RIR 67

[Chip]

I have a copy of Band I of the regimental history of the 145."K?nigs" I.R. in WWI. In the back, it lists the officers of the regiment and the Ersatz depot as of the Ausmarsch. Also listed, for some reason, are the officers of the III/67.RIR. Could anyone explain to me what the reason is for this? From what I can discern, RIR67 was part of the 33.Res.Div. which was formed in Metz, where IR145 had its garrison. This is the only connection I can make. There has to be more to the story.

Also, in the history it mentions a certain Feldwebel=Leutnant Johan B?nting, the Verpflegungs=Offizier of the III/145. I don't suppose that men of this rank appear in any postwar lists of officers. He was my wife's great uncle.

Chip

Edited June 3, 2007 by Chip

[Guest Rick Research]

Nope-- regular career army officers only.

[Glenn J]

Chip,

it would seem likely the III./R.I.R. 67 was formed around a nucleus of regular personnel of I.R. 145 on mobilisation. The battalion's first commander for instance was Major Eberhard v. Strotha (1.10.13 G9), one of I.R. 145's staff Majors. He was killed on 24 August 1914.

Regards

Glenn

[Dave Danner]

Reserve infantry regiments didn't correspond directly to the same-numbered active regiment, partly because as the army expanded in the 1890s the higher-numbered regiments often became parent regiments jointly with other regiments.

RIR 67 was the "Tochterregiment" of IR 67 (designated "Magdeburgisch" but actually based in Metz), IR 145, also based in Metz, and IR 173, based in St. Avold and Metz (III./IR 173). All were Lorraine regiments, but since Lorraine was more French in population, they tended to recruit from the Rheinprovinz and Westfalen.

RIR 67's staff and I. and III. Bataillonen were raised in Metz, and the II. Bataillon in St. Avold. As Glenn notes, III./RIR 67 appears to be affiliated with IR 145. I./RIR 67 appeared to be IR 67's Tochterformation, and II./RIR 67 was IR 173's. All three regular regiments were part of the 34. Division of the XVI. Korpsbereich.

The other reserve infantry regiment of the the 33.RD was Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 130. This appears to have drawn from the regular regiments of 33. Division (mainly IR 98, IR 130 and IR 144).

Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 98 was also drawn from the XVI. Korpsbereich. It was raised in Diedenhofen, home of IR 135 and IR 144.

Basically, it appears that the 7 Metz-area regiments of the 8 regular regiments of the XVI. Korpsbereich raised three RIRs. The outlier is IR 30 of the 34. Division. It had its own Tochterregiment, RIR 30. Though it should be noted that the first commander of I./IR 30 was Major von Pirscher of IR 67, so that regiment may also have been connected to RIR 30 as well as RIR 67.

I still find this all very confusing.

[Chip]

Glenn and Dave,

Thanks for the replys. My question originated when I looked into my unit history to get some information on an officer, whose wartime tunic is owned by an acqaintence. The odd thing is that the tunic has the shoulder boards of the 145.IR, but the officer, one Hauptmann d.R.Brune, was listed as the F?hrer of the 11.Komp. of RIR67.

And Glenn, it also mentions that he was wounded on August 24, 1914, the same day that your Major was killed. Was the III/RIR67 with the 145.IR on that day?

Chip

[bob lembke]

Glenn and Dave,

Thanks for the replys. My question originated when I looked into my unit history to get some information on an officer, whose wartime tunic is owned by an acqaintence. The odd thing is that the tunic has the shoulder boards of the 145.IR, but the officer, one Hauptmann d.R.Brune, was listed as the F?hrer of the 11.Komp. of RIR67.

And Glenn, it also mentions that he was wounded on August 24, 1914, the same day that your Major was killed. Was the III/RIR67 with the 145.IR on that day?

Chip

Chip;

Far from a uniform expert, but was it considered Kosher for an officer from a regular regiment, when seconded to a reserve unit to fill up its ranks when the war started, to continue to wear the shoulder boards of the old regiment? Also, in the rush to get reserve units "out the door" at the start of the war, officers had better things to do than rush off to their military tailors. When the war started, my grand-father was taken out of the Landwehr reserve and put into the Generalkommando von III. Reservekorps. God knows what he was wearing, It had been a long time (18 years) since he was in a regiment, but if he was I think he would have gone off in the old uniform. Amazingly, the railroad volume of Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918 states that the III. RK was able to "get out the door" three days after the III. AK marched out, to me an amazing feat of preparedness.

It seems that once an officer served in a Garde unit, they seemed to wear the Garde Litzen in later non-Guards postings. Is there a parallel? Perhaps the officer in question was sti;ll considered an officer of the older regiment, seconded to the reserve unit.

Bob Lembke

[Chip]

Bob,

I think you are on the right track and I have no problem with such a thing. I still would like to know why this battalion is listed in the roster of units in the regimental history of another regiment.

Chip