Chip

Glenn,

Do you own that work by Selzer? I bought a copy from him back in the early 1980s. It covers just about everything you can think of regarding the officer's shoulder straps of the Bavarian army.

Chip

Tom,

Your Bavarian Infanterie Leib Rgt. boards are the M1916 type. Previous models had a red underlay. Here is another wartime subdued example from before the Spring of 1916.

Chip

Tom,

Welcome to the forum! I am very much interested in the Alpenkorps, especially the 3.J?ger Rgt.. I collect anything that I can find from either. I see your avatar is the collar insignia of the Ski battalions. I have a single example myself. I collect books, memorial prayer cards, postcards, photos, insignia and uniform parts when I can find them. One of my favorite possessions is an M84/98 bayonet marked to the 3.J?g.R.

What are your interests and what do you collect? PM me if you like.

Best regards,

Chip

Dave,

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't implying that those boards should not be on your tunic. If that was what I had, I would use them too. I'll keep a lookout for a correct pair. No, I was just curious about what pattern they were.

Chip

Douglas,

Your friend's helmet maker is most likely "Bell L". This mark is the outline of a bell and an "L" Many look at the bell and assume it is a letter. It does look somewhat like an "A". I have three of them. Many were issued to the 1.Garde Division.

Chip

Hauptmann,

There are all sorts of products that will get rid of mold. The problem is that it's anyones guess what they will do to the leather. Once an item gets mold on it, it is very hard to get all of it off. You usually end up just stirring it around. What I do, which seems to work, is spray a cloth with some surface disinfectant that specifically kills mold and apply it. You have got to get to every nook and cranny that you can. The better you clean it off the longer it will take to reestablish. I then go back over the leather with Pecards, which protects the leather and inhibits the regrowth of the mold. Perhaps there are others that have better solutions. If so, I would love to hear them.

Chip

Hauptmann,

You've got a good crop of mold growing there. You need to get that helmet out of the humidity!

Chip

Dave,

Are those Olga boards with the white underlay M15's or are they M10 Dragoons?

Chip

Dave,

It should be a thread on cyphered shoulder boards, given your photo. You hid all of the Litzen. What happened to that project where we were comparing various collar Litzen? I thought you were going to post your stuff and the things that I sent you? I'm sure there would be overwhelming interest in it!

Chip

Dave,

They are all M10's except for your weird Infanterie Leib Regiment example. Lord knows what it is. Of course, the other thing that they have in common is that they are all yours!

Chip

Dan,

I would assume that you are correct about the needle sterilizer. It most likely was a small, thin metal tray with lid that would have slots for the needles. It would have been steam heated somehow. Now that I think about it, they could also have been hypodermic needles.

I still don't see any divider and you didn't mention it before.

Chip

Ah Dan,

You are starting to figure me out. No big secret....I love it all! Thanks for the list of contents. This is not the same list as that of the two types of pouches that I described. Neither of them has a leather sleeve in the lid for the scissors and needle sterilizer. The list from the Krankentr?gertasche (L) includes a loose pouch (1 Zwirntuchtasche, darin: 1 gerade Schere, 1 anatomische Pinzette).

During this period, needles were restrung and reused, so there needed to be a means of reprocessing them for the next patient, thus the needle sterilizer.

Kambric, also known as Kambrik or Kammmertuch, is a fine linen that got its name from the early German name for Cambrai (Kamerich) where it was made and was named for.

You will notice that the list on your lid does not have any of the salves and medicines that you have in your pouch. The reason is that they were not the normal contents. These types of items (Arzneimittel) are only found in the Sanit?tertasche ( R), though none of these specific things are listed. Perhaps they are from a larger case or medical backpack.

Yes, the cross on the Freiwil.Krankenpflege armband is a Bevo type weave.

Chip

With only a few regiments possible, one would think this man would be identifiable?

Chip

Dan,

Please list the contents on the inside lid of the pouch, if you would. Here are two more armbands. The second one is interesting, as even though it has a Prussian stamp (Stehendes Kriegslazareth d.VI Armee Korps), the only period photo I have seen of an armband with this style of cross being worn, was of an Austrian soldier.

Dan,

That's a really nice first aid pouch. The contents are excellent. It is rare that you find one with the original contents, especially those that have not been disturbed. I especially like the wartime dated issue items. The pouch appears to me to be either a private purchase piece (for the Freiwill.Krankenpflege) or a prewar issue example. As you say it is larger than the normal WWI era issue pouches. There were two different sets of issue pouches during the war. Though they looked the same on the outside, the pouches were marked differently and had different contents. The Sanit?tsunteroffizier pouches were marked with an "S", while the Krankentr?ger pouches were marked with a "K". I have a list of the contents for each if you would like me to post it.

I have several pairs of these, but none with contents. A year or so ago, a large lot of issue Ersatz medical pouches were found. They were made from paper cloth (Papiergarn). Interestingly, they were made by the maker who seems to have supplied the majority of the leather pouches to the army, Karl Barth. Both the "S" and the "K" type pouches were in the lot. The maker of your pouch is L. Ritgen, a well-known maker of imperial leather items.

Being primarily an insignia collector, I love the medical uniform items. I have a large assortment of medical officer's shoulder insignia, collar tabs, as well as related armbands. Here are a few.

Chip

Rosenberg,

This is a Nazi era dogtag. I'm sure you can get someone to move your thread to the appropriate section.

Chip

Jens,

It looks like a nice cap. The lining looks more like that of an Portepee NCO, than an officer.

Chip

I'm no language expert, but those markings look like Czech to me. Plzen is Pilsen in today's Czech Republic. So these are definitely postwar markings, which makes the paint job postwar. There is nothing WWI about this helmet that I can see, not even the liner.

Chip

I can't tell you the exact pattern, but if it is a WWI shell, then it looks like a total postwar retrofit. Repainted, remarked, new liner and chinstrap. I did not see any manufacture marks on the shell, so I cannot say for sure. Perhaps it is a total postwar helmet. All I can say for sure is that it is not a helmet that would have been used in WWI as it is now.

Chip

It's not Franz von Str?mer, it's von Franz Str?mer or from Franz Str?mer. The "s./1. Kam." your dear comrad. So Franz has given this as a gift to someone else. I am not sure what the heraldic crest represents. It could be a city crest.

Chip

Rick,

You are partially correct. While the 1st and 2nd battalions wore the Garde star, the rest of the battalions wore the the line eagle.

Chip

Yes, my wife's grandfather was in one of those regiments, the 78th I.R., which got the "Waterloo" Bandau on their Pickelhauben.

Chip

Christophe,

Wouldn't the Th?ringen officer's take the same brocaid belt as Baden and Oldenburg officers?

Chip

Robert,

Did your Luftschiffer have much of a wartime service record? It would be interesting to know what field units he served with.

I don't think that the police started wearing the Tschako until Weimar times. During the imperial period, most state police forces wore a version of the Pickelhaube.

Many pre-1918 military units wore the Tschakko. Among them were the J?gers, Garde Sch?tzen, Luftschiffer, Landsturm infantry, W?rttemburg Mountain Regiment, the Maschinengewehr Abteilungen, See Bataillonen and so on.

Chip

Bernhard,

I have never quite understood Niedersachsen or Oberbayern. Obviously names from the somewhat distant past when these states were larger. I don't ever recall seeing a map that defined the area that these names refer to. Can you clarify?

Chip