According to Pietsch's "Formations- und Uniformierungsgeschichte des Preu?ischen Heeres 1808 bis 1914", 1890 was the year of the introduction of the steel lance, but the AKO for the arming of the entire cavalry with the lance was dated June 2, 1889. I also cannot think of any insignia that was given out for proficiency with a sword. Chip
The shoulder strap in the photo is interesting, as this unpiped pattern with the tongue of the M07 is seldom seen. It was only in use (technically) from January 1915 until September of the same year. Normally, they were sewn into the shoulder, so I suspect this photo could be from very early in the year. Chip
Jack, Unless your relative was an officer, it will be almost impossible to find out anything about him in regard to his military service. You will probably have more luck doing normal genealogical research. Perhaps there is information on wartime German prisoners in some Australian archive? Chip
Heiko, I have seen some of your Spange groupings and I suppose that you know as much or more about these as anyone on this forum. Perhaps you can help me with these. The top one is an example from the "Flandernkreuz". When the bars are enlarged to this size, you can see that rather than the crosshatched background of the Luftkrieg bar, the rest have dots (gekornt?). Any ideas as to what medals these belong with or is it anybody's guess? Thanks, Chip
Tom, I think this "BL" board has been discussed before. I think it was a Saxon doctor's board that was hijacked and used for some non-military purpose (Sch?tzenverein, etc.). Chip
Bob, The Patronentasche is the normal M09 that most troops would have worn. You are correct about the pioneers wearing a different style. It was the kidney shaped, so-called M87/88, which had been updated to hold two clips of ammo. The old square M88 and M95 pouches were mostly religated to reserve units during the war. The soldiers in the photo are not pioneers. Cuffs are the wrong style and I think the cap bands are too light to be the black band pioneers wore. Chip
Some time ago, I got a small grouping of bars from Germany. I had assumed that they were all bars from this medal, because the style was the same and all have the pebbled background to the words. Could someone please tell me then, what medal the Frankreich, Westfront and Champagne bars go with? Thanks, Chip
Hello, The bar Hardy has shown is not from the Flandern Kreuz, but some other interwar medal. There is a list of possible bars for this medal. I thought I saw it here at one time. I know there was a Luftkrieg and a Seekrieg bar. Also, Antwerpen, Durchbruchschlacht, Yser, Westfront, Frankreich, Flandernschlacht, Somme, Champagne, Ypern. Perhaps others. Chip
All I can tell is that he is a Saxon NCO mit Portepee. Can you get that black stuff off of the cypher? It must be one of the infantry cyphers. They had four with crowns. Chip
Yes, that's silver content. Don't worry about not having seen this on before. There is a never ending list of them, encompassing everything from military related to the bowling club. I have a few regimental examples, but one could make a whole career collecting them. Chip
Joel, It appears you identification is correct then. This style of cap was very popular, especially with mounted troops, for walking out dress purposes. Chip
Joel, Congratulations for taking the plunge! I personally find varied collections more interesting than one dimensional ones. The newspaper is more of a "sizer" than a stiffener. It's a cheap way of adjusting the fit. Is the body of the cap power blue or gray? It is hard to tell from the pictures. This is a typical privately purchased cap. There were no issue caps that had this "Teller" (dinner plate) style. Chip
We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.