German Army 1914

[Guest Gavin Wiens]

Hello,

For the past few months I have been attempting to piece together an order of battle for all the formations of the German Army as of mobilization. My objective is to have a complete order of battle down to battalion level and as of now I have the majority of the major formations. However, I have had trouble with the distribution of the pioneer, medical and other service units. Also I have had difficulty with alot of the brigade commanders and the organization of most of the reserve divisions. If anyone has any information on this topic and wishes to lend a hand I would appreciate it greatly. Thankyou.

Gavin Wiens

[Robert Dunlop]

Have you seen the detailed OOB of the German Field Army, 17 August 1914, listed in Appendix I of Conn's book 'Imperial German Army 1914-18: Organisation, structure, orders-of-battle' (ISBN 1 874622 70 1)?

[Guest Gavin Wiens]

Hello,

I have not come across that work during my research and thankyou for pointing it out. How detailed is the order of battle in that book? Thanks.

Gavin Wiens

[AOK4]

Hello,

It gives everyting (also support units), it is one of the most complete OOB there is for 1914.

Regards,

Jan

[Guest Gavin Wiens]

Thankyou very much Robert and Jan.

Gavin Wiens

[Desmond7]

Ralph Whitbread on forum - recommended - good for German army stuff.

Cheers Ralph

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

Thanks Des, but it is Whitehead.

Ralph

[duckman]

Hi Gavin,

German Army 1914? You and me both.

Although not as comprehensive as the book referred to earlier - I've already spotted my copy, just can't afford it yet - I found these websites illuminating:

Das Deutsche Reich und der 1. Weltkrieg 1914-18

A Pocket German Army

Die Schlacht bei Tannenberg

Zeltbahn.net - Only starting out, but it looks like it will be good as it grows.

And especially ('cos it's so pretty) The Great European and World War

It's not complete, but it is free (more or less)

cheers

Duckman

[Guest Gavin Wiens]

Thanks Duckman,

I agree, the zeltbahn website does look like it will be a very good resource with time. Are you looking for info on the same topic?

Gavin Wiens

[Alastair Fraser]

Dear Gavin

I am paricularly interested in the German Army in the Beaumont Hamel area 1914-1918. A book I have used for many years is "Ruhmeshalle unserer alten Armee" which was published by Verlag fur Militargeschichte und deutsches Schriftum, Berlin in about 1935. It was edited amongst others by Hermann Cron, mentioned in other posts. I found a copy in a second hand bookshop in Paderborn in about 1986 but I am not sure if the BL or IWM hold a copy of it. You could try Bookfinder or some such but I think a copy of the original is likely to set you back quite a bit. It has detailed order of battle information for the entire German army by division at formation and Feb or March 1918 so changes can be seen quite clearly. Support units are also covered. If you have specific formations you need to know about I would be happy to check in my copy. You may know of "Histories of two hundred and fifty-one divisions of the German Army which participated in the war 1914-1918" which was an American Army compilation of OB information from their own, British and French sources at the end of the war. I think it is useful but should be treated with caution. It certainly supplements "Ruhmeshalle" and where I have checked seems accurate but as the OBs in that are taken from German official sources they are more reliable. 251 Divisions is available in facsimile from Naval and Military Press.

Hope this is of some help

Regards

Alastair Fraser

[Guest Gavin Wiens]

Hello Alastair,

Thankyou for the info, I would have tried to pick myself up a copy of either of those two works but I am however at a disadvantage. I am a university student in Canada and the information on these topics, rare as it is in the UK, is even more scarce here. There are very few, if any, books regarding the German Army in the Great War in bookstores in Canada. Therefore I am forced to rely mostly on the internet and the few works I own when doing research. Thankyou for the information though, I will be sure to pick up a copy of either work if I come across it.

Gavin Wiens

[David Gregory]

Hello Chaps,

The OOBs at Zeltbahn.net are my doing and are very much a long-term project. Thanks for the kind remarks.

The reason for putting this stuff online is to make it easier for me to work out which units were at a given place at any given time. It is also designed to provide a context for the German documents I collect. The site also features summaries of some of the document groups I have. In the long term, I will attempt to provide a separate page for every soldier represented or, being more realistic, a page covering a given formation or event/battle and the individuals who were members of the unit or involved in the events in any way. An example for a member of a Luftwaffe Felddivision can be found at http://www.zeltbahn.net/wehrpass/lwfd5_brauer.htm (yes I know it is from the wrong period, but it is an example of how I would like to present information).

While I do not intend to compile a complete OOB for the German army for the 1914-1918 period, I hope to provide at least a skeleton OOB or two and calendar of engagements for most major formations.

It is also not my intention to re-invent the wheel, so if anyone has already taken the trouble to transcribe calendars of engagements and battles, and would like to help, I would be most grateful for any contribution (anything to save typing endless pages from Ruhmeshalle, et al). I would also appreciate any pointers to errors in "Histories of 251 divisions ...". I have only recently acquired this book and I only want to use the information in it if it correlates to information in German sources.

It never ceases to amaze me what information is available on the Internet and how many other people are "into" the same thing as me. I only regret not having discovered this forum earlier.

Regards from Germany,

David