Oberleutnant dR Richard Sedlmayer

April 5, 2006

Scanned from a local collection. :beer:

1st Bavarian Reserve Corps documents are printed on heavy stock paper and were the identical format, with (unusual but consistent) stamped signature of Corps Commander General von Fasbender on all examples I have seen.

Before the war, Richard Sedlmayer was a reserve Leutnant in Bavarian Pioneer Battalion 1, holding the Luitpold Jubilee Medal 1911/12 version. From the 1913 Bavarian Milit?r Handbuch:

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Sedlmayer (born in Munich 26 December 1882) earned his Iron Cross 2nd Class on 24 October 1914, as a Lt dR in the Bavarian 1st Pioneer Battalion:

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This was virtually certainly for fighting around Montauban, between Camoy and Maricourt on 1-2 October 1914. Two of the battlaion's officers were killed and 6 were wounded at that time.

April 5, 2006

His Bavarian Military Merit Order 4th Class with Swords was awarded on 12 December 1914 (which would be the date of the issue of the Personal-Nachrichten it was published in) per decree of the "25th of last month."

Now the freakish thing about BAVARIAN awards' bestowal documents during the war is that they referred to the recipients' PRE-WAR unit and NEVER gave the actual troop unit. Those who had no peacetime affiliation have documents that say "of a reserve infantry regiment" or the like without any number designation.

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Approximately 1 in 8 Bavarian officers received a crown as second award of the MVO4X during the war. Sedlmayer was not one of them. For the next four years, he got NOTHING more from his native land.

April 5, 2006

Now an Oberleutnant der Reserve and commander of the 1st Reserve Company of the Bavarian 1st Pioneer Battalion (1st Bavarian Reserve Division), Sedlmayer received his Iron Cross 1st Class on 31 December 1916:

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Note that more than 2 years into the war, the Corps level Iron Cross documents are still the same.

Sedlmayer's company had been specifically cited for repelling a French attack which had penetrated into the division's second defensive lines on 19 June 1916. He apparently got NOTHING for that-- and this EK1 was probably a "cumulative" award.

Whether he survived the war or not is unknown. The file holes in the margins are the only suggestions that he did see the peace, and placed these in some sort of notebook binder.

medalnet · April 5, 2006

Rick,

this is great stuff. Documents are so interesting, but most collctors seem to shy away due to the old German writting etc.

Yet, it is not that difficult to learn the old alphabet. Most documents, at least after the 1840th were actually printed and not handwritten. This at least garanties a certain standart and helps the learning process.

I will try to post some as well.

Thanks for sharing

Andreas