Regiment 243 ???

[dksck]

Am I correct in my understanding that there was no IR 243, but only a RIR 243?  If something is marked "II/243", does that mean 2nd Battalion/ RIR 243?   Your thoughts and explanations would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you

Edited July 12, 2017 by dksck

[GreyC]

Hi dksck,

so it seems. The unit was Saxon. And yes, 2nd Btl. is correct.

See:

http://genwiki.genealogy.net/RIR_243

GreyC

[Chip]

The 200 series regimental numbers were assigned to Reserve units. 

Chip

[dksck]

Thank you for the answers.  I just can't seem to understand the organization of the Army.  I have a few of the books that people have recommended -- Cron, etc. -- I even managed to get a copy of the relatively new book by Kelso, Under Arms for the Kaiser (almost sounds like deoderant but really deals with schulterklappen) -- but I just can't find any good explanation for lots of things.  I realize that part of the reason is that the organizational structure changed over time, but even the basic issues/questions seem to lack explanations.  I think it's interesting that in the midst of what many folks would consider to be crisis and turmoil, German command decided it was a good idea to tinker almost continuously with issues like this.  When and why did they (whoever "they" are) decide to assign the 200 series regiments to Reserve units? And then when and why did they stop that practice.  Similarly, when, where, and how were the reserve regiments and landwehr regiments formed and put in the field, and what was the relation, if any to the original regiment.  Thank you again for your help.  All additional information or suggestions for my reading/library are greatly appreciated.

Edited July 13, 2017 by dksck

[GreyC]

Hi dksck,

and you thought IR LIR RIR were all?

There were also Landsturmregimenter (not only Landwehrregimenter), Landsturm Btlns, Landwehr-Ersatz-Infanterie Regimenter and Reserve-Ersatz-Infanterie-Regimenter.

Do you have fair reading skills in German?

GreyC

[Chip]

If you want to understand the organization of the peacetime army, I would suggest  Joe and Janet Robinson's "Handbook of Imperial Germany". For wartime organization, Cron is available in English "Imperial German Army 1914-1918...", which discusses both early war and later war organization (I'm not sure if that is the Cron book you are referring to). There are also reprints of the various renditions of the "Handbook of the German Army", which are basically reprints of wartime British intelligence.

Chip

[Dave Danner]

Actually, of all the numbering choices, the "200-series" makes the most sense.  At the time, regular regiments only went up to Nr. 182, and there weren't corresponding RIRs or LIRs for many of these.   The 200-series RIRs were probably not expected to be more than a wartime expedient, and starting at Nr. 201 meant they would not overlap with existing regimental numbers.

What perplexes me is when they assigned lower RIR/LIR Nrs. to wartime regiments with no connection to the similarly numbered regular regiments.  For example, RIR 64 and RIR 93 were raised on mobilization by the Gardekorps. RIR 64 had no connection to IR 64, a Brandenburg regiment who formed its reserve formation, RIR 24, with IR 24, its mate in the 12. Infanterie-Brigade.  Similarly, RIR 93 had no connection to IR 93, which formed its reserve formation, RIR 36, with FR 36, its mate in the 15. Infanterie-Brigade.  

When LIR 93 was formed in 1915, one of its battalions came from Anhalt, so the numbering might make sense, but the other two battalions were from Sachsen-Altenburg and Hannover.  And LIR 94, unlike RIR 94, had no connection to IR 94 or Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach.