Mike Dwyer

Joe, Accordining to an on-line map of Poland I've looked at the town isn't on your map. I don't know the scale of your map, but the town of Punitz is somewhere right around or above the letter "a" in the name of the town of Lissa that's on your map northeast of Glogau. According to the information I found on line the population of Punitz, now called Poniec, was only 2,875 in 2006, so it was probably a small village in 1900 or so.

Hi, Joe, I'm glad you jumped in here since you know a lot more about this stuff then I do! According to an on-line map I just looked at Punitz is about 60 kilomenters almost due South of Posen. I don't know if this helps any or not.

The last photos Jurgen relating to his grandfather Ludwig Czerniejewski. His medals and bayonet.

Two later photos of Jurgen's grandfather, Ludwig, wearing what he identifies as an Ordonanz uniform, which I am not really familiar with. One showing Ludwig by himself, another playing cards with comrades.

A picture of Jurgen's grandfather taken in France.

A later photo of Jurgen's grandfather, Ludwig Czerniejewski. Possibly in the uniform of the Reserve-Infanterie-Regt. Hamburg Nr. 76. Infanterie-Regt. Nr. 76 had red cuffs with a red patte edged yellow, with white should straps.

Anyone out there want to jump in and help? Here is the photo of Jurgen's grandfather, Ludwig. Jurgen was thinking Ludwig was in the Infanterie-Regt. von Coubière (2.Posensches) Nr.19, but that regiment didn't have a white or light colored cuff patte. There was a regiment stationed near where he lived, that had a white patte, the 5. Niederschlesisches Infanterie-Regt. Nr.154. Jurgen recalls the cuff pattes being yellow, but according the sources I have only one regiment, Infanterie-Regt. Prinz Carl (4. Großherzoglich Hessisches) Nr.118, had yellow cuff pattes and it was stationed in Hesse.

Hello, Jurgen, You have to also remember the old film in black and white actually changes the way colors look. Yellow often shows up as very, very dark in the old photos.

Hello, Jurgen, I apologize, I may have misunderstood what you originally said. The actual cuff on all Prussian infantry uniforms were red, but the cuff patte was sometimes a different color. According to the information I found, only 1 regiment had a yellow cuff patte, the Infanterie-Regt. Prinz Carl (4. Großherzoglich Hessisches) Nr.118 stationed in Worms, which was part of the XVIII Armee Korps. You mention Hamburg, the Infanterie-Regt.Hamburg (2.Hanseatisches) Nr.76 was stationed in Hamburg and was part of the VIII Armee Korps. The regiment had a red cuff patte, but it was edged with yellow. Another regiment that was near where he lived that had a white cuff patte was the 5. Niederschlesisches Infanterie-Regt. Nr.154, stationed in Jauer, with the III Batallion in Striegau, and was part of the V Armee Korps. That is about all I can find.

Hi, Jurgen, At the time of your Grandfather there were no Prussian infantry regiments with yellow cuffs, they all had red collars and cuffs. Only the shoulderstraps were different colors. The shoulder strap colors were usually tied to which Armee Korps the regiment belonged to. The Infanterie-Regt. von Coubière (2.Posensches) Nr.19 was part of the V Armee Korps. There was another V Armee Korps unit, Grenadier-Regt. König Wilhelm I (2.Westpreußisches) Nr.7, stationed in Liegnitz (now Legnica, Poland), that had yellow Litzen on the collar and cuffs, perhaps that is the yellow you're thinking of? The only V Armee Korps regiment with yellow cuffs was the Dragoner-Regt. von Bredow (1. Schlesisches) Nr.4, which was stationed in Lüben (now Lubin, Poland).

Beautiful coat. Very, very nice!

There was a regiment named Infanterie-Regt. von Coubière (2.Posensches) Nr.19, part was stationed in Görlitz and part was in Lauban. The collar and cuffs should be red, the shoulder straps should be yellow with a red "19" on them. I got this information from Kaiser's Bunker at this web page http://www.kaisersbunker.com/gtp/New/infantry1.htm

Mervyn, The bottom cap is from the state of Hesse. I'm not positive, but I'm going out on a limb and say I think the top one is from the state of Baden-Württemberg simply beause of the balck and yellow shield, although the emblem used now by the Baden-Württemberg police is a yellow shield with three black lions on it. I looked at the site that lists all of the German police forces and none of them are currently using a cap emblem with a black and yellow shield.

Hi, Les, No, I'm afraid I don't know how old the photo is. I found it on the Internet. I thought it looked fairly new, but I really have no idea.

You're quite welcome! Here are two photos I found, one of the Austrian crown and the other of the Prussian crown: AUSTRIA PRUSSIA

Very nice, Coldstream! When I was on the drill team, we used 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles. I have a small scar on my right elbow from the 1970 Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans where the fellow behind me whacked me with his bayonet during one of the routines. At least I'm luckier than another cadet, Ed Grant, who was trying to teach a new guy how to throw the rifles back and forth one day. Ed ended up with a large scar about 3 inches long on his forearm where the bayonet tip caught him! I don't know this for a fact, but I'd be willing to bet that under modern safety rules the university cadets are probably forbidden to drill with bayonets anymore. Too dangerous!! :shame:

I work for a community college, but I also teach a college credit class every morning at a local high school. The school has a US Marine Corps Junior ROTC program there. One day I saw one of my students, a young lady, watching the cadet drill team practicing their fancy drill where they throw their rifles around. She is a cadet herself. Later in class I told her that many, many years ago I was on the US Army ROTC drill team at the University of Florida and we did our drill routines with an unsheathed 14 inch long bayonet on the rifles. I tried to hide my shock when she looked at me and said, "What's a bayonet?" Perhaps I had a more exposed life because my father was a career soldier, but I probably knew what a bayonet was by the time I was 4 or 5 years old.

You're correct, Brian. The crown on the left is the imperial crown of the Austrian empire, which actually exists. The one on the right is the imperial crown of the German empire, which never actually existed it was used in artwork, military and government insignia, etc. The crown of the kingdom of Prussia actually exists, but they never got around to actually manufacturing an imperial crown.

But that's not a Garde Jager tunic, it's a Garde Schutzen Battalion tunic. The Garde Jagers had Swedish cuffs. One of my favorite uniforms, absolutely beautiful.

Stuart, If you keep this up, I'm going to pass out! You have such beautiful, beautiful helmets they take my breath away each time you post one!! :speechless1:

Kev, My Hungarian is basically non-existant, but he's also a Knight of the Order of Vitéz, and I believe it also says he is a Count (Grof).

Mervyn, That's not actually from a small town, it's the badge of the Nassau County Police Department in the State of New York. It's on Long Island and is a suburb of New York City. It has a population of over 1.3 million people. In 2004 the police department employed over 2,500 police officers.

Mervyn, my wife and I are "addicted" to British-made mystery series that are broadcast here on PBS during Masterpiece Mystery. I don't know if you're familiar with the program or not, but they consist of Agatha Christie stories, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and also stories by other British mystery writers. Just the other day we were watching the last of a series called Foyle's War. In the last episode, which occurs right after the end of World War 2, Foyle goes to another county on a murder and I noticed the constables there were wearing the ball topped helmets.

The only way I knew Brisith police carried swords was because you mentioned it some time ago in another post. I had always believed that British police, up until fairly recently, never carried any weapon more dangerous than a truncheon.

Very, very nice, Mervyn!