Dave Danner

#3. Looks like "Assistanzarzt b. be_a_. Chirurgie 26, Feld- u. Korpsarzt XXVI R.K."

This one looks like "Landsturm___. Arzt".

Many thanks for all your help. I still am not sure about that Kegu and Oursin. Anyway, next batch:

Your first one might be identifiable now. I have finished transcribing the Sondershausen rolls and am working through Rudolstadt now.

It means "War Medal" in Turkish. It's actually Harp madalyası, without the dot over the "i", but that letter is not in the standard English alphabet.

It matches Duerr's prewar awards:

Thanks!

No. 8: "O_____, Hermann, Leutnant d. L. I."

No. 7: "beim Kommando zur Mittelmeer ?i?i?"

No. 6 Menssen? Walter? Also, any idea why there's a line through the "R" in d.R.?

No. 5 Another Leutnant with an odd name. It looks like "Kegu" or maybe "Keyn"?

No. 4: I think its "Ers.-Bat. Pion. 6. Neisse, kom[mandiert] zum Kriegsamt Wumba". Wumba?

No. 3: Is the last name "Kemter"? Sounds odd.

No. 2: I think it is "Kummer, Gotthelf" but I'm not sure. The other part is "Pfarrer ??? Feldgeistlicher"?

Hello again, Thanks to everyone for their help with the previous group of squiggles. How about a few more? First one. This appears to be "Bayers. Minenwerfer Komp. 2," but is the last part maybe "2. Armee"?

The rolls exist. The Honor Cross rolls are in the process of being transcribed. The medals will have to wait a little while.

That would be 2nd Class. 1st Class: all enamel, neck badge 2nd Class: all enamel, breast badge Officer's Cross: all enamel, no rays between the arms, pinback badge 3rd Class: enamel center medallion 4th Class: no enamel, no rays between the arms

Your Honor Cross is Third Class. Fourth Class doesn't have enamel in the center medallion or rays between the arms. See here for various examples: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/reuss.htm

Here's another picture of Gy?ling from Unsere Bayern im Felde: Erz?hlungen aus dem Weltkriege 1914/16:

Only one general received the Officer's Cross with Swords: Genmaj. Karl Freiherr von Nagel zu Aichberg - BMV.OX (11.9.14), BMV2X (14.8.15), Stern dazu (26.10.16). But his Officer's Cross was published just one day after he was promoted to Generamajor, so it would have been awarded when he was still an Oberst. As for the Oberstleutnante with the Officer's Cross, with one exception, all were either Austro-Hungarian officers (for whom the Officer's Cross seems customary) or received the Officer's Cross as a second, third or fourth award: Franz Ritter von Epp - BMV3XmKr (11.9.14), BMV.OX (5.2.16) Friedrich Ritter von Haack - BMV4XmKr (14.2.15), BMV3X (21.12.15), BMV3XmKr (22.2.17), BMV.OX (27.8.17) Hans Ritter von Hemmer - BMV3XmKr (2.5.15), BMV.OX (26.10.16) Eduard H?rnle - BMV3XmKr (11.10.15), BMV.OX (8.1.17) Friedrich Freiherr Kre? von Kressenstein - BMV3XmKr (28.5.15), BMV.OX (5.6.16) Gustav Freiherr Kre? von Kressenstein - BMV4XmKr (11.9.14), BMV3X (16.8.15), BMV3XmKr (8.1.17) BMV.OX (26.11.18) Hermann Ritter von Lenz - BMV4XmKr (11.9.14), BMV3X (23.12.16), BMV3XmKr (16.1.18), BMV.OX (13.5.18) Adolf Ritter von Ruith - BMV4XmKr (11.9.14), BMV3X (10.8.16), BMV3XmKr (23.7.17), BMV.OX (8.3.19) Franz St?ngl - BMV3XmKr (11.9.14), BMV.OX (24.3.16) Joseph von Tannstein genannt Fleischmann - BMV4XmKr (11.9.14), BMV3XmKr (24.9.16), BMV.OX (24.4.17) The exception is OTL Otto von Lossow, who received his BMV.OX on 11.9.14 (and a BMV2X on 2.8.19). In his case (1) he was a prior holder of a 4th Class with Swords from China, (2) he was chief of the general staff of a corps, the I. Bavarian Reserve Corps, and (3) he was promoted to Oberst two months later. For the higher grades, the exceptions for generals are (1) prior recipients of a lower grade with swords, (2) non-Bavarians who appear to commonly receive a "bump" to the next grade, and (3) generals zur Disposition, who also commonly get a "bump" to the next higher grade. For example, the Generalmajore who received the 2nd Class with Star and Swords were all non-Bavarians or Genmaj.z.D. For the 1st Class with Swords, with one exception, the Generalleutnante who received it were non-Bavarians, Genlt. z.D., or prior recipients of the 2nd Class with Star and Swords. The exception was Gustav Ritter von Schoch, who appears to have been retired around the same time as his award. For the Grand Cross, the only exceptions to the rules above were Prinz Alfons von Bayern and Prinz Ludwig Ferdinand von Bayern. The others were non-Bavarians, prior recipients of the BMV1X, or z.D.

"Bulgarian Tapferkeitskreuz IV. Klasse" would probably be the 4th Class of the Soldier's Cross for Bravery, the enlisted version of the Military Order "For Bravery". 4th Class was a silver cross, 3rd a silver cross with ribbon bow, 2nd a gilt cross and 1st a gilt cross with bow. "Bulgarian Militair Verdienst Kreuz " sounds like it might be the silver cross (VI. Class), the NCO and enlisted level of the National Order for Military Merit, also called the Military Merit Order.

Casualties:

Prisoners taken:

If you want to prioritize the units you look for based on the amount of action they saw, here are some charts from The War with Germany: A Statistical Summary (1919), showing total days in the line (in "quiet" and "active" sectors), prisoners taken and casualties taken.

There are a number of omissions. I only covered regular soldiers, not specialized personnel like Zahlmeisters, etc. I am working on an article on Iron Cross "equivalents". In various threads here and on WAF, we've discussed this question of what the Iron Cross "equivalents" of the different states are. For states like Bavaria and Saxony, where rank generally determined what award one got, I have been going through rolls and putting together lists like that above.