Uniforms for Armierungs Battalions?

[Chris Boonzaier]

From what I understand they had no munbers or anything on the shoulder strap?

Why does he have buttons on the front of his collar?

is Black pants usual?

[ccj]

are those buttons or numbers? Maybe he's landwehr. I really cant tell.

[Chris Boonzaier]

I read Armierung Batl... I think they may hava a whole different system?

[ccj]

Is that like a construction or fortification unit?

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

Armierungs troops were Labour corps... did things like digging trenches etc, were mostly not trained as soldiers or even armed.

They did come under fire though when digging positions within enemy range.

There is a fantastic book about armierungs troops, cannot recomend it enough.... A totally overlooked German WW1 Novel, as PaulH says, it is obvious the author was at Verdun himself, anyone who has "done" the battlefields can picture what and where he writes...

Readily availible on Ebay in the states... Education before Verun by Arnold Zweig

Best

Chris

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=education+verdun&_sacat=0&_from=R40

[ccj]

very interesting. That fellow must have done well to earn an EKII

[Chip]

That's a number "9" on his collar. The Armierungs-Batl. were organized in February of 1915. They were originally clothed in old Dunkelblau era uniforms and caps or Drillich. An order of April 1915 prescribed a white armband with "Armierungs-Bataillon (unit number)" or abbreviated "Arm.Batl.(unit number)". Later in 1916 (Bavaria) and 1917 (Prussia), the armband color was switched to gray, but armbands were soon dropped all together.

The fieldgray army uniform was adopted in the Fall of 1915. Kraus says nothing about insignia of any kind other than the armbands, though similar units (like Straßenbau-Einheiten) wore plain shoulder straps.

Chip