Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

2 German Officers Photo Albums


StAubyns

Recommended Posts

Thanks for some very interesting observations Bob & healdav. Perhaps you could do a full translation of Page 6 photo 2?

Geoff

Translation;

HeiWei (funny nickname) and ol' Tuent (even more funny nickname from Cologne area) in Mousson

page 9/1: Rollin' home

page 9/5: soldiers from backside

Link to comment
Share on other sites

egbert, thanks for the translation. It is easier to look at the photographs and be able to understand the comments that go with the respective photograph.

Geoff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great pics, even more so in that they are private and not officially posed for.

Some of the subjects remind me of a version of ''Mademoiselle from Armentieres'':

Three German officers crossed the Rhine

Parelz-vous

Three German officers crossed the Rhine

Parlez-vous

Three German officers crossed the Rhine

.......... (edited for reasons of propiety) ... and drinking wine

Inky-pinky parlez vous!

Looking forward to more pics.

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pic 2/1: "Oberfoerster mit Meute" is an ironic expression of good nature addressing this officer (Cmdr Regiment maybe). "Head-/or Chief Forester with pack"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of other quick thoughts.

Many of the officers are rather old for their ranks. It is probably a reserve unit, no?

Note officers drinking and horsing about with enlisted men.

Bob Lembke

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pleased youve made sense of that for us egbert, in my newly aquired German Dictionery, meute is translated as pack or mutiny, neither of which made sense. To a non german speaker, mabye the photo caption could have read "Officer with Dogs"

bob, we agree about thinking it was a reserve unit, we thought maybe a supply unit of some kind.

Geoff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Geoff,

the pictures are either from German Fieldartillery-Regiment No 22 or from Germ. FAR No 58 (divisional artillery of german 13th Infantry Division). During the war the div.art. was devided and only G. FAR 58 stayed at the 13th Inf.Div. until the war was over.

Here's some regimental stuff that might help you by identification of Names

Malte

1.

Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 22

post-7367-1132834409.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Geoff;

I'm sure that your head is spinning. I am not sure what source Malte's first scans were from, the ones with the typescript appearance; the last scans/pages are from an important source called Ehrenrangliste 1914-1918. I will describe what that book and pages contain and do not contain so that you can use it to possibly identify your unit with certainty.

The Ehrenrangliste was published in 1926 by the German Officers' Association. Prewar, including mid-1914, a similar book was published annually. It therefore covers only regular officers, who were a fairly small fraction of all German officers in the Great War. (There was a German Reserve Officers' Association, but to my knowledge they never attempted such a work.) I believe that the German Army 1914-18 had 235,000 officers of one sort or another; this book is, if memory serves, 1315 pages. If it covered all officers it might be 10,000 pages long. (Anyone know how many regular officers in the army? I guess I could count the listings in the index, which is only about 250 pages long.)

(As I describe this book I may make errors; please anyone knowing of one please speak up so I know better and others are not misled.)

On the unit pages that Malte posted you have the listing for a given "regular" or "active" regiment, and the various officers' slots in the regiment's organization. A great problem is that only officers' last names are given, unless there were two Schmidt's in the regiment, where they would be distinguished, by e.g. (Max) and (Freidrich) in a light type. This last name only stuff is a major pain in the butt in this work.

The rank on the left side is the rank that the officer had in mid-1914, taken from Rangliste 1914. I only know a decent amount (and have several volumes) about the set that covered the Prussian and Wuerttemberg Armies; I believe that the Bavarian and Saxon Armies had more or less similar books. I believe the 1914-1918 book covered all four German Armies. There also is info on what position the officer held in the regiment in mid-1914, for example, a "2" meant that he was the CO or a platoon commander in 2. Kompagnie.

If there is a pair of crossed swords and a date the officer is dead and the date of death is given. If it was in the war, the place of death is given.

The rank on the right of the line is the officer's status in 1926; for example, a rank of OL (Oberleutnant) on the left, a 1914 rank, could be M a. D. (Major aus Dienst), or "Major out of service" (i.e., retired) on the right.

If I have misstated anything please speak up.

There is more info, but that is the basic stuff.

Now, the officers' names on the photos are quite likely mostly reserve or Landwehr officers, and would not be in the book. You would be lucky to get one or two hits. Due to the last name only problem one hit on a common name would mean nothing, a very unusual name, or 2-3 hits, probably would identify the unit.

Malte: How did you narrow down the unit to a couple?

Note: you have identified one or more NCOs as officers. As this is not a Guards unit; generally the men with collar stuff, usually a broad on its side "L"-shaped piping on the point of the collar, is a NCO.

Hope that this info helps, both in the narrow problem, and as general info.

Bob Lembke

(Your Hunnish Pal)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

bob lembke said:
Malte: How did you narrow down the unit to a couple?

Very easy, Bob.

Geoff has posted pics of the album.

There is one pic of a bath-facility and the caption gives 13th Infantry Division. Other captions to pictures say "Batterie-Offiziere" and so it's no problem getting to the same conclusion. The unit is from the divisional artillery of 13th Infantry Division with 2 options: FAR 22 or FAR 58.

Another caption says: Beob. Stelle in La Bassée. I am going to scan a german report now and post it soon. This report will help to be sure. It is from "Ehrenbuch der Westfalen". Be aware of some good surprises.

Malte

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice detective work Malte!

Geoff if you could post close ups of the plate, i.e. the one attached to the vat, we could translate them too; they are mostly humoristic

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Geoff;

Malte's detective work as to regiments seems air-tight, so you can use looser standards for matching the men to a unit. You are chosing between two artillery regiments, not 300-400. A match or two should be OK.

I would think that most if not all officers who joined the regiment during the war were reserve officers, and would not be found in the book. However, they might be found in pre-war Ranglisten, either as active duty officers with the regiment during their about two (three?) years of active service with the regiment, additionally, they would then be listed for about five years as reserve officers of the regiment, even if they had moved to the other side of Germany.

Finally, a book called Dienstalterslisten could provide more info. I have copies from 1910 and 1912. However, it has no index, and it is ordered by date of rank, not regiment, so finding someone in there can take a lot of time.

I could suggest a division of labor; since you have the pics you could winnow out a list of officers, and I could poke thru some of these sources.

Incidentally, this sort of work, especially if successful, should considerably increase the value of the album. I bought two of these about three years ago and never did a minute's work with them, unfortunately.

Bob Lembke

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Geoff-I'm sure your head is spinning"

never a truer word was spoken!!

I'm certainly pleased to have you people helping out with this. I have already started to do a list of officers and maybe also place names will help. We had already decided on the Le Bassee area but this is on both lists.Other place names to crop up later include Schloss Gondecourt, Ostende, Violaines.

egbert, the close up of the swimming bath sign is here

68799.jpg

with much appreciation

Geoff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bob,

instead of suspections here some facts, which could be able to convince or - probably - not.

Here you are:

far22a9jw.th.jpg

far22b0te.th.jpg

General von Francois was the Corps Commander of German VII. Army Corps, the 13th Inf.Div. belonged to the Corps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...