He's got a Litewka on with Unteroffizier Tresse, so I suspect he is a career railroader in some military capacity, serving as a yard worker or depot guard. I don't think his outfit is a normal railway employee uniform.
Chip
Chris,
That's correct. The first guy is a Bavarian, as he has no Litzen and his simplified shoulder strap displays only an "E" with no regimental number.
Chip
So, basically, if you are not at the archive in person, you have to hire an outside agent to do research. Evidently, you cannot access this information on-line.
Chip
I've never seen anything like it and I don't think it is from the WWI era as far as the German army goes. First of all, almost all German enlisted straps were backed in feldgrau or resedagrün wool. There were no letters of this style used. It could be something from the inter-war period or from some other country.
Chip
IG,
There were railway guns,so you could merge your two interests. You could collect straps from the foot artillery gunners that manned these. Unfortunately, they rarely turn up.
Chip
I've not seen that before either. It's a bit hard to tell, but they do look like cannon barrels. The only metal insignia that I know of like this was for the soldiers and officials of the technical institute, but it was worn on the officer type shoulder boards. Perhaps this is just something unofficial for enlisted men assigned there.
Chip
Chris,
Here are my two just for comparison. One dated 1915 and the other 1918.
Chip
I forgot to mention that they took a special wide shoulder strap. I have the straps for both. Here are some comparison shots taken next to a normal army breadbag strap.
Chip
I guess there can be just plain tombak buttons as well. The ringed buttons are often seen too. Eric I think the one I got from you is most likely a WWII jacket.
Love those Saxon pioneer straps, especially the P.K.333! For obvious reasons, the company numbered straps are more difficult to find than those of their parent battalions.
Chip
According to Nolls' book, it turns out, there is only one possibility for this marking. If the "L" is a block "L" and not a script "L".
Immobile-Landwehr-Eisenbahn-Baukompanie
There are two other "L.E." abbreviations, but both are Ersatz Bataillonen of infantry regiments and normally there was only one (two at the most) per regiment in wartime.
Are those books available in the States? How much are they? I can read German and some Russian, but not enough Russian to make these books a convenient read without a dictionary handy. I still think the Somers book would be best for exclusively English speakers.
Chip
I haven't looked yet in Noll's markings book, but just a thought that it might be Landsturm and therefore the number may be the Brigade. Landsturm were not normally differentiated by company numbers.
Chip
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