Thomas W

Two NCOs of a Machine Gun Detachment, Füßartillerie-Regiment Nr. 13, 1917. Like Battery Squads, Machine Gun Detachments of artillery batteries were trained in shock tactics and hand-grenade fighting.

Men of the Battery Squad of Reserve-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 57. They carried out reconnaissance and were trained in shock tactics and hand-grenade fighting.

Lewis gun squad of an attack division, St. Quentin, March 21, 1918.

Men of the shock troop of a dismounted cavalry unit on the eastern front, 1917.

Grenadiers of the Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment, date and place unknown. Each is equipped with grenade bags, a P08 pistol, and a shovel with a shortened handle.

Jäger machine gunners on the eastern front, 1916. Note the grenade bags carried by the man in front.

Men of an assault patrol of 2. Landsturm Infanterie Bataillon "Chemnitz" (XIV/11), 1915. Note the dark brassards worn on the upper left arm.

Two members of the shock troop of the 7th Company, Landsturm Infantry Regiment Nr. 38, April of 1917.

Trench raider in the Vosges, 1915. Note the dagger on his chest, P08 pistol, and M.1915 stick grenades.

Here's the writing.

This is a weird one. The men in the photo are from several different units. Infantry shoulder straps show 229, 253, and 315. There's a field artillery strap with "8" and a "MW 89" strap. The man in front with the high boots has "12" on his shoulder straps, and the soldier to the right of him has a Bavarian cockade. In the back is a pipe-smoking soldier with glasses and a Württemberg cockade on an artillery or pioneer cap, and standing on the far right is a Romanian prisoner. The Austrian soldiers are from unidentified units.

Here's a closeup of a different print of the same photo, from the Bavarian Hauptstaatsarchiv in Munich. The number on the shoulder strap looks like a "9" or "7" here, not a "2."

Here's a paragraph of a letter that came with the photo. Can anybody translate it? The seller of the photo said that the men were from the infantry-gun battery of Sturmbataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr), which is why I bought the image in the first place, but when I received it I saw the letters "J.G." on the shoulder strap. The men in the infantry-gun battery of Sturmbataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr) wore a red artillery strap with a "5" on it, but no letters.

Okay, now I'm confused: Was Infantry Gun Battery No. 2 Bavarian or Badener?

Here's a member of an infantry-gun battery, either 2 or 9. Can anyone identify the shield painted on the side of his helmet?

Flamethrower pioneer at Verdun, early 1916.

I can't, but maybe others can.

Four members of the Stahlhelm in the 1920s.

Great photo. The armor was actually issued to assault troops, sentries, and machine gunners. Assault troops rejected it because it was too heavy, cumbersome, and noisy. It could be worn on the back or the front.

A still from the 2001 cable-TV movie The Lost Battalion. Note that the flamethrower pioneer is wearing a small sleeve badge that more resembles Kokampf insignia, a black circular patch with a white skull on it.

Isn't it a "K"? The guy in front has a driver's goggles. If they're Kraftfahrer posing with machine guns, they could be tankers.

I received the card. It has nothing on the back, but one man is wearing an aviation troops shoulder strap, so it must be one of the Versuchs- und Ubungsflugpark units.

So, this former naval officer is wearing insignia for at least three different Freikorps.

It's a Freikorps insignia, but I don't know which one. What's the badge under the EKI?

It appears to be shaped like the flamethrower-regiment skull, and its mounted on a field-gray cloth oval. It's likely this man is a veteran of the Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment.