IrishGunner

It appears that II. Batl./Fußart. Regt. 1 may have remained on fortress duty; the 5. and 6. Batteries may have remained in Königsberg, while the II. Battalion Staff with the 7. and 8. Batteries remained in Lötzen within Festung Boyen. Elements of the II. Battalion would have seen initial combat during the Russian siege of Festung Boyen. Finished in 1848, Festung Boyen was built to defend East Prussia against potential threats from northeastern Russia and the Baltic region. The fortress defense system was reinforced by the natural geography of the Masurian Lakes and rivers. As the Russians advanced into East Prussia, they had to maneuver through the Masurian Lake region and they had to deal with Festung Boyen. Russian troops began a siege of the fortress; however, the German commander, Oberst Busse refused to capitulate. After the Russian defeat at Tannenberg, the Russians lifted the siege and withdrew from the area.

After mobilization, it appears a third battalion was formed; III.Batl./Fußart.Regt.1 (2 Battr. 21Cm-Mörser). These batteries appear to have been numbered 5. and 6.; these are the same numbers of the units remaining behind in Königsberg. It is not clear if these batteries moved from Königsberg or were simply designated from newly mobilized batteries. The III Battalion was designated for 3. Armee on the Western Front and probably first deployed near the Meuse River in Belgium.

After Germany's defeat in WWI, traditions of the Fuß-Artillerie-Regiment von Linger (Ostpreußisches) Nr.1 were taken over by the Reichswehr 1. (Preußisches) Artillerie-Regiment, 5. Batterie.

On 17 August 1914, I.Batl./Fußart.Regt.1 (Schwere Feldhaubitzen) and Munitions Kolumn Abteilung/I. Battalion, were mobilized as part of I. Armee Korps. At the same time, I. Armee Korps came under the command of 8. Armee on the Eastern Front. I. Battalion, Fuß-AR 1, with its heavy field howitzers, would have moved from its garrison at Königsberg upon mobilization, remaining on the Eastern Front with the I. Armee Korps. On 17 August instead of withdrawing from the Russian offensive as ordered, I. Armee Korps turned and won a victory over three Russian divisions at Stalluponen; I. Armee Korps then withdrew to Gumbinnen. On 19 August, the Russian Second Army continued into East Prussia south of the Masurian Lakes, and on 20 August, I. Armeekorps fought the Russians to a draw at the Battle of Gumbinnen. I. Battalion likely participated in these battles and the later German victory at Tannenberg, which was fought between 26-29 August with I. Armeekorps attacking the Russian left flank as one of the pincers surrounding the Russian Second Army.

Interestingly, artillery played a curious part in the preparations of I. Armee Korps for the battle at Tannenberg. Despite some success at Gumbinnen, the German commander withdrew his forces to positions east of the Masurian Lakes, near Tannenberg. As a result, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were given command of the Eastern Front; they were intent on not giving up anymore East Prussian territory and began setting a trap for the Russians, who continued to advance into the dangerous terrain of the Masurian Lakes. Hindenburg and Ludendorff repositioned their forces to take advantage of the restrictive terrain around the Masurian Lakes, sending the I. Armee Korps by train to form the right wing of the planned encirclement of the Russians. On 25 August, Ludendorff issued an order to the I. Armee Korps commander, General Francois, to initiate the attack on the Russian left wing at Usdau. However, Francois resisted the order, preferring to wait at least until 27 August when he expected all of his artillery to complete its rail movement and be in position to support the attack. Ludendorff repeated the order; this time Francois reluctantly agreed to begin the attack despite not having enough ammunition for his artillery. In the meantime, the Germans intercepted two unencrypted messages transmitted by the Russians. The messages revealed that the Russian First Army would not be in position to support the Russian Second Army, the objective the German encirclement. As a consequence, Hindenburg decided that Francios could wait for the arrival of sufficient artillery support before beginning his attack. Ludendorff, on the other hand, was intent to assert his command over Francois and insisted that the attack still begin as planned. However, Francois continued to delay until he was satisfied that his artillery support was in place, finally beginning his attack on the left flank of the Russian Second Army on 27 August. I. Armee Korps achieved overwhelming success; however, Francois had lost the confidence of Hindenburg and Ludendorff and was relieved of command a short time later. The I. Armeekorps continued the fight in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes and was an instrumental part of 8. Armee's expelling the Russians from East Prussia. It is likely that the I. Battalion/Fuß-AR 1 contributed to all of the early victories of I. Armee Korps.

Fuß-Artillerie-Regiment von Linger (Ostpreußisches) Nr.1; Fuß-AR 1

Garrison:Königsberg i. Preussen

Established: 16.6.1864

Armee Korps: I. Armee Korps; Prussian 2. Fuß-Artillerie Brigade

Uniform: Collar/cuffs - Black Brandenburg w/ Blue Vertical Panel; White shoulder straps with a red 1; Pickelhaube wappen - Gilt 1st Pattern Grenadier Eagle.

This Commemorative Medal was likely issued on the Regiment's anniversary, 16 June 1914, only a short time before being mobilized. It was probably a very exciting time to be in the Regiment, celebrating 50 years of service to the Kaiser and preparing to defend the Fatherland against the growing storm.

Prior to mobilization, Fuß-AR 1 was subordinate to the I. Armee Korps and the Prussian 2. Fuß-Artillerie Brigade. The Regimental Staff, I. Battalion, along with the 5. and 6. Batteries of II. Battalion were garrisoned at Königsberg in East Prussia (present day Kaliningrad, Russian Federation). The II. Battalion Staff, along with its 7. and 8. Batteries manned the Festung Boyen at Lötzen (present day Giżycko in northeastern Poland).

This is a brief history and other data about the Fuß-Artillerie-Regiment von Linger (Ostpreußisches) Nr.1. I have started this long-term project as part of my quest to build a collection representing all the Imperial German field and foot artillery regiments.

For this regiment I have a Commemorative Medal; a regimental commemorative celebrating 50 years of the Fuß-Artillerie-Regiment von Linger (Ostpreußisches) Nr.1, 1864-1914. I bought this almost three years ago; unfortunately, I can't post a scan - the medal is in a safe deposit box a few thousand miles away. Maybe another day.

Critiques and comments welcome. Even better if you can add something to the story.

I don't intend to plagiarize as all of the information has been found on the internet; I lack any written references to the regiment (and am not sure a regimental history or Ehrenbuch even exists).

Websites that have yielded information on Fuß-Artillerie-Regiment von Linger (Ostpreußisches) Nr.1 follow:

http://www.festeboyen.pl/

http://www.1914-18.info/

http://www.axishistory.com/

http://www.firstworldwar.com/

http://www.polegli.tgcp.pl/

http://www.generalstafflibrary.com/

Now that's a bar!

Thanks for sharing.

Am working on a page with irish gunner... thought I would give a little pic preview... all in legal condition for country of residence....

You should have posted these for me sooner, Chris. Seeing the real thing really helps make sense of the firing procedure.

After I wrote the draft, I went back to look at the original photos at the beginning of this thread; after getting into the details of the weapon, the photos really came to life.

A lot going on in this photo:

The band is wearing spiked pickelhauben, but the band leader is wearing an artillery ball pickelhauben.

There is a jager shako on the left side of the procession.

On the right side of the street are a couple sanitatsdienst.

In the foreground is what appears to be a Landwehr gefreiter.

Unfortunately, the award pillow is difficult to make out. Under magnification I can make out that there is what appears to be an aviator's badge on the left, an EK1 on the right; the medal bar center bottom has four medals - the first appears to be the EK2, the second is definately another cross and then two others. The neck decoration center top doesn't look like the PiM; the ribbon appears to be a dark center stripe with light side stripes.

I know that doesn't help very much and the scan isn't that good; it's another one to strain the eyes. :whistle:

I got this photo thinking it was a group of new EK2's. However, upon closer inspection - both under jeweler's loop and with a scanned photo, I am pretty sure they are not/not EK's.

I am not sure what decoration they may be instead. The ribbons are more light (not as black as would be for an EK), which made me think Bavarian. Under magnification, I thought I could discern both the Hamburg and the Lubeck ribbons. That might be an imagination working overtime.

The shape of the medals themselves haven't become clear.

So, I offer it here so you can strain your eyes for a bit. :whistle:

Actually a bit bizarre. One of the "pushers" seems to be a civilian with a white wide-brimmed hat (woman?). And on the far right of the group, there is man in civilian dress.

I doubt it is training; seems to be a staged performance. The lack of smiling/laughing does suggest that it's not completely entertainment however.

Physical training of some sort? Punishment?

Thanks, Chris; I thought you would have a good answer.

I was pondering picking up a pre-war example to an artillery regiment. Another way to expand the regimental collection.

(By the way, I received a nice Militarpass to an artilleryman in the mail recently. He started in a Feld-Artillerie Regiment before the war; looks like he was discharged to the reserves and then mobilized and spent the war in a Fuss-Artillerie Regiment. EKII and list of battles on the Western Front.)

Does anyone have info on a military document "Führungszeugnis"? Somehow translates as a "conduct certificate" or "leadership certificate"... Google searches turn up mostly modern usage - a certificate from the police on criminal record (or lack thereof). I have also found some TR references to such documents issued to soldiers, but very little on Imperial usage. I have seen a few with a time period pre-WWI, but haven't seen anything that dates such a document during the First World War. (Yes, posting on Christmas - teenagers still asleep! and wife chased me out of the kitchen!)

AND... you should see MY gibberish nonsense signature!!!!!

The faker strikes again..... different seller though...

http://cgi.ebay.de/1...=item3358956496

I was hoping it was a one off....

Keep your eyes open for these...

I was looking at this one the other day. Didn't realize it's fake. If it had been an artilleryman, I might have been bitten. Thanks for the tip.

if we went back in time... I would be too old "for all this sht!"

Even for the "partying with penguins" part?

Maybe this should be an article, Chris. :rolleyes:

Hi,

I can try and help in any way I can. Time is always limited, but the will is there.....

I also was surfing kaiserscross earlier today... I was thinking, "hmm, some more artillery pages would be nice..."

Once I get smarter on the topic, maybe I will be able to save you some time and help you... :beer:

QUOTE(dond @ Apr 20 2006, 17:02 ) ←

Chris, you are the man!!!

Thats what all the girls say ;-)

Thanks guys, it takes a lot of effort to dig out the details, sometimes I have the feeling it does not interest a lot of us

I've been digging back into the GMIC posts and found great interest in this one, Chris. This is what I hope to be able to achieve as I start my German artillery regiment collection. Great work!

I haven't heard about this, but have the Saturday edition of Gazeta Wyborcza in my office. I will read the article tomorrow and tell you what more I can.

I can't resist so I will speculate that BTN1 is really BTRY hence Service Battery - each FA Bn has one.

As a long-time Redleg, I'm with McSwiggan on this one; BTN1 is somehow corrupted from BTRY. I have absolutely no idea what BTN1 could mean; I've tried to rack my head as to the possibility that it's a "section" within SVC Btry, but can't think of anything.

Assuming we are talking about an old helmet here - WWII? - here's a link to a 1944 artillery service battery's organization. Nothing that suggests a BTN1 to me...

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:llGuXCW5WpwJ:www.militaryresearch.org/6-169%252022Nov44.pdf+artillery+OR+organization+%22service+battery%22&hl=en&sig=AHIEtbTXxusKRvfq8XqmrStcW_1X7kaKgg

There were a few 900 series FARs, but this unit is most likely one of the 900 series munitions columns. They also wore normal looking FAR shoulder straps. FAR straps were numbered well into the 1000 series.

Chip

And the Fussartillerie joins the above-1000 numbered series: http://cas.awm.gov.a...raldry/REL24390

Although, in this case, I believe the shoulder strap represents Fussartillerie Batterie 1005 (instead of a regiment).

Pure speculation; however, the man on the left looks way too young to have so many decorations! Especially, given the likely time period of the photo - it looks old enough to be during a time period when US military decorations were few and far in between.

My guess is that these young gentlemen are from some type of private educational military academy.

Hi guys, can you please tell me about this badge, what is its meaning and when was it used? Thanks!

Only guessing - looks like a squadron or unit insignia. Other than that, I got nothing.

And heres the last one. I remember reading somewhere that the highest serial numbered ones were never issued and eventually sold off to collectors, but these are all issued medals, I just sadly don't have the names of who they were awarded to.

Mike

Very nice.

You are correct; highest numbered crosses (ca. 48,500 - 49,999) were never awarded, but were sold by the exiled Polish Government to dealers.

And even more sadly, it is extremely difficult to determine the names of your recipients since no master list of awards was kept by the 2nd Polish Corps. I have seen some partial lists, but am not sure how accurate those may be.

It is reasonably certain that your crosses were issued to soldiers in the following units:

2709 and 11364 = 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division

35750 = 2nd Corps Artillery

3 monte cassino crosses

Mike

Now I'm impressed...

:D

I think it's a beatiful piece that Mike has. I wondered if you'd be willing to post at least some of the ones you have as well?

Dan

Actually, none of the ones I had received are as nice as Mike's... Unfortunately - for posting - I have given most of mine away since this isn't something I really collect. I think I still have the General Staff medallion in my office though; will take a look and try to post. But again, not nearly as ornamental as this one. And I think the case is simply a plastic box.

Dan's Polish translation and description of the front of this commemorative medal are excellent!

The translation of the reverse is similar:

Cel osiągnięty = "Goal achieved"

Sztandor PSP wraca do wolnej Polski = "Standard of the Polish Air Force returns to a free Poland"

Of course, Poland gained "freedom" in 1989 after Lech Walesa's Solidarity caused the collapse of the Polish communist state. The return of the flag happened in 1992 - when Poland was again free.

After Poland was defeated by the Germans and the Soviets in 1939, Poland's remaining pilots fled the country, first to Romania, then to France, finally ending up in Britain. Polish fighter squadrons fighting as part of the RAF were hugely instrumental in the success of the Battle of Britain. These Polish units (including Army units) fought as part of British forces, but had a unique Polish identity and had there own regimental standards.

This medal commemorates the return of the Polish Air Force Standard to a free Poland from the UK, where it had been all during the communist period. Of course, there was a communist PSP flag, but the Polish Air Force honors reverently the squadrons that fought against Germany with the British. Thus, the return of this particular flag had special meaning.

What you see on the reverse of the medal, in the center, is the PSP Standard itself; it is surrounded by the unit insignia of each Polish Air Force squadron. The location of the event - Dęblin, Poland - is the home of the Polish Air Force Academy. The building on the front is the Academy. Warsaw (Warszawa) is listed on the medal because part of the Congress probably took place in the capital, where Air Force headquarters is located.

These type commemorative medals are popular with the Polish military; I have received a few of them by attending events - most recently the 20th anniversary of the Polish General Staff.

Thanks for sharing! I just went through the 1910-20 photos; something for everyone from medals to weapons to red cross.

Even a lion!

I have just recently become more interested in photographs to go along with the medals I collect. This is a great photographic study all in one place. Very useful since Bulgarian photos are hard to come by on the internet.