bob lembke

Robin; I thank you for asking, but I do not really study the insignea stuff, medals, etc. much, and don't have a lot of photos or bits and pieces. I toil in other vineyards, like the actual history of engagements, men, etc. I like the little stuff, and treasure my father's, but I am not over the top about it. There has been a lot of interest in the authenticity of Totenkopf. I have a lot of my father's stuff, but he had one of his badges, but at some time, my mother, a dear soul but mentally ill a lot of the time (bi-polar syndrome, to be politically correct) took his Totenkopf and threw it away, as it frightened her. But I still have a chunk of his left arm bone chipped off by a French shell splinter at Verdun, which I would not trade for the Totenkopf on a bet. I have a great story about Pop and his Totenkopf when he briefly fell into the hands of the French in the French lines during a flame attack at Verdun, but I am going to wait until I publish it, before posting it in nothing-space. With his piece we would have a good gold standard for comparison. But I agree that there seems to have been a great deal of variation. I don't have many of his pictures from the flame unit, but they show a lot of variation in markings worn, etc. 95 years later we seem to think that these guys spent all of their time preparing for parades and inspections. I have interacted a bit with re-enactors (Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr) ), and they are totally over the top with authenticity over and beyond that of the real guys. Bob

Just poked thru a file of the OHL (Highest Army Command) Daily Communiques for this period of time, but there was no mention of an engagement in this area. Bob

Sergeant 08; Perhaps we can cooperate and figure out more about the excellent photo posted in post # 180. I have organized information on the great majority of flame attacks in the war, but I do not have anything on an attack on September 9, 1918. (I might add that the records and other sources get less reliable in the last months of the war.) Ronvaux is in the Region of Lorraine, Department of the Meuse, seemingly about 25 km ESE of the town of Verdun. However, my material indicates that a GRPR flame pioneer of the 9th Company died in Kriegs=Lazarett 32 Origny on the same day. There are several Origny's in France, for example one in Normandy, one north of Reims very close to the Belgian border, but the one that seems closest to the front at that time was Onigny-Sante-Benoite. However, that one was quite a distance from Ronvaux, so the death in the Kriegs=Lazarett was almost certainly not connected to the attack commemorated in the photo. Tom identified the fellow in the photo kneeling to our right as also being on another picture of his, and identified the men in that group as being in the flamethrower platoon of Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 14 at that time. (Tom, do you mean a flamethrower platoon integral to S=B Nr. 14, like the flamethrower platoon permamently retained by Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr), or do you mean a flame platoon of Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment on loan to that storm battalion at that time?) This can suggest that the men in the photo in post # 190 are from S=B Nr. 14, or that twice identified man was in a different flame formation at the time of the first picture, September 9, 1918, or just after. If we have a date or approximate date for the second photo we will have a leg up. I can try to find out what was happening at Ronvaux at that time from other sources, but again the material is weaker and thinner that late in the war. Bob Lembke

As I think Chris suggested, "St.B.XIV" may have very well been Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 14. As you know, formally, the numerals used for units were as follows; Kompagnie = Arabic, Bataillon = Roman, Regiment = Arabic, Brigade = Roman, Division = Arabic, Armeekorps = Roman, usw. So the Roman numeral is consistant with a battalion, and what other sort of battalion would it have been? Also don't think that "St.B.XIV" would be consistant with a brigade or army corps. Only a few Sturm Bataillone had their own Flammenwerfer detachments, aside from those temporarily borrowed from G=R=P=R (Flammenwerfer) , and I think (without digging) that the S=B Nr. 14 was not one of them, so I don't think that the Totenkopf on this cap has a valid FW wartime connection. Instantly after the war some Freikorps men and equipment started to display death heads, so there must have been some association of elite units and the Totenkopf, at least late in the war, although I don't have concrete info there, only the many Freikorps photos with Totenkoepfe displayed on equipment (helmets, tanks, usw.). Bob Lembke

I have at least one Militaer=Pass from a soldier who seemed to be in medical difficulties and then ended up at a engine factory, Maybach, possibly. But he still seemed to be under military discipline, not released from service. Will poke about for it. Bob Lembke

My father fought with this unit several times, detailed to provide additional Flammenwerfer support, and although I know roughly when and where these assignments occurred, I do not know the details of the specific incidents. This effort may enable me to narrow this. In particular, I know details of a raid that he took part in, and was wounded in, and possibly that was a Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr) raid. Hardy's input is valuable; I believe that I found one Rohr engagement where at least one man of one of the support companies (MG, MW, Infanterie=Geschuetz, usw.) was killed, yet no man of the five "infantry" companies was killed. Thus the "initial list" might not identify that engagement. Unfortunately I cannot put my finger on that engagement easily, it was just a passing observation. Bob

Hi, Chris; Great effort! I will be happy to go thru my materials and find other references to Rohr engagements. As I have not, myself yet systematically worked with the death roll of Rohr, most of my reported incidents will be from other sources, including ones where no one was killed. Also, regrettably, if your source is von Schwerin's book, I suspect that that book and the death roll is incomplete and flawed, written as it was years later (almost 20 years!), seemingly from fragmentary materials. (I believe that he was able to borrow Willi Rohr's diary from his widow.) If I might make a suggestion, you might consider coding eath of these entries in your "initial list" with a symbol, such as an "A", and then if others are able to add others they could also be coded, in some fashion. That would be easier and more useful than creating multiple lists from different sources. (Of course, you have probably thought of that already.) That would also draw attention to engagements that have multiple known reports, enhancing the probable reliability of trhe report of that engagement. I have worked in great detail with the death roll of another storm unit, and found that some reported deaths, even at the front, might not be caused by an actual engagement, but some other sort of incident. I may not be able to get to this effort instantly. Do you have a certain project in mind? It certainly is worth while as a free-standing research effort. Bob Lembke

Chris; Your link does not seem to work, unfortunately. A Stosstrupp? Stosstruppe? Sorry to be a pedant. A Trupp should only be about 10 men. Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 14? Stosstruppen? Bob

The daily communique from the OHL never, I think, ever mentioned specific units. The book Schlachten und Gefechte from the Grosse Generalstabes, 1919, would probably give it, but my copy has sunk into my sea of paper and I haven't seen it for about a year. These communiques for the entire war can be found on the internet. Bob

Chris; Con't know if this is a help. Other reports mention "regiments" from Lower Saxony. From the daily OHL communique: Gro?es Hauptquartier, 21. April. Westlicher Kriegsschauplatz: Heeresgruppen Kronprinz Rupprecht und Deutscher Kronprinz: An den Schlachtfronten f?hrten beiderseitige Erkundungen zu heftigen Infanteriegefechten. Bei La Bass?e, Lens und Albert lebhafter Feuerkampf. Auch zwischen Avre und Oise war die Artilleriet?tigkeit vielfach rege. Heeresgruppen Gallwitz und Herzog Albrecht: Zwischen Maas und Mosel griffen nieders?chsische Bataillone Amerikaner in ihren Stellungen bei Seicheprey an. Sie erst?rmten den Ort und stie?en bis zu 2 Kilometer Tiefe in die feindlichen Linien vor. Schw?chere Gegensto?e des Feindes wurden abgewiesen, st?rkere Angriffsversuche durch Niederhalten im Anmarsch und in der Bereitstellung erkannter Truppen vereitelt. In der Nacht wurden unsere Sturmtruppen nach Zerst?rung der feindlichen Anlagen in ihre Ausgangslinien zur?ckgenommen. Die blutigen Verluste der Amerikaner sind au?erordentlich. 183 Amerikaner, darunter 5 Offiziere, wurden gefangen, 25 Maschinengewehre erbeutet. Nordwestlich von Morville (?stlich von Pont ? Mousson) machten wir im Vorfeldkampf mit Franzosen Gefangene. Rittmeister Freiherr v. Richthofen errang an der Spitze der bew?hrten Jagdstaffel 11 seinen 79. und 80., Leutnant Buckler seinen 31. Luftsieg. Osten (Ukraine): Nach ?berwinden feindlichen Widerstandes bei Perekop und Kart Kasak haben sich unsere Truppen den Weg in die Krim ge?ffnet. Mazedonische Front: Rege T?tigkeit des Feindes westlich vom Dojransee und in der Struma-Ebene. Der Erste Generalquartiermeister Ludendorff. I think that the communique had a good reputation for not faking stuff; they imparted their "spin" by selectively mentioning or leaving out events, not lying thru their teeth. Bob Lembke

I will post in little bits until I feel confident of some system stability. Taking the info above, it would seem that a Leutnant d. Reserve in G.=G.=R. Nr. 3 could have been a former active duty Leutnant in this regiment before the war, and was carried on the reserve rolls of the regiment; was a reserve Leutnant of another regiment, and moved over to this regiment when the war began, or went on; or was a Lt. d. Res. freshly minted after the outbreak of the war. I looked in the index of the 1914 p./w. Rangliste, found the 7 Leutnant Wunderlich's, and went to their individual mentions in the text of the book. One was an infantry lieutenant in another, ordinary regiment (I am running on memory here, due to the system crash, but I think I am correct), who would have remained an active duty lieutenant, and probably with the same regiment; one was a lieutenant in the 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Prussian Guard (a regiment that my grand-father, as a Prussian artillery NCO and then explosives NCO (Oberfeuerwerker) served in in the 1880's), so he would not end up in an infantry regiment. Most of the rest were Leutnant der Landwehr, and once there, you could not go back to Leutnant d. Reserve. The most likely candidate was Leutnant der Reserve Wunderlich (page 704) carried on the rolls of 3. Westpreussisches Infanterie=Regiment Nr. 129. on May 6, 1914. He reported to Bezirk III Berlin, which suggests that he lived in Berlin at that time. But his regiment was garrisoned in Graudenz, West Prussia. Let me note that, at this time, only four of the perhaps 60 officers of this regiment were "von"s, a point that will make more sense later. G.=G.=R. Nr. 3 was garrisoned in Charlottenburg, which I think is a suburb or an urban neighborhood of Berlin. It is entirely possible that after the war started Leut. d. res. Wunderlich engineered a transfer to the Guards regiment stationed in his home town, rather than rejoining his old regiment garrisoned some distance away. More on this later. Bob

I wrote out another response posting some findings, and when I tried to post it again the Forum system crashed on me again. Of course I wrote out another fairly long response. I have possibly found our Lt. d. Res. Wunderlich, my candidate was a reserve officer of I=R. Nr. 129, a West Prussian regiment, on May 6, 1914. Luckily I copied my response before I attempted to post it, so I will try it later. Bob

I did some research and wrote a longish reply and the system crashed on me when I tried to post it. DRIVER ERROR when I am confident that this will not happen I will write out my info again. I am sympathetic, I spent a lot of my working life writing and tuning programs. Bob

I am a bit confused by this thread, partially as it is similar to another rather similar thread on another forum. Is "Wunderlich" the name of the Pickelhaube manufacturer, or of the Leutnant der Reserve, or both? I have about 28 Ranglisten that are either Prussian or cover the Prussian Army as well as others. Are we looking for a Leutnant of Garde=Grenadier Regiment Nr. 3 who was of an age so that he could have been a reserve lieutenant in WW I? (I have no Prussian Guard Ranglisten. Unfortunately I once paid a dealer for three of them, but they never arrived. Fortunately a rare occurance.) But of course every Prussian Rangliste did cover the Guard. Joe, do I have this right? Should I paw thru mine and try to find a "Wunderlich" in that unit? Bob Lembke

Generally you can find (pre-war) reserve officers. As Mike Dwyer stated, in a pre-war Rangliste there will be a section listing the reserve officers still associated with their regiments, and in a later section who by now already have been transferred to a Landwehr Bezirk. Flying on memory, I think that the first section will list the reserve officers by seniority, although it does not give the precise seniority by "date of rank", so you can sort of "reverse engineer" your search to find the (generally) two-year period of active duty for that officer in an earlier Rangliste, say, the 1908 Rangliste. (Thruout this discussion I am assuming that we are talking about the preuss./wuerttem. Ranglisten, which covered most of the German officer corps.) The Rangliste covering his period of active duty will have more info on him, such as his seniority date of rank, the curious little seniority code that went with the DOR from about 1900 on, decorations, etc. But if a guy was made a reserve officer after August 1914, without having been on active duty in a line regiment before the war, good luck in finding him anywhere. The Ehrenrangliste 1914-1918, published in 1926, covers all the four armies, but does not include reserve officers. Once you have the exact DOR, you can now also find the officer in the Dienstalterslisten without reading thru 20 pages of lieutenants. I am flapping my gums here without referring to a couple of shelves of Ranglisten and Dienstalterslisten six feet away over my shoulder. I have had a bunch of them for a few years and only slowly am learning how to use them efficiently. If anyone had a more detailed question I could totter over to them and actually look something up in detail. (Navigating in my office is sometimes a dangerous enterprise.) There are also a bunch of specialized Ranglisten, such as one for Pionier=Offiziere, or of officers from the Prussian Guard. Some of these cover officers from the four pre-war German Armies in one volume. Some fellow Gentlemen have better collections than I do, and certainly understand them better than I do, but nevertheless I would be happy to do reasonable amounts of look-ups for people, just as I periodically throw myself on the mercy of the senior research gnomes that haunt the corridors of this Forum when I have a more exotic question. Bob Lembke

Gentlemen: Thanks for the input. I am familiar with the "251 Divisions" book, but the level of detail that I need is much finer than it has; I need details of village to village fighting, while "251 Divisions" can only devote about a page or two per division over four years. I have about 20 of Patrick's CD histories. I skim his listing every few months to see if he had new ones I could use. I have done so since I bought the diary, so I assumed that he did not have one. Being a reserve unit, there is less likelyhood that there was one written, but you never know, all it often took was one determined veteran, and supportive comrades. Without looking it up, I bet that there was a history of Infanterie=Regiment Nr. 20. There is a book listing the unit histories that were written, written, I believe, in the 1980's by a German woman, but that book itself was expensive (perhaps a fit subject for Patrick, but on second thought there would be copyright issues), so I never bought it. I think it was about $80 6-7 years ago. Hardy, thanks for your help. I assume you are saying that one was never written. Or, no, Patrick does not have a CD??? Thanks, everyone. Bob Lembke

I am certainly open to Chris using some of it if he wishes. Still grinding away at the text, and building notes, research footnotes, and an index of soldiers mentioned by name in the text or in an address table that the author/narrator also included. Have the addresses of about 27 of the soldiers, have looked some up in the 1914 Berlin Address Book. Am at about 143 pages, mostly double-spaced. Again, anyone know of a unit history for RIR Nr. 20, or 5. Reserve Division, 6. Reserve Division, or III. RK? I just did a passage where the author and his company is in the front line trench near one of the Antwerp forts, and the fort is being bombarded by a 42 cm battery behind him, he describes this; while I know from my grand-father's letters that he was in the battery firing on the fort, writing a letter to my father, still a school kid, also describing the bombardment. At the end of the diary the author, in severe fighting on the Yser Canal, is shot in the hand, but quite badly, and is evacuated back to Berlin. Interesting that the rail evacuation was so organized that his wife was able to know which train and Berlin station he was coming in on, and was waiting on the platform for him. Gutes deutsches Ordnung. Not sure if he ever fought again. Bob

A couple of years ago I bought a manuscript diary of a sergeant of RIR Nr. 20, 9. Kompagnie, covering the period from mobilization to late October 1914, when he was wounded and evacuated to Berlin. It includes the names of many fellow soldiers, in many cases with their addresses in Germany. It is about 80 pages and written in a mix of Suetterlin and Kurrent that is very much like my grand-father's writing. They were in the same army corps in Belgium, III. Reservekorps. I started working on it recently and I have it 95% transliterated into modern German and about 20% translated into English. It is quite interesting; in particular it depicts a complex picture of the relationships and interaction between the German soldiers and the Belgian civilians. Is there a unit history of RIR Nr. 20, and/or perhaps of its higher-level units, 6. Reserve=Division or III. RK? I might publish this diary, perhaps facing pages of a faximile of an original page and on the other side my modest English translation of that page, with a section of notes and commentary. If anyone has a research interest in this material let me know. I will make sure that this resource will not be lost to other students of the war. Bob Lembke

Perhaps the awards and promotions in 1849 were related to services or loyalty during the disturbances of 1848. Bob Lembke

Mark; I know beans about medals but decided to attempt to broaden my horizons. Looked in the 1912 preuss./wuerttem. Rangliste and the regiment is in it, and not in the XIII. Armeekorps, so it is considered a Prussian regiment, and is in fact a Mecklenburg regiment. Looked thru all of the Prussian orders and their abbreviations listed in the front material (pp. XVI - XVIII), and no decoration matching the decoration. But, on page XIX, under "Erklaerung der Bezeichnung der Orden und Ehrenzeichen. --- Grossherzogoglich Mecklenburgische.", are listed 26 Mecklenburg decorations, one of which is: "MMV 2.", or Militaerverdienstkreutz 2. Klasse . I think that that is your decoration. I usually use Ranglisten to look up German officers (I have 30+), but they offer a lot of other information, such as the organization of the army at a given point in time, or even the decorations handed out. The body of the text does give the decorations that many of the officers listed had at a given point in time. (I assume your Pass is for an EM/OR.) Do you collect Militaer=Paesse? Bob Lembke

I only have one detailed (several pages) description of the destruction of an active British tank by flame thrower troops. A half platoon of Reddemann's troops were advancing on a major concrete pill-box holding up an advance from the side, were fired on by a tank, they stalked the tank and knocked it out (rushed it from the rear, fired a burst of smoke and flame, providing cover; with that rushed right up to the tank and fired a burst right into the interior thru an opening or slot, with results as in the photo, not very pleasant) , and then circled the pill-box and attacked from the rear and fired flame oil in, and 73 men and a couple of officers surrendered with great enthusiasm, with seven MGs. The flame pioneers lost three men, and the NCO commanding the half platoon got an EK I and a promotion. This is from memory but I believe that it is accurate; I have read the account several times and have it in my time-line. I have also read that the FW crews were told to not to attempt to tackle a tank head-on, but attack from the rear. My father trained in British tanks for a week to prepare to fight tanks (to prove to the men what a crummy gun platform a moving tank was), but then to attack tanks with gaballtne Ladnung, or a large explosive charge, seven "potato mashers" wired together. One course chum knocked out three tanks in two days in this fashion. Hope he got his EK I. Bob Lembke

Even in late 1916 Reddemann's FW company with the 5th Army (2. Kompagnie, Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment) had trucks; my father was a member of that company, and I have a photo of his of the trucks in the courtyard of the barracks; he said that they always were loaded with FW, spare oil, etc. under tarps, ready for quick deployment. And when the FW regiment was reformed to prepare for the great March 1918 offensive they supposedly received more dedicated trucks for the planned mobile warfare, which they would have received by the time of the interesting photo. Surely the FW resources in the photo alone were more than the S=B Rohr possessed; Reddemann certainly "had an attitude" about S=B Rohr and its semi-independent FW platoon, and would have probably not liked to help celebrate a S=B Rohr honor, but certainly the event also honored the Crown Prince, and he was a good enough politician to oblige. Both men (Reddemann and Rohr) had good access to "little Willi". Last year I had an evening of beer and pizza with a direct decendant of the Crown Prince (a German reserve officer), and he greatly enjoyed stories of interactions between "big Willi" and "little Willi" and the men of 2. Kompagnie during visits of both of the royals to the barracks at Stenay-sur-Meuse. (For the record, despite an officially designated evening of "beer and pizza", the Prussian prince seemed to prefer cognac with his pizza, showing his aristocratic bent.) Bob Lembke

Very interesting and capable man, a Pionier=Offizier, if you didn't know (when promoted far enough, a pionier officer became a General der Infanterie, sometimes obscuring his branch of service. I can think of dozens of books, but they all are in German. He pioneered (pun intended) innovative combined-arms tactics in the Argonne. I think he was pushed aside at Verdun when he very reasonably became pessamistic about the prospects for continuing success and the decent into a mutual bloodbath. Bob Lembke

My (inexpert) thought entirely. I guess there was a formula for an EK II; months at the front, wounds, probably achieved rank, possibly elite units, etc. Pop was also assigned to Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr) several times at Verdun, for providing additional FW support for attacks, as well as Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment (Flammenwerfer). Without the subjective stuff (like "offing" the Coy. CO), he would seem to be a good fit. His father got the EK II and EK I within months of the war starting in Belgium. Bob

My father was awarded his EK II in 1921, issued by the Ministry of War. He fought thru 3 1/2 years of the war, volunteered to go to Gallipoli, where he caught malaria, and then joined the flame-thrower service, most likely as a volunteer, when he got back to Germany. He then was wounded four times in combat, twice at Verdun, twice at Reims. But his company was isolated from its command structure, which went up to the regiment and then to the OHL, with no other FW unit for say 60 miles, and the command within the company was corrupt, and there were other serious things allowed by the CO, and my father had a very bad attitude, he hated them, and he (and others) shot and killed the corrupt and cowardly company CO, and he shot a sergeant during live-fire manuvers, and kicked another sergeant in the face with his hobnails under circumstances that led to the sergeant being put up on charges. So he hardly was the most popular soldier with the company command. (He was very smart, had a Gymnasium education and had partially completed technical college, had six languages, his father was a staff officer, and he knew how to structure incidents so as to have a good chance to get away with mischief.) So he never was promoted past Pionier, although he led a Trupp, and therefore should have been a Gefreiter or an Unteroffizier, and he never got a EK II during the war, despite lots of fighting and four wounds. He did get his wound badge, which I have. (They could hardly deny him that.) Even his Militaer=Pass is weird. He was in a Freikorps within a few weeks of the end of the war, used the FW in fighting in Berlin, and later joined the Schwartze Reichswehr. But I do not recall seeing anything on the certificate for the EK II about the Freikorps (It is buried in archival storage), and I am assuming that his award was simply "catch-up" for wartime service. Any thoughts? Bob Lembke