He was evidently with the regiment's I. Abteilung (first of two battalions), which was armed with the 7.7cm FK 96 n.A. field gun. The last wartime photo we have of him is from July 1916, by which time he had been promoted to senior NCO rank (either Sergeant or Vizewachtmeister):

He had also acquired a (private purchase?) Demag trench dagger with its distinctive crank handle:

The regiment fought on the Somme (against the French) that autumn, and was transferred to the new 241. Inf. Div. at the end of the year. They spent 1917 on the Eastern Front (northern Belarus and Galicia) and 1918 in the West, finally encountering the British that autumn north of St. Quentin. They saw extremely heavy fighting against British and American tanks (and British cavalry!) in October 1918, and were repeatedly under direct infantry attack as the division's infantry disintegrated. According to Sachsen in Grosser Zeit (the Saxon quasi-official history), FAR 48 took heavier losses than any other Saxon field artillery regiment. Nevertheless Arno survived, and was awarded the Iron Cross (not sure which class, we only have the ribbon bars) and Saxon Friedrich August Medaille in bronze. Going by his CV and non-appearance in the published casualty lists, he served with FAR 48 for the duration and was never (significantly) wounded. However like most artillerymen his hearing was permanently damaged.

After the war Arno became a leader of the DHV (Deutschnationale Handlungsgehilfen-Verband), a conservative white-collar trade union, and came into conflict successively with communist and later Nazi entryists. He was eventually 'kicked upstairs' to Berlin early in 1934 when the Nazis tightened their grip over the unions (the DHV was forced to replace several awkward regional leaders with people more agreeable to the NSDAP as a price for its continued existence), and soon became unemployed rather than accept a position with the DAF (the Nazi state trade union which forcibly absorbed all others). During WW2 he was involved with the civilian conservative opposition in conjunction with Max Habermann (a former national leader of the DHV). According to an affidavit signed by Jakob Kaiser (the founder of the CDU, the current German centre-right political party) Arno was to have served in Dr. Goerdeler's provisional administration after the planned military coup, with responsibility for liquidating the DAF in Saxony. He was not at home on 20th July 1944 or for several days afterwards, and was lucky to escape the massive Nazi purge which followed the failure of the bomb plot. He probably owed his life to Max Habermann, who committed suicide in Gestapo custody to avoid being tortured into betraying his friends.

Arno worked for Allianz (the insurance company) after WW2, and died peacefully in 1957. His daughter Margot married a Tommy and moved to England in 1947, eventually resulting in me.

[Khaki]

Very interesting reading and photograph Andi, I would suggest that if you have a ribbon bar of your G/G.father that he would have been the holder of the Iron Cross 2nd class as the first class was worn without a ribbon, the EK2 is consistent with his rank.

good luck with your article plans

khaki

[trajan]

Wow! I would love to own one of these, as my GGF (the gefreiter kneeling with blanket roll here) was seemingly armed with one when he left for the front in autumn 1914. The standard personal weapon in the Feldartillerie was a handgun, so when rifles / carbines began to be issued during the war it was inevitable that these would be obsolete (or possibly captured) patterns. The Kar 88 carbines would have been 'hand-me-downs' from other arms of service - cavalry, Train or (most probably) Fussartillerie.

FAR48_Arno_Ausmarsch.jpg

Great photograph that one! And a fascinating back-story in your other post - I never realised before that Arno was a first name in Germany also: I had always assumed it was Dutch... Another lovely thing about the photograph is its clarity - the piping on the epaulettes of the Einjährig-Freiwillige in particular