IrishGunner

Cool artillery thread... :cool:

The gun in #5 just doesn't have enough detail for me to even guess.

Chris, have you read about this tactic for the granatenwerfer anywhere else? "Cunning" is right if this is accurate...

The Germans used the Granatenwerfer very cunningly at Verdun: as the sound was so well-known, the French knew the sound of the incoming projectiles only too well, they stayed put in their shelters when the heard the noice, even though the enemy was very close, knowing full well that due to the deadly nature of the grenades, the German couldn’t get up out of their trenches to attack before the whirring “turtledoves” had impacted. What the German did in at least one attack, was to fire the grenades without their fuses, which meant that they could start their sprint towards the French trenches at the moment the grenades were fired, and even reach them at the instant that the grenades went harmlessly PLOP into the mud.

From this website: http://www.landships.freeservers.com/granatenwerfer16_walkaround.htm

The shield seems small from this angle, but it looks like it could be another 15cm sFH.

However, this howitzer is not firing. It actually seems to be a damaged gun with the tube out of battery back into the trails.

I can't help you with the writing... My Sutterlin capability is very limited.

My vote is for the 15cm schwere FeldHaubitze Model 1913 (15cm sFH 13)

Well done; very cool.

Interesting (for this neophyte) to see that the box liners for the Fr. O and the WK are "round" instead of shaped exactly like the crosses.

Let me jump in here and thank Chris for a great primer on the topic... Useful for many of us. :cool:

Nice bar for a Finnish collection. Well done on picking up this one... :cool:

I agree with Matt - this is a lovely mounting for a simple group. Of course, anything with a MVO is great in my opinion. One of my favorite decorations.

My grandfather and his two brothers all volunteered for the 5. Garde Regiment zu Fuss at Spandau, but they went into the field with the 203 Reserve Regiment.

Interesting. Spandau is on the opposite side of Berlin from Koepenik. 203 and 202.

Thanks for contributing to the thread...

Nice piece of history... If only it could talk. Or if we could only talk to Pte. Busch!

Joe, thanks for your comments. I am learning - as you already know too well - that German regiments are a tangled web. And I am only tugging at the first few strands.

I had pondered staying away from the reserve regiments, but the temptation was too great. So, much more territory in which to get lost in research nirvana.

I am already afraid of the Landwehr units. But then again, I have Reserve Fussartillerie regiments to keep me amused.

This foray into an infantry regiment was simply a detour. I had this card sitting here and needed to find some reason to keep it or move it along.

I think these guys have references which, given a field postal station number and a date, could tell you where on the Eastern or western front the post office was. A lot of the numbers were #s like 600, I guess there were 500 or 1000 of them, and they occasionally moved.

There! More than you ever wanted to know about German military mail.

Bob

Bob - thanks for going "postal"! Interesting information.

Now, if these guys had an easy way to accept requests for such a search of the data... Postal trolls! :whistle:

R.I.R. Nr. 202 was formed in Berlin in October 1914 from the replacement battalions of Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 1 (I. Bat.), Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 2 (II. Bat.) and Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 4 (III. Bat.)

Regards

Glenn

Glenn; target hit!

After going back and studying an example of the cypher for Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 1 on kaisersbunker and the multiple examples on the shulterklappen of my recruits - there are a couple clear matches! :catjava:

Bob; Klar, ich erinnere mich von meinen Studien den Hauptmann von Koepenik! Und ich habe Koepenik wenn es war teil Ostberlins besucht.

Also, the thought that the card could have been simply been mailed from the feldpost of RIR 202 by a soldier from another regiment is a good thought to keep in mind.

Although, in this case, the soldier also wrote in pencil on the card his unit - RIR 202.

I recall reading somewhere that reserve regiments had a "parent" active regiment... Or maybe I am just imagining that idea. At any rate, I have a RPPC with a feldpost stamp for Rekruten Depot, Reserve-Infanterie Regiment Nr. 202. (Other known facts; postmark is Coepenick 1917; RIR 202 was from Berlin)

On the front are a group of young looking recruits, but their schulterklappen clearly have a unique cypher (rather than the number I would have expected) - almost looks like a backwards 7 with a crown. Perhaps this is the cypher for a parent regiment?

Yes - I know - a scan of the cypher!!

Well, my wife is the photographer expert and promises she will shoot a snap AFTER I complete some chores!

Just thought I'd give you something to start chewing on until I return...

Thanks for sharing - going through your collection was like a mini-course in Hungarian militaria. I learned quite a bit.

Egészségügyi :beer:

Definitely an enlisted soldier from the Polish 2nd Republic - between the wars.

It looks like a tinted photo. The color on his czapka refers to his branch. Red is for military police (or medical personnel depending on the shade).

(Red is the usual color for artillery - however, in Polish tradition, artillery color is green.)

A quick web search shows a reference on the REME museum page:

Telephone Set L (YA 3717) Vol U03, EMER No U739, Dated 1955-Jul

So, at least until 1955 - through the Korean War - and probably well into the 1960's.

The US Army used its WWII version field telephone, the EE-8, well into the Vietnam War. It's replacement, the TA-312, was first used in the Korean War and has been used well into the current century.

I suspect that the British version had a similar history.

Beware now heathens for St. Barbara may smite thee with lightning...

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=42149&pid=390005&st=0&#entry390005

Now wait a minute! How the heck did Chris Boonzair HACK into Rick Research's account? :rolleyes:

Hi,

will be on our route when we are on the June batlefield tour.... ;-)

Best

Chris

I would enjoy a bottle of Scotch and a few Cohibas on the battlefields...

Unfortunately, not in the cards. :cool:

Still the most beautiful medal ever...IMHO.

And an incredible story. Exceptional writing. This should be published.

Hi,

It is a huge guess on my part, but an Iron Worker pre WW1. WW1 Engineer... tattoes on his chest... and joining the navy at 50 in WW2.... I would guess he worked in a shipyard ore something....

I see he was in Cumberland, MD in 1942. While Cumberland is in the western mountains of Maryland, it isn't that far from Baltimore, which had a huge shipyard building ships in WWII. Circumstantial to say the least, but you never know...

Irish Gunner and Leigh, thanks for your comments. I know these are not military but they do have some significance to the 1st and 2nd World War. God only knows what some of the receipients of these medals saw and endured?

I have a few other red cross badges, postcards and a shoulder badge. A lot of these items I have found on boot markets and emporiums. Some have been bought off E-Bay all at a reasonable price. The 14-18 boxed medal is probably my favourite and they are out there if you look.

The last one I saw complete in its box was at Brackley antiques cellar but that was a few months ago.

Cheers

Muckaroon.

I have seen BRCS medals with boxes before on eBay. I have an unnamed example on without a box. Since mine wasn't named, I didn't assume the boxes had names on them. Will have to watch closer now and maybe upgrade.

The pride of my nurse collection is a Victory Medal named to Staff Nurse Daye; I have been able to do some research on her, but haven't found her specific wartime service.