Kaiser's birthday parade 1918 in Vouziers

[Naxos]

Pictures of the Kaiser's birthday parade on Jan 27, 1918 in Vouziers.

In front of a Sturmbataillon is his Excellency General von Gerock.

Erinnerung an die Kaiserparade 27. I 1918

Sturmbatl. Kursus

Exz. von Gerock

can someone make sense of Sturmbataillon Kursus ? Did I read it right?

Hardy

Edited October 11, 2007 by Naxos

[Naxos]

[Glenn J]

Hardy,

Makes sense to me - Assault Battalion Course.

The General is v. Gerok.

Regards

Glenn

[Naxos]

Thanks Glenn

Hardy

[Chris Boonzaier]

I think they were going all out to train as many divisional Sturmbatl. for the coming offensive.

Best

Chris

[Naxos]

Thanks Chris,

in this case Sturmbatl.16

[bob lembke]

I agree with all of the above. At this time there was a great deal of training for the upcoming Spring Offensive. In the storm unit I study the closest, Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Bataillon (Flammenwerfer) , the unit not only trained for the coming offensive, it was significantly reorganized to be better suited for the anticipated more mobile warfare.

Hardy, when was Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 16 formed?

It also might be possible that this course was not for the storm battalion, but by the storm battalion, teaching the storm techniques to infantry units stated for attack roles in the upcoming offensive.

(I realize that some of my comments repeat some of the above perceptive comments.)

Bob Lembke

[bob lembke]

I have seen a great photo of the Kaiser attending a ceremony, perhaps a graduation, at what must be a training course for the new MP 18s. There is a double row of men armed with the weapon, about 30 in the field of view of the camera. You cannot actually see the weapon, as the barrel is so short, but you see the shoulder straps with no barrel poking up over the shoulder. What weapon could it be but the MP 18? Additionally, each man's two large Blouse pockets are bulging out, each pocket must have a "snail-shell" magazine stuffed in it. I think that it was planned to have one MP 18 in each infantry Gruppe, much like the MP 42 carried by each German squad leader in WK II, providing automatic fire at the squad level.

Bob Lembke

[Naxos]

Hardy, when was Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 16 formed?

Bob Lembke

"Das Sturmbataillon Nr. 16 wurde Anfang Dezember 1916 bei der Armee-Abteilung B gebildet und dieser unterstellt. Es wurde nur auf dem westlichen Kriegsschauplatz eingesetzt. Seine Ersatztruppenteile waren die Ersatzbataillone des Infanterie-Regiments Nr. 114."

Hardy