Thomas W

I've got "Sturm Kurs _________ ___________ Flammenwerfer Mai 1917." The photos were taken in Galicia, I think. Any ideas?

Robin, about faded black: Here's a flamethrower pioneer--a former member of Sturmbataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr)--wearing a battered old simplified Waffenrock with black shoulder straps. His cap band is also black. The tonal value of shoulder straps and cap band is dark gray rather than a robust black.

It's the darkest sleeve badge I've seen, especially when compared to the others in the photo. But it may be gray and not a faded black.

Robin, Chris, and Sergeant 08, my publisher has only just begun working on my book after all this time, He's in the process of creating the layout, so he send me PDFs that are, of course, lower quality. I still don't have my original photos back, just a crummy PDF. Black Totenkopf or not? I seem to remember that it's the same shade as the black shoulder straps, which often look gray gray. Until I get the original photo back, this will have to do...

I'd recommend starting a new thread, since a Soldbuch doesn't have images of skulls. If you post it, I'll be sure to add pages from my own flamethrower pioneer Militärpass.

I think about that all the time. Just hauling my carcass to Germany and Poland and spending a month at the flea markets. Someday...

Boy, that's a tough call, Chip. If my stuff isn't sent by registered mail, there's no paper trail, but if it's sent registered, it's a "steal me" flag. Why won't somebody invent a transporter, already?

That CDV was taken by Otto Hoeffke. I have four CDVs of flamethrower pioneers taken by Hoeffke, and they all have that same metal flower vase and the chair. He must have been the favorite photographer of the flamethrower regiment. I already posted this image in this thread, I think, but it's worth mentioning again. I bought this CDV from a German eBay dealer who sent it to me by registered mail. It disappeared. Although it arrived in New York on July 27, 2009, the U.S. Post Office told me that they won't do an investigation to find out what happened to it. The Americans said that the German post office has to investigate, but the Germans won't investigate, either. The tracking number doesn't matter. The Americans told me that the package can't be lost, because everyone has to sign for it. If it's lost, someone will lose their job. The Germans, on the other hand, simply refuse to answer me or the U.S. Post Office. Nobody cares. My money goes to support the people who work in both postal services, but they don't care enough about me to get off their fat rear ends and be professional. They take no pride in their work. Civil servants are often (not always, but often) horrible people. It's a shame. I really wanted this card.

This one, I begged the owner to sell it to me. He had it posted on his blog for years, but said he wanted to sell it or trade. He eventually traded it to some lucky stiff for a postcard of a man from Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 13. This card still haunts me in my dreams. (I need to see a psychiatrist, I'm sure.)

I don't remember where I saw this. I was for sale for a crazy price, I think. I copied the image but didn't buy it.

Nice! Did you buy that?

He had an American cousin in the 30th Engineer Regiment (Gas and Flame,) apparently.

I never said that the guy was definitely from the flamethrower battalion. I said that it looked like his shoulder straps were retouched, and I thought his cap badge was retouched, too. That's all. When I play with the contrast of the photo, the badge doesn't get any clearer. It's just an interesting photo. It doesn't matter which unit he's from. We'll never know.

Austrian Pioniere with Truppenabzeichen on their shoulder straps.

I'm just going by what I see with my own eyes. I see shoulder patches which have been somehow altered, either by the photographer or by a problem with the negative. The question is why would this alteration affect only the shoulder patches and cap patch? Here's what it says in Mollo and Turner's Army Uniforms of World War I (Poole, Dorset: Blanford Press, Ltd. 1977), page 101: As for the flamethrower battalion, it recruited sappers from all over the empire, just like the German flamethrower regiment. If it recruited a Hungarian sapper, it's possible that he didn't change his uniform. I posted a photo in another thread of a Bavarian pioneer wearing his Bavarian uniform while serving in the Prussian Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment. Anomalies do happen, you know. Here's a sapper of Sapper-Bataillon Nr. 61, wearing Truppenabzeichen on his shoulder straps.

Here's my photo of Sapper Markiewicz. His unit is not identified, but his shoulder straps and the side of his cap have been retouched to hide the numbers. Also, he appears to have dark oil stains on his hand. The Austrians used coal-tar oil in their flamethrowers, which could stain the hands. This is the only version of this photo I have. The original is at the publisher's.

The Truppenabzeichen were worn on both shoulder straps as well as the left side of the cap. The number on this strap looks to have been retouched. The k.u.k. Sappeaur-Bataillon Nr. 61 took Hungarian soldiers as well as Austrian, by the way.

This guy has shoulder-strap numbers (Truppenabzeichen) that have been retouched out by the photographer; I think one of his cap badges has been retouched out, too. I have another photo of a sapper whose shoulder-strap and cap numbers were retouched out. I think my sapper belonged to Sappeur-Bataillon Nr. 61, which was the flamethrower battalion. The unit was pretty secretive, so it makes sense that the numbers on the shoulder straps and cap would be hidden in photos. Maybe this guy is a flamethrower sapper, too.

Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Anybody recognize the cap badge between the two buttons on the front?

The Litzen appear to be yellow, which would make this guy a member of the 5. Garde-Grenadier-Regiment.

An enhanced version...

Chip, the more I enlarged the image, the crummier it becomes. Nobody else in the photo is wearing anything on his right sleeve. This isn't a flaw in the photo, because the design bulges out and curves right where there's a large, smooth wrinkle in the sleeve cloth. The design follows the contours of the wrinkle.

Thanks, Naxos...

Here's another man in the same photo. His shoulder strap looks like it has a crude "J" and "3" on it. (The strap is enlarged in the upper left corner.)