Dave Danner

Here is Sergeant William Butler, a Harlem Hellfighter of L Company, 369th Infantry Regiment. He received the Distinguished Service Cross "for extraordinary heroism in action near Maison-de-Champagne, France, August 18, 1918. Sergeant Butler broke up a German raiding party which had succeeded in entering our trenches and capturing some of our men. With an automatic rifle he killed four of the raiding party and captured or put to flight the remainder of the invaders."

The unit patch of the soldier on the far right is that of the 93rd Division, a black disc with a blue French Adrian helmet. In World War I, the regiments of the 93rd Division never fought as a single unit. Instead, they were attached to French Army divisions (hence the choice of patch design). However, there was another all-black division, the 92nd Division, which fought as a division under IV Corps and VI Corps. The 369th Infantry was attached the 161e division d'infanterie from July to November 1918, and participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive as part of that division. The 369th was a good unit, but it was not the most decorated U.S. unit in the war. It was not even the most decorated in the 93rd Division. The 371st Infantry, which also fought in the Meuse-Argonne as part of the 161e division d'infanterie, was composed mainly of draftees with mostly white officers. It earned one Medal of Honor and 19 Distinguished Service Crosses, compared to the 369th's 10 DSCs. Soldiers of both regiments, as well as the 370th (an Illinois National Guard unit) and the 371st (draftee), also earned numerous Croix de Guerre and a number of Legions of Honor. The 371st also took (and probably inflicted) more casualties than any of the other black regiments. Pictured below are Major J.R. White, Lt. Col. Otis B. Duncan, and 1st Lt. William J. Warfield. Warfield's DSC was earned as part of L Company, 370th Infantry Regiment. He was cited "for extraordinary heroism in action near Ferme-de-la-Riviere, France, September 28, 1918. Although separated with his platoon from the company, First Lieutenant Warfield continued to lead a stubborn resistance against enemy machine-gun nests, successfully capturing a gun and killing the crew. After having been severely wounded, he still continued in command, refusing relief until his objective was reached."

Reserve infantry regiments didn't correspond directly to the same-numbered active regiment, partly because as the army expanded in the 1890s the higher-numbered regiments often became parent regiments jointly with other regiments. RIR 67 was the "Tochterregiment" of IR 67 (designated "Magdeburgisch" but actually based in Metz), IR 145, also based in Metz, and IR 173, based in St. Avold and Metz (III./IR 173). All were Lorraine regiments, but since Lorraine was more French in population, they tended to recruit from the Rheinprovinz and Westfalen. RIR 67's staff and I. and III. Bataillonen were raised in Metz, and the II. Bataillon in St. Avold. As Glenn notes, III./RIR 67 appears to be affiliated with IR 145. I./RIR 67 appeared to be IR 67's Tochterformation, and II./RIR 67 was IR 173's. All three regular regiments were part of the 34. Division of the XVI. Korpsbereich. The other reserve infantry regiment of the the 33.RD was Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 130. This appears to have drawn from the regular regiments of 33. Division (mainly IR 98, IR 130 and IR 144). Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 98 was also drawn from the XVI. Korpsbereich. It was raised in Diedenhofen, home of IR 135 and IR 144. Basically, it appears that the 7 Metz-area regiments of the 8 regular regiments of the XVI. Korpsbereich raised three RIRs. The outlier is IR 30 of the 34. Division. It had its own Tochterregiment, RIR 30. Though it should be noted that the first commander of I./IR 30 was Major von Pirscher of IR 67, so that regiment may also have been connected to RIR 30 as well as RIR 67. I still find this all very confusing.

Correct. Commander of RIR 239 from its formation until his replacement on 17 August 1915 due to illness.

M?daille comm?morative fran?aise de la Guerre 1939-1945 (French Commemorative Medal of the War, 1939-45)

Sort of resuscitating this thread because I can add more detail on the Crown Prince's wartime awards: Pour le M?rite (22.8.15) Oakleaves to the Pour le M?rite (8.9.16)Iron Cross 1st Class (1914, for the victory of 22 August 1914 and the taking of Longwy on 25 August 1914)Iron Cross 2nd Class (presumably for the same, and awarded simultaneously)Grand Cross of the Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order (29.4.15)Knight's Cross of the Saxon Military Order of St. Henry (24.10.14)Commander 2nd Class of the Saxon Military Order of St. Henry (19.11.15)Commander 1st Class of the Saxon Military Order of St. Henry (4.5.17)Grand Cross of the Saxon Military Order of St. Henry (7.5.18)Grand Cross of the W?rttemberg Military Merit Order (1.11.14)Grand Cross of the Baden Military Karl Friedrich Merit Order (12.4.16)Grand Ducal Hesse General Honor Decoration for BraveryMecklenburg-Schwerin Military Merit Cross 1st ClassMecklenburg-Schwerin Military Merit Cross 2nd ClassSwords to the Grand Cross of the Saxe-Weimar Order of the White FalconSwords to the Grand Cross of the Anhalt Order of Albert the BearAnhalt Friedrich-KreuzBraunschweig War Merit CrossSwords to the Ducal Saxe-Ernestine House Order (combined award of all three duchies) (1915)Saxe-Meiningen Honor Cross for Merit in WarSwords to the Princely Hohenzollern House Order Honor Cross 1st Class (30.11.17)Lippe-Detmold War Merit Cross (18.2.17)Lippe-Detmold War Honor Cross for Heroic DeedsReuss War Merit CrossBremen Hanseatic Cross Hamburg Hanseatic CrossL?beck Hanseatic CrossAustro-Hungarian Military Merit Cross 1st Class with War Decoration (6.6.15)Austro-Hungarian Large Gold Military Merit Medal (19.8.17)The states that seem to be missing are Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Schaumburg-Lippe, the Schwarzburg principalities and Waldeck. I also don't know about Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, but I imagine there must have been something.

Well, his prewar bar would have had an RAOmKr, KO3, DA25, Centenar, BBI3, BZ3a, SA3a, GSF3b, WF3a, IM4, ?EK3, SS3a, SW2b and TM3, but he had gone z.D. sometime between 1912 and 1914. So leave the old bar in a drawer and just wear the wartime awards.

Dang! Too easy? OK, one more:

Off the top of my head (and a quick scan through the Roth book), I only know of two Leutnante with the Oakleaves.

I make bald look good. I also got lotsa pretty medals. Who am I? A test for the experts.

Golden Bravery Medal: Bohlender, Anton, Sanit?ts-Unteroffizier Daum, Alois, Oberj?ger Geib, Rudolf, Sanit?ts-Sergeant Gruber, Alois, J?ger Huth, Hugo, J?ger Letzel, Bernhard, Vizefeldwebel Maidhof, Peter, Unteroffizier Nickl, Max, Unteroffizier Niedermeier, Georg, Vizefeldwebel Schuler, Wilhelm, Vizefeldwebel Weihnacht, Philipp, Sanit?ts-Soldat Silver Bravery Medal: Amtmann, Josef, Vizefeldwebel Aum?ller, Max, Oberj?ger Baunach, Josef, J?ger Beck, Hans, Oberj?ger Becker, Adolf, Gefreiter Dittmann, Georg, Oberj?ger Gollwitzer, Friedrich, Vizefeldwebel Hillerbrand, Albert, Vizefeldwebel Hofmeir, Jakob, Gefreiter K?gel, Oskar, J?ger M?ller, Ludwig, Oberj?ger Niedermaier, Karl, Vizefeldwebel P?tzold, Ernst, Gefreiter R?hrig, Anton, Vizefeldwebel Schneider, J., Kriegsfreiwilliger Schroeder, Emil, Offizier-Stellvertreter Uebel, Ludwig, Vizefeldwebel Vorndran, Franz, J?ger Weber, Johann, Oberj?ger Wollinger, Georg, Oberj?ger Zwick, Georg, Oberj?ger

The brother is not mentioned. Louis is the only one in the index.

Through the letter "H" I count already 9 Silver Bravery Medals to members of the 2. J?ger-Btl. There might be too many to reasonably narrow it down. I can make a full list of all the 2nd J?ger Bravery Medals, if there isn't already one somewhere, later this evening. Does the battalion history already have a list?

It would depend on whether he had a civilian position of some sort. This is from the March 1918 edition of the Handbook of the Prussian Court and State. There are no specific military listings other than the various royal adjutants. Under "Kriegsministerium" there is just a notation that due to the war there were too many changes to warrant listing names. However, if noble connections meant someone was in the Herrenhaus, or if someone held some other position in the state or the court, he would be listed. There are thousands of Iron Crosses and other WW1 decorations sprinkled throughout the book. I imagine there were quite a few state, provincial and local officials who were Landwehr or Reserve officers or who answered the call and are listed there. I saw GFM Remus von Woyrsch, for instance, under the Mitglieder des Herrenhauses.

Very tiny. Size of a small paperback. The 1804 version was even more fragile.

I wonder why the other decorations aren't listed here? This is as of March 1918.

No M?llers in the Kurm?rksche Landwehr-Regimenter in the 1817 Rang- und Quartier-Liste. However, it does not appear to list all regimental officers.

I can send you the copies of the pages I copied. It might be cheaper to PDF them and e-mail them to you, though. Do you have an Adobe PDF reader?

General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Mongolia: http://www.pmis.gov.mn/gsmaf/ Root around, and you will find a number of interesting pictures. I couldn't find a specific page on decorations. And just to round out the national security links: Ministry of Defense - http://www.mdef.pmis.gov.mn/ Central Intelligence Agency - http://gate1.pmis.gov.mn/cia/ National Security Council - http://gate1.pmis.gov.mn/nsc/

First the bad news: no pictures. The only officers pictured in the book were the regimental commanders and Abteilung commanders, and not even all of them. The good news: there were more than a few mentions of Jonkheer de Casembroot thoughout. In the regimental Kriegsrangliste of 1.8.14, he is a Lt. and Adjutant of II. Abteilung. On 26.2.15, the then Oblt. Jonkheer de Casembroot became Batterie-F?hrer of 5./FAR 6 due to the illness of its commander, Hptm. d.R. Winzek. Hptm. d.R. Wintzek returned to duty on 6.5.15, and apparently Oblt. Jonkheer de Casembroot returned to the Abteilung staff. Two months later, in July, Winzek became the commander of II./FAR 6 when Maj. Amelung, who had commanded the Abteilung since the war began, became commander of Landwehr-Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 15. This was during the Stellungskampf in the Artois region. The situation before the southern sector of the 11. Infanterie-Division was relatively quiet, when a shell hit the command post of the 6.Batterie on 3 August 1915. Batterie-Offizier Lt.d.R. Otto's jugular was sliced and he was killed instantly, while Batterie-F?hrer Lt. d.R. Bobisch, struck in the lower body, took two days to die. 6./FAR 6 was placed temporarily under the command of Lt. Bogatsch, the Adjutant of I.Abteilung, but he was replaced on 5. August 1915 by Oblt. Jonkheer de Casembroot, and Bogatsch replaced him as II. Abteilung Adjutant. As you already know, he was still in command of 6. Batterie during the Battle of the Somme. His battery was part of the 11. Infanterie-Division's Nordgruppe, a mixed group of heavy and lighter artillery in the northern sector of the divisional front. They were set up in a small wood called Fuchsbauw?ldchen (foxhole copse), 900 meters northwest of Belloy with an OP (B.St.) in Fay. There are several Belloys in the Somme region, but I think this one is Belloy-en-Santerre. The British artillery preparation began on 23 June. The sector also faced French air attacks, especially on the artillery's observation balloons. On 1 July, they were under heavy attack and the OP was pulled back. Late in the evening, infantry reserves arrived to consolidate the line. Oblt. Jonkheer de Casembroot personally led the infantry ahead to their positions, and was seriously wounded. So his Battle of the Somme ended fairly quickly on that first day, though unlike almost 20,000 British soldiers on the bloodiest day in British history, he survived. Jonkheer de Casembroot then disappears from the regimental history until 9 January 1917, when the new III. Abteilung was stood up and he took command of 9. Batterie. He was still an Oberleutnant. He doesn't show up again until the Third Battle of Ypres. 9./FAR 6 was the regiment's mobile reserve. Now-Hptm. Jonkheer de Casembroot's battery distinguished itself in defense against British attacks on 31 July and in support of the counterattacks of the "Eingreifdivisionen" (50. Res.Div. and 221. Inf.Div.). There is also a description of his battery in infantry support and anti-tank actions, but the pages I copied don't have dates and I can't remember exactly when this was. It was during the Ypres/Passchendaele battles, though. He is still commanding 9./FAR 6 on the 1.4.18 Kriegsrangliste of the regiment, but he is not on the 1.10.18 Kriegsrangliste. I couldn't find a mention in the text of him leaving the regiment.

The rest of the Fuchs below. The only EK1 Fuchs listed was the one from IR 158.

Bob, I don't see a Hptm. Heinrich Fuchs on this list. Here are the EK2s for Fuchs:

Here is an example from one of the two sections of EK1 awards. Band 1 was divided into Hefte 1 and 2. Both Hefte had EK1s from A to Z, while Heft 1 had EK2s from A to F and Heft 2 from G to K. I assume there was a Band 2 which had more EK1s and EK2 from L to Z, but who knows where copies of it are? The NYPL doesn't have it. I Googled the name of the publication and found nothing.

The book is on microfilm, and I had to print out every page with a little dark smudge due to dirt on the lens. But while it is in really tiny type, it is legible. It does not give dates. The cover page, shown below, is dated by the publisher as December 1914.