notned Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 (edited) Hello Gents,I scored this lot recently and i am chuffed with it!I belongs to an Sergeanten Paul Bleil who was born in 1879 in Karlsdorf he was married with 4 children and joined Infanrty regiment 51 in 1899 aged 20 years.It has a huge amount of entries which i have yet to decipher and has his EKII and Black wound badge entered in it.He moved from RIR 51 to IR 157. to fusilier regd 73 to RIR 230...The group has his Militarpass with cover with motif from RIR51 with lots of extra pages added some held in with extra string...and it seems he was posted all over the show in the war!It also has his EKII with document, wound badge with document, Hindenburg cross with swords and document, and a document which i think is an Feild kit issue document.I love it! and its amazing to get such a complete group all together.... its a darn pity the Militarpass did not have his Photo!Photos to follow!Enjoy!RegardsPaul Edited January 14, 2006 by notned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 Here is the Militarpass....and EK Document Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 (edited) The Wound Document and his Medals with wound badge The EKII is a 'KO'The Front fighters cross is a 84 R.V.Pforzheimthe owund badge...i cannot find a makers mark on it...not sure where to look... Edited January 14, 2006 by notned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 The Hindenburg cross Document Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 and finally the Kit issue Document...well thats what i think it is...corrections are welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gregory Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 and finally the Kit issue Document...well thats what i think it is...corrections are welcome! Paul,You have a very nice little group. The last document you show is his discharge paper indicating that he received a demob suit, jacket, trousers, coat, tie, a pair of shoes, a shirt and underpants when he left the army in November 1918.Any kit issued to him would have been detailed in his Soldbuch, though many seem to lack the pasted-in pre-printed sheets that were used as issue forms.Post some of the pages which have entries added to them and we can see exactly what he got up to.RIR 230 was part of 50. Reserve-Division and involved in fighting in the Somme, specifically the crossing on the River Ancre near Albert, when he was awarded his iron cross in April 1918.David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 Thanks David, i had a funny suspicion thats what it could have been...but when i read mantel, and feldmutze...i thought it was for kit issue.Here are pages 10 and 11 from his book with extension added below and it folds back in.More to come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 Heres a page which is extra to the pass...it has the award entries for the EKII and the wound badge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 More added pages.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 More ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 even more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 continuation.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 and so on.....Gents...if you can shed any light on what the writing is all about...i would be ever so gratefull! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 and still more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 and just so we can take a wee break in the document scanning....heres my latest arrival! A nice wee single EKII medal bar with felt backing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biro Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Greetings countryman...A great little lot you have there!!Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gregory Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 (edited) Paul,The order in which the images are posted is not chronological, so I will comment on the various scans in the order in which the entries were probably made to provide a sensible narrative, rather than leaping back and forth in time.Post #13 shows in section 6 that he had already served from October 1899. Although it is not apparent from the entries shown, he probably did two years of service as a normal recruit with a line regiment and left some time in 1901. He was recalled in August 1914 and joined RIR 230 a week later. The unit responsible for him for replacement purposes during the war was the replacement battalion of F?silier-Regiment 73, as can be seen on the right. If at any time he was wounded or transferred out of a front-line unit, he would have been assigned to this unit.In post #7, the entries on pages 10 and 11 refer to a 14-day exercise that he attended in 1906. This will have been while he was on reserve status, so there may be other entries relating to his pre-war service with another regiment, probably F?silier-Regiment 38. A further clue to this unit will be the entry referring to which unit he joined when first inducted (usually at the bottom of the first page with any entries in the book containing his personal details) and also visible as a tiny squiggle added above section 6 on page 2 of the Milit?rpass.The page pasted in below these refer to his induction on 25 August 1914 when he joined the replacement battalion of IR 157 shortly after mobilisation. Since he was already a trained soldier, he was assigned to I. Bataillon of RIR 230 a week later. The staff of RIR 230 was raised from the 1st battalion and replacement batallion of IR 157 in Brieg, which explains the stamps from IR 157. Approximately 50 % of the men used to form the regiment had previous military service. Your man was one of them.Post #10 shows that he served with 2nd replacement battalion of F?silier-Regiment 73 from the end of January 1915 to June 1915. The gap in his service record between the end of August 1914 and January 1915, when he was transferred to the replacement batallion of FR 73, suggests that he was probably wounded or injured in January or the period immediately before that, when he might have spent time in hospital or with a convalescent unit. Post #9 covers the period from June 1915 to September 1916 when he was assigned to the 2nd replacement battalion of F?silier-Regiment 73. The entries on these pages also indicate that he was promoted to Gefreiter in September 1914 and Unteroffizier in June 1915.Post #11 shows that he served with recruit depot no. 1 of 2nd replacement battalion of F?silier-Regiment 73 from mid September to late October 1916, when he was transferred to the recruit depot of 50. Reserve-Division.The image in post #8 leaps ahead to when he was assigned to 12. Kompagnie of RIR 230 in September 1917. Just over a year later, he was assigned to 10. Kompagnie. In the meantime he had been promoted to Sergeant in what looks like March 1918. He was awarded the EK2 on 15 April 1918 and the wound badge in black on 22 June 1918, as is also evidenced by the relevant award documents.The other details on the page refer to the battles and engagements in which he was involved.Post #12 shows that he was briefly assigned to 3. Kompagnie of RIR 230 before being discharged to his home town Steinau three weeks later.The entries in post #14 refer to vaccine injections, pay and holiday spent at home. These are typical entries to be found in a Soldbuch, but they sometimes also appear in a Millt?rpass or ?berweisungsnationale.What you have is an almost seamless record of one man's service throughout WW1 and his award documents, which can only be topped by having his Soldbuch, too. I collect groups like these when I can find them, although most of my documents are Milit?rp?sse. I am slowly compiling overviews of the divisions of the Imperial German army from 1914-18 and already have a draft overview for 50. Reserve-Division. I'll see if I can finish it soon and add it to the others I already have online at http://www.militaerpass.net/inf_div.htmCheers,David Edited January 13, 2006 by David Gregory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stogieman Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Nice thread, interesting little group and nice job on the details! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 (edited) David! I take my hat off to you! Thanks so much for the interpretation of his service records.I am in awe of your ability to read all this!I must apologize for the jumbled order of the postings.... musta been tired LOLIf i can help in any way with information from this mans records for your database please do not hesitate to let me know.. Thanks Biro, ( Marshall) good to see fellow New Zealanders on this Wonderful forum!Thanks Stogie...i aimed to share this mans amazing service records and to show that there is still groups out there like this!You will not belive how much i paid for it!....wait for it......63Euros!!!!!!!! i know...i am still blown away !!!Cheers gents,Paul Edited January 13, 2006 by notned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gregory Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Paul,A basic knowledge of German is essential if you want to be able to read stuff like this. The more documents you have, the easier it becomes. I have reached the point where I have started compiling a database of the documents I have because I simply cannot keep track of them any more.Even if you only ever acquire a few document groups such as this and do your best to find out something about the people that they once belonged to, you will begin to understand what all those otherwise anonymous pieces of shiny metal and enamel really represent.The gongs are certainly nice to have, but the people that earned them are the reason why I collect militaria.Cheers,David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notned Posted January 14, 2006 Author Share Posted January 14, 2006 David,I agree..you do need to have a basic understanding of the language to decipher the script...but my biggest gripe is the writing style...its the sort of writing you have to really study to ascertain which and what letters are being used to portray the words....for example...Karlsberg...looks like tarlsberg in the script..bit confusing if you had no idea...but i did know of Karlsberg....Yes i am now starting to see the wisdom in having the groups...it really does tell us more...about the man who went thru the wars and earned the 'gongs'........... brilliant stuff! and ..........it tells us about the" PERSON" involved....this is my first real group...and i have asked the seller if he has more...and if he has contact with the family....I wanna know more! ( and i want a pic of the soldier! and i want the Soldbuch!..... it just makes it more real!)Cheers mate! for sharing your experience with reading and deciphering these important pieces of HistoryKind regardsPaul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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