What Uniform is This?

[Dave Danner]

Hi,

I know next to nothing about uniforms. Can anyone help?

This guy was part of a group of brothers most of whom were reserve officers in KR 5. However, I think he was commissioned into RHR 6.

[Trooper_D]

Dave

By RHR 6, do you mean Husaren-Regiment Nr. 6 (what does the first R stand for?)? If so, this uniform, or what we can see of it, would appear to give support to that identification.

The photo shows your man wearing a Parade Attila of a line hussar regiment, with the rank of subaltern or captain being indicated by the cuff and collar lace (Hagger p11). For HR Nr.6, the attila should be dark green with gold lace, which is difficult to ascertain, of course. The lack of a monogram on the shoulder strap is a further indication that he was in HR Nr. 6 as they were one of the few hussar regiments who didn't have one (Hagger p.24).


Source: D.H. Hagger, Hussars and Mounted Rifles - Uniforms of the Imperial German Cavalry 1900-1914 (Almark, 1974), p.11.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Trooper_D

[Dave Danner]

RHR 6 is Reserve-Husaren-Regiment Nr. 6. I don't know if the reserve regiments were affiliated with the active regiments of the same number (that was not always the case with reserve infantry regiments, as some RIRs covered multiple regimental areas, and was not the case at all with reserve field artillery regiments, whose numbers corresponded to their reserve divisions).

Edited January 25, 2014 by Dave Danner

[Dave Danner]

Answering my own question, according to my scans of a book on hussars in World War I, RHR 6 was raised by HR 15.

[Trooper_D]

Thank you for the clarification. Now that is very interesting as it opens up new possibilities for uniform research - reserve hussar regiments!

HR 15 had dark blue attilas with silver lace. So far, so good as that could fit in with your photo (officers' dark blue was significantly lighter than ORs, apparently). HR 15 had a monogram on their shoulder straps - a Gothic W for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. This is plainly missing in your photo, implying that, although RHR 6 were raised by HR 15, they didn't take on all (or perhaps any) of their parent's regimental distinctions.

Was RHR 6 raised after the start of the Great War. If so, I am surprised that your man is wearing a pre-war style coloured attila rather than a feldgrau one.

[Dave Danner]

RHR 6 was raised on mobilization as the divisional cavalry of the 17. Reserve-Division.

[Trooper_D]

RHR 6 was raised on mobilization as the divisional cavalry of the 17. Reserve-Division.

Thanks.

[Dave Danner]

Karl Adolf Paetow was the oldest brother. He was commissioned a Lt.d.R. in RHR 6 on 5.12.14.

Here are the next two brothers, Heinrich and Konrad. Although born almost three years apart, they enlisted on the same day and were both commissioned Lts.d.R. in KR 5 on 25.1.15. Would these be wartime Kürssier uniforms?

Brother #4, Wilhelm, was a Lt.d.R. in KR 5 on 25.9.18 and was killed the next day. Brother #5, Rolf, went into the field as a Fahnenjunker in KR 5 on 5.7.18 and was severely wounded on 30.8.18 (shot through the lung), eventually dying in 1922.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_01_2014/post-432-0-50754800-1390679099.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_01_2014/post-432-0-69571700-1390679110.jpg

[Chip]

Both appear to be wearing the Kürassier Waffenrock in fieldgray which replaced the fieldgray Koller by an AKO of February 23, 1910.

Chip

[Dave Danner]

Hi,

Another uniform question. The officer below, Dr.jur.Ludwig Pinckernelle, was a Hptm.d.L.a.D., killed in action in 1918 as a batallion commander in LIR 75. Problem is, there were two a.D. Landwehr officers named Pinckernelle. One was a Kgl. Württemberg Landwehr-Infanterie officer. The other was a Kgl. Preußischer Garde-Landwehr-Feldartillerie officer.

The Pinckernelle's were from Hamburg, which would explain how he ended up in LIR 75, but several went to university in Württemberg, and did their military service there.

I know it's a pretty plain field uniform, but is there anything there - cuffs for example - which says KW infantry or KP Garde artillery?

[Glenn J]

Hi Dave,

Ludwig was the Württemberger. Incidentally, the Garde Feldartillerei would normally wear collar Litzen.

Regards

Glenn

[Dave Danner]

Thanks Glenn!

I guess that resolves that, although it raises another question. One thing that had given me pause was that he was a Hamburger, but his Hamburg Hanseatenkreuz was not in Daniel's list of non-Württemberg awards to Württembergers. Nor, for that matter, was the Hanseatenkreuz to Hermann Pinckernelle, the Landwehr Kavallerie officer from LwB Ludwigsburg. I wonder how many other awards Württemberg failed to gazette?

Like Ludwig, Hermann was a Dr.jur. and Rechtsanwalt in Hamburg. Hermann went to war with a Württemberg unit, though - the 1.Landwehr-Kavallerie-Eskadron XIII. Armeekorps. He was wounded and taken prisoner on 25 September 1914 and interned in Switzerland in 1916. I did see his Friedrich Order gazetted, a WF3bX on 8 June 1917. Besides the EK2, WF3bX and HH, his family bio also lists the Austrian Red Cross Decoration with War Decoration and something listed as "Mil.Verd.Orden 3.Kl. mit Schwertern". I suppose this might be the Württemberg MVO, and the "mit Schwertern" is just an error by the family Stiftung, though if so it must have been a late or post-war retroactive one.

Ah, well. Another minor mystery that may never be solved. Although maybe Hermann has a personnel file or Kriegsrangliste entry in the archives in Stuttgart...