With the Centenary of the First World War approaching, I feel it's a good time to revive this blog and update the target list for my "plan" to acquire items from as many Imperial German Artillery regiments as feasible. As of January 2014, I've collected at least one item from 117 different Artillery Regiments and from 44 other artillery batteries/battalions/munitions columns; as well as dozens of photos of artillery pieces and soldiers from unknown units. I've added Austrian, Bulgarian, Turkish, French, British and Commonwealth, American, Italian, Belgian, Russian, and Serbian units and artillery pieces to the mix. Most of these items are post cards and I've posted many of them on GMIC.

The Imperial German Artillery consisted of two primary types: Field (or Light) Artillery (Feld-Artillerie) and Foot (or Heavy) Artillery (Fuss-Artillerie). Artillery regiments could be further identified as either Prussian or Bavarian; since Bavaria's Army remained nominally independent after German unification in 1871. Artillery regiments from Württemberg, Saxony, Baden, and the other German States became elements of the Prussian Army, but still maintained their unique State identity. Prussian and Bavarian artillery consisted of both active and reserve regiments; there were also Gebirgs-Artillerie (mountain artillery), Landwehr and Landsturm artillery units, as well as munitions columns for artillery ammunition transport. Specialized units also were associated with the artillery, such as Artillerie-Messtruppe (survey units) and Feld-Flieger Abteilungen Artillerie (aviation units for artillery observation). In addition to Fuss-Artillerie regiments, there were separate batteries and battalions of heavy artillery. The German Navy also fielded Marine Artillery units (Matrosen-Artillerie) and manned coastal defense guns.

Considering the extent of the Imperial German Artillery, I've still a very long way to go to assemble a very representative collection. I also still have the idea in the back of my mind to create a website to combine the items I've collected with some of the history of the regiments and gunners represented by these items. Maybe this will be the year to actually pull the trigger and set up the website. In the meantime, I hope to revive this blog and even write a few articles for the GMIC article section.