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    Alamein

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    1. Earlier in this topic I asked for help with a Postkarte sent by a soldier named Nikolaus Schwinn. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to purchase two more sent by the same guy! Once again, if anyone can help me with what they say, it would be much appreciated. Here's one of them. I've been studying this script for the last couple of months, so let me test how well I am learning -- on the left side of the back does it say das paket ist gut angekommen vielen dank? -- Tim Here is the other one. Thanks again.
    2. I was recently doing some research of Fussartillerie Regiment 5 in the Verlustlisten, and there were a couple of abbreviations I needed clarification on. In the attached image I know that "Battr." must stand for Batterie. I guess that the "Batl." at the bottom stands for Bataillon, but then what would "Batls." be? I notice that in both cases where "Batls." is used it is preceded by "d." which I guess might be der, so maybe it is a simple case of German grammar rules that I am not aware of? This is probably a silly, simple question, but if someone could clear up my ignorance I would appreciate it. -- Tim
    3. Yes, Andy, I did know about the casualty lists. Of course, my guy shows up after they stopped separating them by their units and just did them all alphabetically. Haha, Chip. That brought a smile to my face. I think I had noticed one of those shoulder straps for sale on the Collector's Guild site a long time ago and had been waiting to find better evidence before buying it. Now I have that evidence, but someone else bought it a while back. Do you own the full set of Foot Artillery shoulder straps? If you ever end up with extras of those two regiments I'd of course be willing to buy one off of you! -- Tim
    4. Thank you for your replies, Andy and Chip. I didn't even know about those two books, Andy. I ordered a copy of Mein Kriegstagebuch and received it a few days ago. I wish I'd known about it sooner; it looks like a very useful book, especially since it was published before the Second World War. I had obtained scans of the German Foot Artillery Index reports by British Intelligence in May 1916 and December 1916, and the soldier of the Foot Artillery I'm researching I believe was wounded at Verdun on or around October 24, 1916. Specifically I think he was in Battery 3 of Foot Artillery Regiment 5 at the time. British Intelligence last identified that battery at the Verdun sector on July 26, 1916, so I was very excited to see that Mein Kriegstagebuch lists Battery 3 Regiment 5 as present for the actions on October 24. It was worth the cost of the book just for that information alone! The reason I asked about the first two Ypres battles -- a grandson of the soldier (who had met him while he was still alive in the 1960s) is convinced that the soldier mentioned fighting around Ypres at one point. I've found him in the casualty list and know that he was wounded and out of the war before the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, so if the man's memory is correct he would have had to been in the Ypres sector for the 1914 or 1915 battles. Thankfully, Mein Kriegstagebuch says that Foot Artillery Regiment 15 was present for First Ypres. I know that from mobilization that regiment was attached to II Corps, and that corps was shifted from another part of the line to help with the last desperate push at First Ypres, but I'd never seen any reference to Foot Artillery 15 being shifted along with II Corps until this book (obviously that was my hunch all along, but it's nice to see support for that hunch). At the time of the war the soldier lived basically halfway in-between the headquarters of Foot Artillery Regiment 5 and 15. That's why I've been focusing my research on those two units. Unfortunately Mein Kriegstagebuch seems to have incomplete information about Second Ypres, but fortunately the book does show Regiment 5 at Combres (near Verdun) during that time, and 15 seems to be on the Eastern Front during this time. I asked a couple of other grandchildren of this soldier and none of them can remember the Eastern Front ever being mentioned, just France and Belgium. So I'm leaning towards believing that the soldier mobilized with Foot Artillery Regiment 15 up until the end of Ypres 1914 then transferred to Regiment 5 before Regiment 15 was moved to the Eastern Front. Like I said, such a useful book. Thanks again for mentioning it, Andy! And Chip, yes it seems that the big hinderance for researching the Foot Artillery is the lack of translation to English of a lot of this great material. -- Tim
    5. Much appreciated. I'm planning a trip to France/Belgium in 2017, and had Metz and Verdun on my list of places to visit, so I think I will have to make a visit to Nikolaus' grave as well to pay my respects, since it is in that area.
    6. I know the movement of particular Foot Artillery batteries is very difficult to research, but I was curious if there were any resources out there that could identify heavy batteries that took part in major battles? I'm trying to find out if elements of Foot Artillery Regiment 5 or Regiment 15 were present for either First Ypres in 1914 or Second Ypres in 1915 -- is that even possible? I did find this Order of Battle for Second Ypres -- http://www.greatwar.co.uk/battles/second-ypres-1915/prelude/german-battle-order-second-ypres.htm -- but it just tantalizes me because it shows how many of each type of heavy howitzer or gun were there but doesn't give details about which batteries are represented. Researching Foot Artillery units (well, Prussian ones at least) certainly is frustrating! Tim
    7. Aha, I just did a search of the Bavarian Personnel Rosters, and I found a soldier in 5 IR 12 K who was born in Wachenheim on December 4, same as the soldier in the Verlustlisten. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this does seem to confirm that I've found the identity of the soldier who sent that postkarte, and his personnel record seems to say that he was killed in action at Thiaucourt on January 29, 1918. I can't read the rest of it, so if Bernhard (or anyone else) can let me know if there are any other interesting details about his service here, I would once again be indebted to you. Tim
    8. Thank you so much, Bernhard. If this is the same Nikolaus Schwinn who was killed later in the war, then that note definitely makes this a poignant card to have in my collection.
    9. Hello, I'm getting better at making out words in the Fraktur typeface, but I still have quite a hard time deciphering German handwriting. All I can really make out on this postkarte is that it was sent by a soldier in 4 Bavarian Infantry Division, 5 Bavarian Infantry Regiment, 12 Company. I think his name is Nik Schwinn. I did find a Nikolaus Schwinn in the Verlustlisten who was killed in action in 1918 -- http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/7318581 -- possibly the same guy, but I have no idea how common that name would have been. If anyone could help me figure out what Nik says in his note and to whom it is addressed I would appreciate it very much. Thanks, Tim
    10. Thanks for the info, Chris. That's interesting. I didn't know about the 1925 cut off date. Or divisional shortages of medals for that matter. That definitely makes the sequence of events for my guy easier to wrap my head around. I'm also trying to figure out what unit he might have served with and what battle he was wounded at, going only by the vague details his son remembered many years after his death and a photo from 1914, and I'm kind of leaning toward the foot artillery, which I'm sure you know is extremely tricky to put into any sort of logical order. I wonder if the massive restructuring of the foot artillery throughout the war could have also added to the administrative headache of getting a medal to the right guy (if it was in fact one of those units he served with)? And thanks for the sharing the document, padro. It's nice to see visual evidence of the long gap it took for some men to receive their award. I definitely need to look more into the history of the EK.
    11. Hello, everyone. I'm obviously new to this forum. I'm not an EK collector specifically (although I do have one), I'm more a collector of German (Prussian) and Canadian WWI militaria in general, driven mainly by my research interests. A topic I've been researching has been very difficult to find info about through google, I find. A colleague of mine told me that collectors are often the best source for knowledge, so I'll give this place a shot to see if anyone here can help fill in some gaps for me. I'm researching a soldier who served with Germany in WWI and moved to Canada in 1923. The story as it has been passed down through his family, is that he was supposed to have been awarded a 1914 EK2 but he had left the country before it could be awarded to him. Jump forward to 1938 when the Nazi government invites recipients to apply for awards they had not received. He does, and eventually the medal is due to arrive in Canada a week before WWII breaks out. The Canadian government promptly confiscates the medal. Anyway, this is how the family describes the sequence of events. I did find his name in the Verlustlisten, his listing published on June 21, 1917. Unless I'm mistaken, by this point in the war the majority of men who were wounded did receive an EK2, so I believe the family story that he was "supposed" to get one holds some weight. My questions are these: Does this sound like a plausible story? Were 1914 EK2's still being distributed that long after WWI? I found a book called "German Iron Cross Documents of World War I" by William Hamelman that makes brief mention of late awards being sent out almost up to the beginning of World War II, which seems to support the story, but I haven't found reference to this anywhere else yet. Has anyone here heard anything about these late awards? If this sort of thing really did happen, then it leads to my next question -- was there any discernible difference between 1914 EK's distributed in the Kaiser era vs. those in the Nazi era? Unique markings or construction methods, or were they just using old medals still on hand? Is there any sort of official documentation about these late recipients that survived WWII? If anybody has any info at all about this topic to share, or even names of books that might help, I'll be super grateful.
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