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    Guest Rick Research

    EXCELLENT :love::love::love: scans Sal, much better than your on the road pixs! (I had no idea there WERE coin operated internet scanners, imagine that. :lol: )

    The rest of the story is where this special piece becomes not just 1 of 1,479 but

    ONE... of 1,479 :cool:

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    Guest Rick Research

    The envelopes are always named that way. Enlisted men got their awards handwritten on plain brown paper. 99.99999999999 percent of recipients simply threw the packaging away.

    Two lucky things--

    Erhard Roth transcribed the WW1 Baden award rolls, and they are in print in the Autengruber series--

    Hauptmann der Landwehr I Heinrich Westmark received his "BZ3bXmE" per 1 August 1917.

    The roll just shows "ResInfRgt" so Sal's envelope provides MORE information in this case, for with the unit, Order of Battle tracking can be done to see where he was then and what this might have been for-- though the regimental history would be the most accurate source.

    Reserve Infantry Regiment 111 was in the 28th Reserve Infantry Division. Given the usual bureacratic processing delays, this was probably for the extremely heavy losses against the French on the Californie Plateau (ironic, given the current owner lives on the classic California beach! :P ) in May. Pulled from the line and sent over 1,000 underage recruits from the 1918 draft class, the division was sent for training and recuperation in the Verdun sector in June-- promptly being overcame by a dysentery epidemic which sent the whole division COMPLETELY out of the line until August. So as of 1 August 1917 Westmark's last significant action had been on 18th May.

    Westmark was also the only officer of his name in the Prussian army, which makes following him easier than a Schmidt or M?ller, for sure!

    He was commissioned a Leutnant der RESERVE in Baden Inf Rgt 114 by 1902, but soon switched over to the less call ups LANDWEHR for his convenience and not because of age.

    He remained in the pre-WW1 German Rank Lists under Landwehrbezirk Stockach in Baden, rising through the ranks to Hauptmann dL before the war (dR and dL rank dates were NOT shown in Prussian Rank Lists, arrgh), acquiring an "LD2" between 1907 and 1912 (my gap in the annual editions)-- which meant he would have qualified for an XX on discharge in 1919/20.

    So... what was his Order doing in a shop in Austria, sez you?

    Wellllll, that's where Glenn's enormous archive comes in... :cool:

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    Hi Rick,

    not much to add,

    Westmark was commissioned as a Leutnant der Reserve on 17.10.99 B6b in I.R. 114. By May 1909 he was the senior infantry Leutnant der Landwehr I in Landwehrbezirk Stockach and was an Oberleutnant d.L. by May 1910.

    He was living in Linz so that is probably why the decorations turned up in Austria.

    Regards

    Glenn

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    Hi Rick,

    not much to add,

    Westmark was commissioned as a Leutnant der Reserve on 17.10.99 B6b in I.R. 114. By May 1909 he was the senior infantry Leutnant der Landwehr I in Landwehrbezirk Stockach and was an Oberleutnant d.L. by May 1910.

    He was living in Linz so that is probably why the decorations turned up in Austria.

    Regards

    Glenn

    Glenn! You are so modest. What about his exact addess and occupation after the war. I know it seems an impossible task and yet,.....

    smile.gif

    Edited by Sal Williams
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    modest. What about his exact addess and occupation after the war. I know it seems an impossible task and yet,.....

    :)

    Sal,

    well before the war he was a businessman living at Landstra?e 107 ;)

    Regards

    Glenn

    [attachmentid=4602]

    :beer:

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